The Queen of Air and Darkness

In book two of the Once and Future King, King Arthur is faced with challenges he has never even imagined. It starts out with being in charged and not knowing what to do. He leans on Merlyn, who tells him that he needs to take charge himself. Being in a new position he starts taking it for granted. Merlyn tries to tell him that power and fighting isn't everything. Soon Arthur realizes that. He then believes in chivalry, fairness and being kind. He creates the round table, where no one is more important than anyone else. There is no more fighting over places in a hierarchy, he is a king of fairness. He goes into war with Sir Lot. He takes an easy win and attacks his knights in the night. King Arthur finds out that he is destined to marry Guenever. Merlyn also tells him that Morgause an evil mother is his half-sister. He then gets tricked into sleeping with her and having a child, Mordred. That makes Gawaine, Gaheris, Gareth and Agravaine his nephews, and they despise of Arthur because his father killed their grandfather and married Igraine, the count of Cornwalls wife. Meanwhile in the story there is the hunt for the questing beast with Palomides, Pellinore, and Grummore. Palomides and Grummore create a costume that helped attract the beast. Although the beast thinks they are her mate. They escape only to have the beast follow them and wait for them to show themselves.

At the beginning of book two, Arthur loses track of everything Merlyn has taught him. He fed on power, and thought that was everything. I think that was wrong of Arthur, and it made me happy when he finally strives on fairness. Unfortunately I believe this will be one of King Arthur's downfalls. He will lose sight of what is important and Merlyn wont be there to fix anything. Apart from the fighting and war in this story, there seems to be a type of romance and soap in it. Arthur is brother to Morgause, who is wed to Lot, who Arthur defeated in battle. He sleeps with Morgause and they have a child. Which when his nephews find out, I predict will anger them more. I dislike Morgause as a character. She treats her children with disrespect and is more concerned with herself. I am interested in seeing where the story goes with her and how she will changed and develop as a character. Her sons which are also Arthurs nephews, are ignorant and misbehaved. I blame it on the upbringing, Morgause is an awful mother. This is why I pity them. They way they whisper because they don't want to do something wrong. They way their mother beat them when they tried to do something for her. They did kill an animal but at least the thought was there. I believe if they had a better upbringing they would be completely different boys. The part of the story with Pellinore and the questing beast is my favorite. It is humorous and still relates with the story line. I am excited to see what happens to them and if they ever catch the questing beast for good.

I am really starting to enjoy this book. The only complaint that I have is that sometimes when the story is in detail it gets a little dry. It adds depth to the story, but I love the action in it!

Vocabulary:

These are words I came across that I thought were interesting and I didn't know the meaning.

Besieged, stolid, halidome, nigromancer, chaste, stoicism, piseog, pennoncells, prig, machicolations, antiphonically, abdicate, arquebus, brehons,shillelagh, gralloch, ogham, carapaces, nuncios and paynim.