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Post by himiko on Aug 12, 2014 20:06:49 GMT
So, I was browsing Tumblr recently, and I came across an Arthurian themed blog which contained a link to the page below. Basically, this is a list of Arthurian themed books published post 1800. It may not be entirely comprehensive, as I called it in the title, but it's certainly got a lot of books that I've never come across before, or seen mentioned on here, as well as some well known here, such as the James Mallory novelisations of the film, or Mists of Avalon. It contains links to free text downloads of some of the older stuff, where available, and contains links to the goodreads pages of each book for further information. It looks like it gets updated every so often as new books are discovered, too. I thought this might serve as a handy guide for people looking for something new and Arthurian  Happy reading! lucrezianoin.tumblr.com/post/36884760771/arthurian-novels-chronological-order-n-of-books |
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Post by sleepyqueenie on May 21, 2015 10:07:58 GMT
So I was going to post the message below when I rediscovered the brilliant link you posted here. ^^ Now I can look to more years of novels that came out on the topic of Merlin and Arthur. :)The 90's certainly are packed with Arthur novels and series. The 2000's do well as well. I think the topic is fascinating to people of all time. That is fun to see. "I don't know how many of your were 'around' in 1997-1998, who saw the Merlin mini series when it came out? What impressions did you have? How was it received 'in its time'? I only saw it much later. In 1998 it won't have made it to Belgium I think and I was really small. I first saw Mab when I was well in my teenage years. The reason why I am asking this is, I read a list of Merlin and Arthur themed novels published in 1997 (in the Year's Best Fantasy and Horror by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, how I love those anthologies!). In comparison to a similar list from the year 2001. (also in a Year's Best Fantasy and Horror ) The big conclusion that I have to draw is that the 1997 list is massive! And 2001 is pretty tiny. Now I don't know how popular arthurian tales usually are, for me personally they are always interesting but in the eye of the big crowd there are certain trends. Could there have been a Merlin-Arthur hype in fiction just before or inside the period when our Merlin came out? The Mists of Avalon was very popular here, in 2000 and something. I was a teenager and I loved it. That book stems from 1983 so I imagine in the English parts of the world it was popular waaay before 2000something. Opinions and wisdom? " |
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Post by himiko on May 21, 2015 19:15:03 GMT
I remember seeing Merlin when it first aired in the UK- it was Easter 1999, I believe, on Channel 4. Quite a big deal was made out of it at the time, it was a high budget mini series with a lot of good actors, and family friendly, so it did very well aired on a primetime slot on the bank holiday weekend. I think a lot of people saw it for that reason alone. I loved it - Mab in particular- to the extent that my next birthday present was a copy of the shooting script, and my poor grandparents had to endure me watching a video that they recorded off the TV every week when I stayed at their house...
That said, I was 9 years old at the time, and not very immersed in popular culture- my sole exposure to Arthurian legends before this was the Disney version of "The Sword in the Stone", which I found kind of forgettable, TBH. It wasn't until many years later when I sort of "rediscovered" Merlin, that I actually started to delve into other adaptions of the Arthurian legend- films, TV shows, books, etc. And a lot of what I went on to watch or read was based on recommendations from the internet, and books that I happened across in the shops- "Mists of Avalon" and "The Warlord Chronicles" were both heavily recommended online. Stephen Lawhead's books got mixed reviews (and I can understand why now, having read them - they are preachy in the extreme), but they were frequently mentioned. Mary Stewart's "Crystal Cave" was another one... basically, I didn't really get into the legend in general until many years after the series came out, so I wasn't really aware of the legend being particularly popular at one time or another. A lot of the books I've read were published years, if not decades before.
If there WAS a boom in Arthurian tales in the year or two before Merlin came out, it would certainly explain why Hallmark invested so much money in this particular show/ film- they thought it would be a likely return on the investment.
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Post by sleepyqueenie on Nov 17, 2016 14:02:43 GMT
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Happy reading!
