The Crystal Cave

I love Mary Stewart.
She tells the story of Merlin from Merlin's POV. I should have read these books when I was young, but, alas, I didn't know about them then.
I also should have read this in “one sitting”, now I have been reading it since last summer... I can easily keep the stories separate when I read several books at once, but it's harder when I start a book, have a 4 month pause during which I read several other books, watch movies, etc. and then read the last 100 pages. :-D
Nevertheless, I like this version of Merlin. I like how Mary Stewart explains it all without magic, though I suspect there might be more of that further on in the story.

Uther is an a-hole, though, but that isn't surprising. He's that more or less in every story :-D