Knight Life

✍ Scribed by David, Peter Allen

• Book ID: 108956976
• Publisher: Ace Books
• Year: 2002
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 170 KB
• Series: Modern Arthur 1
• Category: Fiction

✦ Synopsis

Fifteen years ago, the paperback publication of Knight Life heralded the debut of a major new talent on the science fiction and fantasy scene. Now, armed with more wit and wisdom than ever before, Peter David has reworked the novel dear to his heart-the story of New York City's most surprising candidate for mayor: Arthur Pendragon, Once and Future King.

"[David] knows how to spin a story." (Publishers Weekly)

"A darkly amusing fantasist." (Kirkus Reviews)

From Publishers Weekly

Arthurian legend gets another kick in the pants with this rollicking rewrite of bestseller David's first novel, originally published in 1987. Extensively updated and lovingly revised, this hilarious romp in today's New York features a cast of zany characters, zippy dialogue and enough action and plot twists to satisfy most satirical fantasy fans. After 10 long centuries spent trapped in a magical cave, King Arthur is finally rescued by a pint-sized, wisecracking Merlin, who has aged backwards enough to slip through the bars of his own prison. The "once and future king" arrives, in armor, no less, on the streets of the Big Apple. Soon, with the help of Master Merlin, the charmingly anachronistic and good-hearted "Arthur Penn" is running for mayor of New York. Meanwhile, much to Arthur's dismay, the reincarnated but unemployed Guinevere, aka Gwen DeVere Queen, is already living with Lance, an unpublished and also unemployed "misunderstood" writer. Morgan, aka Morgana le Fey, Arthur's half-sister sorceress, bored and gone to seed in a dumpy New Jersey apartment, becomes angry enough to get back into fighting form when she discovers her spell has been broken. With the help of Moe Dreskin (aka her bastard son, Modred, PR whiz and erstwhile murderer of his royal father), Morgan schemes to put Arthur and Merlin back where they belong. But she has no idea just how determined Arthur's eclectic election team is to fight back and reinvent Camelot in the "kingdom" of Manhattan.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

A New York mayoral election takes an unexpected turn when a new, independent candidate appears on the scene, running on a platform of common sense, humor, and knightly virtues. Assisted by his advisers, a ten-year-old boy genius named Merlin, an immortal accountant known as Percival, and a troubled young woman called Gwen, the newcomer, who calls himself Arthur Penn, proceeds to take the town by storm until the arrival of a pair of old enemies threatens to re-create the tragedy of the Arthurian legend. This revised and expanded version of David's first novel (Sir Apropos of Nothing), originally published in 1987 and now out of print, is filled with genuine wit, irony, and keen observations of human nature. It belongs in most libraries where Arthurian fiction is popular.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.