Bought at the same time as book 1, this novel was acquired at the Rotary book sale some years ago. Though I hadn’t initially known what to expect of the first book, I was more prepared before launching into this one.

Read: Feb. 23 – Feb. 26, 2025

Genre: Fantasy, Arthurian Legend, Coming of Age
Audience: Adult
Book contains: mentioned incest, explicit language, explicit sexual content, implied rape of a minor, explicit gore, blood and violence, gruesome displays of magic

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Elegant Writing; Less Than Pleasant Content

Mordred, King Arthur’s bastard son, continues his tale, revolving around Queen Guinivere’s half-sister, Nimüe, whose body appears unnaturally transformed. Mordred is sent to seek help, first from a holy man, then from Merlin himself, who claims to be the only one capable of the aid they need.

After my cold awakening at the start of the last book as to the nature of McDowell’s writing, I knew more of what to expect from this book, though he still seems to write to achieve some level of disbelief and discomfort in his readers, always choosing the more grotesque option. It’s a sort of dark humour that I can understand but not quite appreciate. If not for the quality of his writing otherwise, I’d have given this book three stars.

Again as a coming-of-age sort-of autobiography, Mordred is our first-person narrator, speaking directly to the reader, though less so than the first book. He separates the tale into sections, then further into chapters. In this book, the beginning depicts the end, then goes back in time and tells the events leading up to it. Because of this, you know some of the biggest plot points right at the start, but not all of them, which gives a general sense of anticipation while still allowing the reader to be surprised.

I read this book in bits of spare time, reading the old-fashioned way since there is no audiobook that I could find. It took a deceptively long time to read.

Our main character, Mordred, picks up where he left off from the last book, and he immediately gives us some context. Nimüe was first mentioned in Mordred’s Curse, so she’s not a character that comes out of nowhere. My main issue with Mordred (and Guinivere by proxy) is that he keeps up the deception with Arthur, sleeping with his wife behind his back.

This deception is not born of hate, however, but rather of love, and I found it interesting how integral love was to this novel. Love is what caused such strife amongst the characters, while simultaneously causing such joy. It’s hard to say whether love was worth it by the end, as it is left open-ended for the reader to decide.

Again I was astounded by the drastic contrast between his elegant descriptions of nature and the more grotesque aspects of the writing. McDowell maintains his 90s grunge tone, with modern slang thrown in everywhere, but the medieval way of life is still very vivid. Though being able to capture the times, McDowell includes anachronisms in the work, though more for effect than lack of research. I also found a few stubborn typos that made it through editing, which made me giggle.

The pacing was quite excellent, despite being slowed by the depth of his descriptions of the setting. “Mordred” has quite an elegant way of speaking of nature and weather. The plot itself was well put together, each scene either setting up the next or closing an opened path. The introduction to the characters, political climate, and mentality of everyone in the novel all reaches the conclusion, which easily allows the reader to predict what will happen, even though the actual novel ends before then.

Like with the first book, this is a story for adult readers who enjoy dark humour—on the grotesque side of things. It’s an enjoyable tale, interwoven with beautiful writing and less-than pleasant (filthy) content.

Related Reviews:

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