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Looking For The King (2010)

by David C. Downing(Favorite Author)

3.4 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1586175149 (ISBN13: 9781586175146)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Ignatius Press

series

Inklings

review 1: a sort of mystery surrounding a search for the real King Arthur around Oxford in the very earliest days of WWII (1940). Because C.S.Lewis, Tolkien, and Charles Williams all had some scholarly interest in Arthur, the author brings them in as supporting characters.the mystery is not that interesting, mostly because the 'villain' is very sketchily drawn. I got the feeling that the entire plot was devised as an excuse to write about the Inklings. Much of the dialogue paraphrased material that appears in their letters and other writings, so I didn't feel like I was getting a particularly new perspective on them. Best part was a visit to Tolkien in his home, where his young daughter Priscilla greets the visitors with a directness that may have been inherited from her fa... morether.
review 2: Because of my deep love for the novels of Lewis, Tolkien, and Williams, I have extremely high standards for this specific type of literature, and in this case I liked the concept much more than the execution. I appreciated the way "the Inklings" started changing Tom's quest in a spiritual direction as opposed to a physical object (Grail), but the bait-and-switch of Spear of Destiny for Holy Grail almost immediately thereafter sort of defeated the purpose of their wise advice. The wartime setting was basically wasted from lack of development; Tom and Laura's relationship was awkwardly bizarre; and the presence of the Inklings only reminded me that better stories and better writing were not only possible but necessary under a Christian worldview. As much as I wanted to like this story, I just couldn't help being disappointed by how trivial it turned out to be. less

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