I liked it; it was good
I bought this book from the Rotary book fair, thinking it would be a fun children’s tale about the Arthurian legends, and was surprised by an f-bomb right in the third line of chapter 1! Turns out to be much more mature reading, but dives deep into Mordred’s personal struggles.
Read: Feb. 17 – Feb. 18, 2025
Genre: Fantasy, Arthurian Legend, Coming of Age
Audience: Adult
Book contains: incest, explicit language, explicit sexual content, attempted rape on a minor, explicit gore, blood and violence, gruesome displays of magic
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Mordred, King Arthur’s bastard son, tells the story of his youth growing up on the island of Orkney with his mother Morgawse. As he grows, he discovers his true parentage and eventually kills his “father” King Lot, then joins his brother Gawain in service to Arthur, where he faces new challenges.
Mordred’s life is not a happy one, and it all stems back to his mother, Morgawse. As a sorceress, she uses dark and ugly magic, reviving the dead, calling storms, and summoning grotesque creatures. She’s also a little too doting on her youngest son.
As a coming-of-age sort-of autobiography, Mordred is our first person narrator, telling the tale of his youth from the moment he meets Arthur for the first time, to when he’s about twenty-years old (spanning sixteen years of his life). The book itself is split into several parts, which I could sum up to be “the worship”, “the disillusionment” and “the indifference”.
There’s no audiobook for this novel, so I read it the old-fashioned way, sitting in my comfy armchair or walking around my dining table (to get a few steps in). In between the depictions of Mordred’s bloody battles, I just loved the vivid imagery of the nature, especially the ocean.
Mordred is obviously our main character, and he speaks to the reader as if he, the twenty-eight-year-old, is writing his story down with the intention of being read. He’s a product of his parents and his upbringing, and it shows in his actions and thoughts and decisions. He’s also a product of the times, which were quite dark indeed, where women could not simply go into the market without a male escort at the risk of being attacked. Mordred is crude and crass and impolite at times, but he’s also courageous and loyal and passionate in this retelling.
Mordred hates King Lot, and he and his mother have the oddest relationship, but the bond of brotherhood he has with Gawain cannot be matched, even if Gawain is often away on the mainland. The evolving relationship Mordred has with Arthur has a depth to it that is unmatched within this story, and his eventual friendship and deeper bond with Guinivere is based on mutual respect and interest.
It’s interesting how gruesome other parts of the book can be when McDowell is so elegant with his descriptions of nature and beauty. He writes in a very 90s grunge sort of way, with modern slang and aspect, but is still able to immerse the reader in the dark ages when the book takes place. There are, of course, anachronisms and historically inaccurate pieces, as admitted by the author himself, who says his world is no more real than Middle Earth, which can be excused as the reader gets lost in the story.
As this is a coming-of-age tale, it tells the story of Mordred’s life from the time he was eight to when he’s twenty; he, the narrator, is twenty-eight as he writes and reflects. As such, the novel can be separated into sections by his age, and thus the pacing felt justified. It never spent too long on a scene, nor did I feel like the narrative dragged on – aside from when they first entered Camelot and needed to describe the entire city in detail, which was less appealing to me than lengthy depictions of the ocean or hillsides. (It was interesting enough, but dense.)
I recommend this book to adults who enjoy the legends, could use a laugh, and don’t mind a bit of crudeness. It’s an interesting new take on the tales of King Arthur and his knights, as told by Mordred.
Mordred’s Curse Book 1: Mordred’s Curse by Ian McDowell
Mordred’s Curse Book 2: Merlin’s Gift by Ian McDowell
The Sword in the Stone by T.H. White
The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman
The Gatekeeper Book 1: Gatekeper’s Key by Krista Wallace
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