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What about the Stephen Lawhead books about King Arthur?
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We are studying the Middle Ages now and I am struggling to find a good book about King Arthur that doesn’t have all the sorcery and immorality that I’ve heard that even the classics do. I’ve always been fascinated about knights and princesses and King Arthur and the Round Table but never have read any books myself.
I read somewhere that STephen Lawhead has some books about this time period, but according the reviews on Amazon, they are Christianized. I’m not sure that this is what I’m looking for either. I’d like to find one that’s truthful but sparing the unnecessary details. So many books are being compared to CS Lewis and Tolkien in the Christian world and from flipping through some of them, they don’t even come CLOSE to being the literary classic that those are.
But my children are devouring books and I can’t keep up with them. I’d like to give books to read that relate to our time period that would keep them occupied and learning and enjoying. I just don’t have the time to pre-read all of them, so I come here! I’d love to hear your opinions and suggestions.
Blessings,
Betty
Have you tried the Howard Pyle King Arthur book? Merlon is in it, but doesn’t he show up in any book about King Arthur? We tried the Roger Lanclyn (sp?) Green book a couple of years ago and it was awful. As for Lawhead books, we’ve gotten tripped up enough in his books with immorality and language that we just do not read them. Like you, I cannot pre-read everything. Maybe it’s just the ones we’ve tried. Bethlehem Books has some wonderful books set in this time period. Click on the History Timeline button at the top of their homepage. http://www.bethlehembooks.com/index.cfm There is also the book finder on this site that should be helpful.
Blessings,
Cindy
The Howard Pyle book is the only King Arthur in my home. It’s not quite perfect, but it’s acceptable I think. Like Cindy, I’ve previously started a Lawhead book that I did not finish and don’t plan on reading any more. I definitely don’t recommend them. I can certainly give you a long list of King Arthur books NOT to give your kids. 🙂 For the time period (Roman Britain) I can say that most of the Rosemary Sutcliff books are very good. Some tough situations in them, but they are still pretty good and we let our teens read them. I canNOT, however, recommend the Rosemary Sutcliff book about King Arthur. I can’t remember the title, but I would not give it to a child.
This is just a subject that seems to be difficult for the world to treat in a decent way, for some reason.
We also have a lot of the Bethlehem books covering the medieval period. They aren’t about King Arthur, but it might make more sense to read about, say, Augustine anyway.
Thanks Bookworm!!! Years ago,the Sutcliff books about Arthur were recommended in a Christian homeschooling resource I had. Because I went on their recommendation,we happened to have them, as I had found them inexpensively at Half Price Books a few years ago. This morning, if you can believe this, I was just discussing these books with our oldest, as he wants to read them now. I am so glad I checked in here quickly!! I was actually going to ask for opinions on these before I handed them to him, just because of the nature of the material being covered. I was going to add my question to Anabetica’s post, since it concerned the same topic. Can you give me more specifics about your impressions about these books? I’m thanking the Lord for his protection and sovereignty in this matter.
Sincerely, Nancy
Oops! I also meant to ask for opinions about a book we were given called Black Horses for the King, by Anne McCaffrey. It is also about King Arthur, and I believe it is listed as a Sonlight Core 6 book. Has anyone read this one? Thanks!
Thank you SOO much for your opinions. Doug said in another post how what is being labeled as Christian fiction right now is sometimes worse than secular (or something to that sort). I’m soo glad I didn’t run out and by that series of books.
Coincindentally, I have been taking a closer look at the Bethlehem books. Fortunately, our library has quite a few of them, so I put them on reserve.
You ladies are precious!
Many Thanks,
Betty
OK. I only knew about ONE Arthur book written by Rosemary Sutcliff so I am glad I checked. It appears she has also written a series aimed at youth about him. I have NOT read these. The one I have read is Sword at Sunset, and I do not recommend it at all. It had a very unpleasant storyline about the alleged sexual relationship between Arthur and his sister. I’d definitely recommend pre-reading the ones aimed at the youth, since the “adult-level” book had such objectionable material.
OK. The McCaffrey book on Arthur I have not read. Long, long ago I read one or two of the Dragonriders series by her, and I do not remember much about them. They were apparently not very memorable. I was not yet a serious Christian at that time so it’s hard for me to judge much about the writer since I wasn’t LOOKING for issues then. One very popular sci-fi writer, Marion Zimmer Bradley, has an Arthur book out that is one of the worst–The Mists of Avalon. Definitely NOT a good choice.
On Amazon Rosemary Sutcliff has a few books listed under King Arthur – The Sword and the Circle, Light Beyond the Forest and Road to Camlann (that’s the series) and Sword at Sunset. I guess Sword at Sunset is out, but has anyone read the others?
We read the one by Emma Gelders-Stone and while I enjoyed the text of the book, the pictures were odd/weird/gruesome. We probably won’t read it again.
Oh, one of my boys is interested in anything with dragons or sea dinosaurs. He’s been asking me about the Dragonrider series and the Oracles of Fire. We did let him read one of the Oracles of Fire books (Dragons in our Midst) and it just sounded so weird. It wasn’t a completely make believe world and from his narration God would speak to certain people/dragons. It just seemed weird so we told him to not read anymore and we have progressed through that series.
It is so hard finding books nowadays. The libraries have less and less and the Christian books are getting less and less reliable. I’m grateful for booklists and older books. Unfortunately I’m having to purchase alot of them. But at least we have something good to read here most of the time.
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