Duncan, Rose and Granny Bridgette face more nightmarishly warped Arthurian legends - it’s the Green Knight, Lancelot and Galahad’s turns - as Merlin continues his plan to take the Grail and return Arthur to the throne of England… with bloody consequences!
Once & Future is an ok series but it’s gotten a little too action heavy in this third book for its own good. I didn’t mind it so much in the second book with Grendel and co. but it’s pushing it a bit to have another book of the gang fighting monstrous characters almost the entire time AGAIN.
I’m not totally sure what Duncan’s mum Mary/Nimue’s motivations are or why she’s “bad”, and the concept of “being” a story is really underdeveloped to the point of confusion - how does Duncan saying he’s Gawain mean anything? You just tell yourself you’re a character in a story and then… you become it, or something? Instead of just non-stop action, expanding on these core concepts of the series would’ve made this book better.
As it is, I wasn’t that taken with watching people fighting the big bads of this book. The familiar characters all look really interesting as reimagined by Dan Mora, whose art is once again superb, particularly Lancelot who looks very striking in bright blue. The opening scene with Gran and the magpies is fantastic and the ending is a great cliffhanger but most of the middle didn’t do much to grab me. Lots of noise, little meaning.
If all you want in this series is flashy action, you’ll enjoy this book, but if you’re after anything slightly deeper than superficial, you’ll be let down with Once & Future, Volume 3: The Parliament of Magpies.
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