Grail Prince

by Nancy McKenzie

Reviewed by Coral

Since his birth, Galahad has been told he has a great destiny before him, greater even then that of his father, Lancelot.

Given a quest by Arthur to find the great relics of Britain’s past – a grail, a spear and a sword – Galahad dedicates himself to this quest completely. As Britain tries to maintain peace in the wake of Arthur’s death, Galahad travels from one place to another searching for signs and looking for the clues that will lead him to his destiny.

The main problem with this book is that for the majority of it Galahad is a completely unlikeable character. Even though the author showed his unfavorable qualities as faults, it was hard to read so many chapters of him being judgmental to everyone that he met. His whole attitude towards a victim of sexual assault at one point was disgusting and it was hard to keep reading after that.

It didn’t help that the book had large flashback sections. The book mainly takes part after Arthur’s death. But there are fifty and one hundred page flashbacks to Galahad during the time of Arthur. I feel like the book should have either started off in Arthur’s time or just ditched the flashbacks completely. There are times when reading the flashbacks, especially people’s reactions to Galahad’s attitude, that I felt like he should have learnt his lessons and experienced the personal growth that was obviously holding him back from finding the treasures.

When his “redemption arc” starts it happens in a completely unbelievable way to me. Considering how long he had hated Lancelot for loving Guinevere even though Lancelot had never acted on it, Galahad’s own actions didn’t seem realistic. I had trouble believing in the romance that we were supposed to see, because it was not developed. It was one of those, love at first sight things, or maybe hold over childhood crushes back from when the characters knew each other as children, but it rand false to me. I also think the whole idea of love of a woman finally making Galahad see the error of his ways was a cheap plot device.

The one part I liked about the book, oddly enough in the flashbacks I have complained so much about, was the characterization of Mordred. In so many of the books I’ve read he’s just the villain without much else to the character. Here, Mordred was a man who loved his father and fought against his own dark destiny of being his father’s doom.

There was a point in the book where I thought for sure that Galahad would play a part in Mordred and Arthur fighting each other. Though I was glad the book went in a different direction, what happened instead seemed like something that could have been avoided and didn’t have to lead to the destruction of Arthur’s Britain.

Grade: D