The Sword in the Stone - T.H. White Book Review

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Review Summaries

"The Sword in the Stone is the first part of The Once and Future King pentalogy (followed by The Witch in the Wood _later called The Queen of Air and Darkness_, The Ill-Made Knight, The Candle in the Wind and The Book of Merlyn). The Wart is a young orphan boy who lives in the castle of Sir Ector, his foster father. The son of the latter, Kay, is his best friend and model, for one day he will be Sir Kay, the master of the estate. One day, they decide to go hawking together on the edge of the Forest Sauvage, but they're inexperienced and Cully the hawk flies away. They have no choice but to enter the foreboding woods and go after it. And soon the Wart gets lost. In the forest, he meets with King Pellinore, whose Quest is to catch the Beast Glatisant, and later with Merlyn the Enchanter, who brings him back to the castle and becomes his tutor. As the Wart gets turned successively into a fish, a merlin, an ant, yet several other species of birds and finally a badger to add to his education, the novel itself sort of turns into a book of natural science, more than an actual fantasy, and not much else happens. The author's tendency to address to the reader is somewhat annoying too, and in general The Sword in the Stone far from lived up to my expectations. Not to mention that you have to wait until the fifth to last page for the Wart to finally remove the actual sword from the stone."
crooty, Resident T.H. White Scholar

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Overall Review

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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot

Composition of Book
Descript. of chases or violence - 10%
planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 20%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 50%
Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 20%

Tone of book - humorous or laughable
FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION? - King Arthur
Coming of age Yes
Youngster becomes - an adult (general)
Explore/1st contact/ enviro story Yes
Plotlets: - exploring a wondrous planet or phenomena
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book

Main Character
Identity: - Male
Profession/status: - student
Age: - a kid
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Average intelligence
Physique - average physique

Main Adversary
Identity: - none

Setting
Terrain - Forests
Earth setting: - general past
Takes place on Earth? Yes

Style
Person? - mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death? - generic/vague references to death/punishment
How much dialogue? - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog

Most similar books by Gordonator ranking
The Wicked Day - Arthurian Saga 4 by Mary Stewart
The Hollow Hills - Arthurian Saga 2 by Mary Stewart
Sword of Darkness by Kinley MacGregor
I am Mordred by Nancy Springer
The Once and Future King by T.H. White

Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).

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