Gerald Morris’s The Squire’s Tale and The Quest of the Fair Unknown

Essentially, Gerald Morris writes very sweet retellings of King Arthur legends from various sources, making fun of impractical chivalry rules and having Gawain be the coolest knight of all the knights.  Instead of Lancelot, who starts out really lame and gets much less lame as time goes on.  Every time he writes a new one, I’m afraid he’s going to have Mordred show up, which finally did happen in The Quest for the Fair Unknown (or maybe it happened before?  I haven’t been reading his new books faithfully because they have insufficient Gawain & Terence in them), and now I am far too worried to read any future books in case Arthur dies.  DO NOT WANT.  (The ostrich approach to literature.)  Oh, and Gerald Morris’s books are for children, and rereading them as an adult I find they are a smidge simplistic.  Still charming though and if I have children I will assuredly procure these books for them.

Gerald Morris’s early books (including The Squire’s Tale) are better than his later ones.  This is because he started with all the best stories.  The Squire, His Knight, and His Lady is best of all, because it is Sir Gawain & the Green Knight.  And who doesn’t love that story?  So The Quest of the Fair Unknown, you know, it had moments that were really fun, but none as good as those early stories that were all about Gawain and Terence.  However, the covers I am linking to are all pretty and matchy, and they make me want to buy all of Gerald Morris’s books at once.

P.S. It is possible that part of the reason I am writing these half-assed reviews is that I am addicted to TVTropes.org.  Don’t go to that website.  I am not even going to provide a link to it.  I am telling you that if you enter you won’t be able to get out again.  Hey, did you see my hat (above)?

Nick Bantock’s Griffin and Sabine, Sabine’s Notebook, and The Golden Mean

Did you ever read these books?  Essentially these two people Griffin and Sabine, are mentally connected.  Sabine can see the pictures that Griffin draws, and one day she writes to him.  They write each other angsty letters about the power of love and how much they miss each other; they overcome a bunch of obstacles and eventually find each other and have major reunion snuggles.

Which I realize doesn’t sound all that great.  If you were to accuse these books of being short on plot, you would be correct.

But.  But but but!  Here is why it is that great!  Because the letters are there, in the book!  Griffin and Sabine are both artists, so they create beautiful postcards and envelopes, which are eye candy for me, and sometimes you get to take the letters out of the envelopes.

And yes, okay, mostly the letters themselves are not thrilling (it gets more interesting when they introduce a villain character), but you get to TAKE THEM OUT OF THE ENVELOPES.  It is like The Jolly Postman for adults.  With darker, edgier art.  And did I mention that there are actual letters that you can physically take out of the envelopes?  Envelopes containing removable letters?  GLORIOUS.

Speaking of glorious, did you see my hat?  Wasn’t it good?

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They finished their preparations for the night, took a small snack and decided it was safe to wander back into the Great Hall again to look at their Angel.

“I wish I could hug her,” Claudia whispered.

“They probably bugged her already.  Maybe that light is part of the alarm.  Better not touch.  You’ll set it off.”

“I said ‘hug,’ not ‘bug!’  Why would I want to bug her?”

“That makes more sense than to hug her.”

“Silly.  Shows how much you know.  When you hug someone, you learn something else about them.  An important something else.”

Jamie shrugged his shoulders.

Both looked at Angel for a long time…. “At least we’re living with it.  We’re the only two people in the whole world who live with it.”

The picture is small, but this sculpture is not.  It is an awkward shape to be hugged, but I want to hug it all the time anyway (click to make it slightly bigger).

The artist is a sculptor called Cetin Ates, and I love all of his sculptures.  Here are two more that I would buy if they were not already long sold away to someone else.

I like the above one because it’s simple and also really hopeful and beautiful.  And I like this next one because – well, you will know why.  It is so cool.  The monster’s head is scary.  These and loads of other ones at his other website.

My one is best, however.  The sitting thinking man has a keyhole in his chest.  It is very tall, taller than I am, and it is the first piece of original art I have ever bought all by myself, and I love it so, so much.

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