cover image Dragon's Child

Dragon's Child

M.K. Hume. Atria, $16 trade paper (512p) ISBN 978-1-4767-1518-6

Arthurian scholar Hume blends historical details and Arthurian legends to create a scrupulously researched image of Arthur's Britain as it might have been: desperately threatened by Saxons, abandoned by Rome, and only tenuously united under a dangerous and half-mad king. As the kingdom of Uther Pendragon weakens, a new hope arrives for the people of the West in Artorex, the boy fated to become high king. Fostered to a Roman family, Artorex knows nothing of his parentage and would be content to live the life of a villa steward. But Myrddion Merlinus, a healer and scholar, has other plans, for he believes that only through Artorex's claim on the throne can Britain be saved. In a story no less fantastic for its lack of magic and its disavowing of the more mythical elements of Arthur's story, Hume uses the heart of those legends to reveal a truly human Arthur in a richly crafted and fully realized fifth-century setting. The two sequelsfollow closely on this installment's heels, and fans of Arthurian legend will be eager to see how Hume navigates Arthur's kingship. (Oct.)