Review

Emry, daughter of Merlin, the powerful wizard of Uther Pendragon, pushed her now-dead father to teach her magic alongside her nearly-identical twin brother, Emmet. Now she’s a promising wizard, but when a royal summons arrives for an apprentice wizard it’s for Emmet… because although he lacks skill, perseverance, ethics and basic common sense, he’s a boy.

But when one of Emmet’s spells backfires, leaving him temporarily bedridden, Emry cuts her hair and goes in his place. They’re desperate for cash, and all she has to do is lay low for a week, right? Too bad the young prince keeps hanging out in the wizard’s workshop, avoiding his father, cracking jokes and looking ridiculously handsome, if kind of weedy.

Prince Arthur accidentally pulled a sword out of a stone and ever since, it’s been nothing but work, work, work. He’s constantly disappointing his father with his preference for plants and books over Machiavellian strategising and heavy weapons training. At least he has his best friend, Lancelot, and now Merlin, the new, very talented apprentice wizard. Unlike Lance, Arthur’s never been interested in boys, but he can’t stop thinking about Merlin… except when he’s thinking about threatening neighbours, court enemies, magic swords, forced dynastic engagements and his sarding father, that is. Arthur’s going to need all his friends just to help him survive, let alone become the rightful king of all England.

*

This was a fun Arthurian romp with dramatic bits and a cheerful disregard for historical and mythological accuracy. The dialogue’s contemporary, most characters are casually bisexual, including Emry, and attitudes are generally pretty modern and secular. There’s a lot of well written humour, including mild bawdiness:

As she flipped through [the book], her mouth fell open at the pornographic doodles.

“Wow.” She grimaced at a detailed sketch of a lusty man chasing a horrified sheep. “You weren’t joking.” …

“You know, I’ve never been that desperate,” the guard said, nodding toward a rather large drawing in Emry’s book.

“Maybe you’ve just never seen a sheep that attractive,” Emry suggested before she could help herself.

(Schneider, 2021, p. 45)

In general, it was a joy to read, although the plot and characterisation started getting a bit loosey-goosey towards the end. (E.g., you can’t have most characters finding the twins so similar that they get them mixed up, AND one character who knows Emry, sees Emmet, and doesn’t make the connection between them. No. Where was the editor. Pick one.)

Ages: 14+

Verdict: fun-filled Arthurian romp

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Frequent mild YA sexual allusions; a scene set in a brothel (nothing untoward occurs); passionate kissing plus some near nudity (pp. 253-54); an extremely mild and euphemistic sex scene (pp. 310-311); sexual infidelity amongst older adults; false accusations of sexual assault (backstory); no conventional swear words, but “sard” is used throughout as an f-word substitute; parental coldness and disapproval; some homophobia; knife & sword violence plus associated injuries; situations of extreme peril; dying mother (backstory); grief for dead or missing father; gambling debts & threats of violence; alcohol & occasional drunkenness.

*

Schneider, R. (2021). The other Merlin. Viking.

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• Cover art by Julie Houts / Illustration Division
• Cover design by Tony Sahara
• Images are used on this blog post under the “Fair dealing for criticism or review” provision of the Commonwealth Copyright Act, 1968.