SPOIL-FREE SUMMARY
Arthur is a second son, living in medieval England and wanting nothing more than to be a squire. When Merlin gives him an obsidian stone, suddenly he has visions of another time and another young man named Arthur.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Arthur may wish to be a squire but he is better at reading and writing than swordsmanship and archery. He respects and admires his father and enjoys his lessons with the Priest, Oliver.
Serle is Arthur's big brother. He has a grudge against Arthur for unclear reasons.
Aunt Alice is quite kind to Arthur. He confides in her often. She is married to Sir Stephen and is the stepmother to Grace.
Merlin is an old man who has been a friend of Arthur's family for a long time. He doesn't share much about himself or his beliefs with anyone.
Oliver is Arthur's teacher and a priest who teaches him reading and writing.
PACING
A major problem of the story is that there is no sense of urgency. The story has no real pattern of where it's going either. The story goes back and forth between our Arthur and the Arthur in the magical stone that Merlin gives him. But that doesn't increase the pacing at all.
SERLE & TANWEN-SPOILERS
Arthur sees Serle and a servant girl, Tanwen together a few times and later on it's revealed that Tanwen is pregnant. Eventually she is taken away to the have the child in private while Serle has to do penance. We never see Serle and Tanwen talk about things we just know that their unhappy. All Serle says is that he doesn't know what he wants, and that his father wants Tanwen sent away.
This would have been a good time to make Serle a sympathetic character. He could have expressed regret at what he did to Tanwen (ruined her life). And anger at his father for not letting him marry Tanwen and make it right. But the relationship, and the whole event is depicted shallowly, as though we are strangers watching all of this from afar.
MERLIN AND ARTHUR
Arthur has known Merlin since he was born (he showed up soon after), but they don't come across as close. Merlin is rather mysterious, never explaining anything in detail, including what he believes. He has secret conversations with Arthur's father and generally stays a vague character throughout the story.
ARTHUR & SERLE
Serle is rather rude to his little brother, even though Arthur tries to stay out of his way for most of the time. Arthur does try to gain his trust, after seeing Serle with Tanwen. But Serle brushes him off angerly and Arthur is left wondering why. He is only a page, and may never be a squire. Serle is a squire, older and stronger than him.
Earlier, Arthur notes that Serle only pretends to like him when other people are around, and that he tells on him to their mother. But since she favors him, she does nothing about it.
Another incident, is when Arthur helps Gatty with farm work and Serle gets angry at him, saying a page shouldn't humble himself. He also bullies others into lying about Arthur, blaming him for making a mess with pig's blood.
Eventually Arthur asks why he hates him so much and he calls him a Cuckoo who pushes out the real son, but that he is stronger and won't be pushed out. None of this makes sense, because tradition says the firstborn son inherits the most. How is Arthur a threat? And why is Serle so insecure?
ARTHUR & GATTY
Gatty is a servant girl and a friend of Arthur's. They have a slight relationship. Serle is mean about something and Arthur doesn't defend her. But later when she saves his little sister, they kind of make up. There isn't much going on, unfortunately. So I had a hard time feeling invested in anything.
Another side story involving her has to do with the boy she wishes to marry, Jankin. His father is accused of stealing and has his hand cut off (I have no idea if this was a common practice or a practice at all). Arthur worries about her future. How will Jankin's father provide for him? And now his and Gatty's betrothal will be broken.
Again, I wanted to be more invested. But I knew little to nothing about Gatty and less about Jankin. I felt this was supposed to be a big part of the story. And maybe it could have been, if Gatty and Jankin had received more than a few pages in the story.
CULTURE SHOCK
It's made clear that this world is different than the readers' world without being ham handed.
Arthur may ask questions, but for the most part, he accepts how the world is. He isn't a twenthieth century child thrown into a historic/fantasy novel. Which I appreciated.
Oliver provides exposition for what Arthur's world is like. Even if some of his views came off as cartoonishly explained. It wouldn't be hard to show that religious people in Arthur's day believed that God judged those who rejected his teachings differently than those who didn't. Because Christians, for the most part, believe the exact same thing today.
Oddly enough, Arthur casually mentions to the reader that he knows his father hits his mother sometimes. It took me by surprise. Was I supposed to believe that hitting your wife was normal in Arthur's time? Because he didn't give it any thought and it's never mentioned again. It may have been the author trying to point things out to the reader, as if to say, “See how bad it was? Aren't you glad you didn't live in that time?” Because it wasn't essential to the story at all.
There is also a discusion about the Crusade and reasoning about it. Unfortunately it's a vague, some of our enemies are more honorable than our side, kind of thing. No real questioning as to why it is happening, and if it is justified.
