The Return of Merlin

The foreword by Chopra should have really been more of a red flag to me. If an author feels the need to explain to you how you should read and experience their artwork, it's a bad sign.

There were some really good scenes and tense moments in this book that makes it that much more upsetting that Chopra couldn't just write the narrative and allow us to come to our own conclusions. The good bits are swallowed up by giant chunks of exposition or by Chopra interjecting explanations so that we “get it”.

The story is also hard to follow. I've read nonlinear storylines before and Pulp Fiction is one of my favorite films, so the out of sync timeline was certainly not a problem for me. What was a problem was the jumping around and use of plot devices to force the story along.

There's a moment where they find a character dead, someone resurrects them, they go ape shit and try to attack the group, the group runs away, pauses so Arthur can have a flashback to Merlin telling him about dragons being the evil inside people or some shit, and the group inexplicably goes back to find the ape shit character calmly doing chores again and ready to deliver another exposition dump. I've never had to reread so many sentences or even whole paragraphs SO MUCH in one book.

If you're looking for a unique take on the Arthurian legends, look anywhere but here!