Book Review: The Secret of Excalibur by Andy McDermott

  I am very fond of Arthurian legend. From literature, films to documentaries, I have the tendency to develop interests in most things related to King Arthur. Some of my favorite books include The Once and Future King, and Le Morte D'Arthur.

A week ago, I was browsing at the local library, and I came cross The Secret of Excalibur. I was immediately drawn to this book because of its title (and the fact that this book belongs to the exciting genre of historical thriller). The author of this book is Andy McDermott. I have read other books written by him in the past. Despite the fact that I was not impressed with other books from this author, I decided to try this book anyway, because this book seems to promise an interesting, treasure hunt story based on the legend of the once and future king. So I quickly snatched this book off the shelf from the library. After a magical swipe with my library card, I came home with this book in my hand.

Today, I would like to provide a review for this book.

Synopsis:

Excalibur, the sword of power, is a legendary weapon belonged to the mythological King Arthur. It was said that King Arthur was invincible when he wielded Excalibur in battles. Is the story of Excalibur just a legend? What if it is real? If it is real, where is the sword now?

Archaeologist Nina Wilde, and her fiancee Eddie Chase, were on a trip to England to meet Eddie's family. During their trip, Nina received an unexpected meeting invitation from her parents' friend, a scholar possessing immense knowledge in Arthurian legend. The meeting revealed to Nina and Eddie, the hidden knowledge about the secret of Excalibur. This piece of knowledge drew Nina and Eddie into a global hunt to gather the clues that would lead to King Arthur's final resting place. Nina and Eddie needed to recover the sword and prevent it from falling into the wrong hand, lest its secret be exploited by ruthless individuals, plunging the world into darkness.

What I think about this book:

I have mixed feelings about this book. On the positive side, I like how the author implemented Arthurian legend to form the background of the story. I also like how this adventure took place over a few exotic locales around the world. This is a fast paced, action packed thriller. This book has car chase, fist fights, gun fights, and lots of explosions. Yet, I was not particularly impressed with this book.

Let me explain:

Personally, I prefer a book of this genre to maintain the esoteric atmosphere, where the story unfolds gradually as secrets and mysteries are solved, then leading to the climax at the end. In The Secret of Excalibur, however, the structure of the book made the story feel anticlimactic, because Excalibur was discovered halfway into the book, then the remaining book focused on how the protagonists tried to prevent the sword from falling into the hands of the bad guys. This means for me, when I was reading this book, my interest in this story disappeared rapidly past the halfway mark. It felt like the story reached its climax halfway, and then the rest of the book just descended into prolonged sequences of action scenes, which were often over the top and unrealistic. The result was I skimmed through the second half of the book, because I just didn't care about the action scenes.

Overall, my opinion is that The Secret of Excalibur is the kind of book to read, if you have nothing else to read, or if you just want to read a book where you don't have to think. The premise of this book, centred around Arthurian legend, is intriguing. But ultimately this book did not impress me. I could not maintain my interest in the story, because its structure created an anticlimactic feel about the book after the halfway mark. While the unrealistic, over the top action scenes made this book feel cliched and formulaic instead of being entertaining.