I appreciated the attempts and diving into these issues, but unfortunately, they all came across as shallow attempts to explore deep subjects.
WEALTH & POVERTY
When Sir Stephen comes to the Manor, there are various trials that happen. One is a woman whose livestock was eating Arthur's father's hay. She excuses her behavior and explains she needs to make a living. Her cattle need to eat. She criticizes the whole system she was born into. And says that they all came from the same parents (Adam and Eve) but Sir Stephen and wealthy and she is poor. She also adds that he couldn't be wealthy if not for the peasants.
It was incredibly bold, and unfortunately, felt random. I had no idea who this character was (this is her one appearance). This scene was interesting, but felt like it only happened so Arthur could have an internal struggle about moralty (that never goes anywhere).
He wonders if there is some way so that poverty could end. He also wonders if people were allowed to steal, if everyone would do it. And if order would break down.
THE OBSIDIAN STONE
About a quarter into the story, Merlin gives Arthur a stone. Not long after, he sees a vision of a King, who Merlin later reveals is King Vortigern, who was King after the Romans left but before the Saxons fought the English.
We see King Arthur lust after Lady Ygerna, eventually disguising himself as her husband and having a child with her. Their son is sent away into foster care.
ARTHUR AND HIS FATHER
Arthur respects his father, who is in a powerful position and is quite wealthy. But he still tries to convince him to let him be a squire (he wonders if he father doesn't want him to be one). As it seems the man doubts his skills.
They have a few interesting conversations throughout the story, usually having to do with Arthur wanting to be a squire. Once, his father tells him doing what is right and what you want are not always the same thing (referring to Arthur wanting to be a squire for Lord William and not Lord Stephen).
When his father has to judge and sentence a man that is accused of stealing food, Arthur is left upset. While when he judges a woman who has stolen hay, leaves him conflicted.
EQUALITY
Arthur and his teacher, Oliver end up discussing equality. Oliver says some are firstborn and some are not, but we are all equal in God's eyes. Arthur is confused, and says people are not equal, because some are wealthy and some are poor. This leads to Oliver explaining how they need a King, and he needs Knights, and they need farmers and so on.
But when Arthur asks if the Muslims are equal to the Christians in God's eyes Oliver tells him no (all Christians are equal to him). This confuses him and he says he knows a man named Sir William who does not agree.
This short conversation was one I found interesting. I wanted it to manifest into action and conflict but it only resulted in some inner turmoil from Arthur.
THE GRAVESTONE-SPOILERS
Throughout the story, Arthur's baby brother Luke is in bad health. Eventually he passes on and a gravestone is to be made, but his father wrote the wrong number, calling him his fourth son, not his fifth (there were previous infant sons who died).
This is the first hint that Arthur isn't a son by blood (as well as the mysterious conversations between Merlin and Arthur's father. The other hint is that Arthur's father seems to have plans for him that he won't speak of (which is why he isn't sure about Arthur being a squire).
ARTHUR & GRACE
Arthur's cousin is named Grace, and he believes their parents wish them to marry when they come of age. Unfortunately she is not in the story very much so they don't really have any relationship. So when something is revealed about Grace, making their marriage impossible, it had little impact on me.
MERLIN'S BELIEFS
Merlin says he believes in “nine Spirits” but doesn't define just what they are. He seems to think he can believe in them as well as Christ, but since he never defines what they are, we can't side with him or the others, who call him a herectic.
CLIMAX-SPOILERS
Both Arthurs discover their true identities, one becoming a King, the other becoming a squire and going on a crusade. Turns out our Arthur was adopted and his real father is Sir William, an immoral man whom he destests (but he isn't in the story much so I didn't have any reaction to this news).
CONCLUSION
The story suffers from two big problems, a lack of urgency and direction. If I had to explain what the story is about I would struggle. Arthur has visions about another man named Arthur, who is more interesting than him (only at first) but that doesn't say much. He wants to be a squire but his father doesn't seem to think he would be good at it.
The characters have the beginnings of personalities but unfortunately, they never develop because we never learn that much about anyone. Not Oliver, not Merlin, not Gatty and not Serle. The same goes for relationships. There was some potential with Arthur's relationships with Merlin, Oliver, Serle and Lady Alice. But it never went anywhere.
On a positive note, I did like some of the conversations that Arthur had with Oliver and his father. And the incident involving new taxes being announced was interesting as well.
But all of these interesting thoughts and any inner turmoil that Arthur experiences never actually results in anything. They were philosophical musings. No conflict with his father. No conflict with Oliver. Nothing.
I give “The Seeing Stone” half a star.
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