Re: Camelot is an exciting story by E. C. Fisher. It sets the adventures of King Arthur around a teenage orphan named Arthur Godwin-Dragos. He is summoned to Planet Avalon by a beautiful woman named Merlin, who is the most powerful sorceress in Avalon City, a place that blends technology with fantasy magic. After Arthur pulls enchanted Excalibur from its stone, he heads off with a band of companions to find eleven sacred weapons that once belonged to the knights of Camelot. The knights started their own countries, several of which are now at war. And when it turns out the growing darkness that caused Merlin to send Arthur on this quest comes from an ancient enchantress with the power of a dark dragon inside her—and a plan more devious than at first imagined—Arthur and his friends have their work cut out for them.

I thought Re: Camelot was quite creative. The way technology was blended into the story while retaining the medieval feeling of an Arthurian story always felt believable and E. C. Fisher’s many plot twists and turns kept the narrative fresh. The Knights of the Round Table were turned into countries (Gawain; Bedivere; Lancelot, and the rest) and their descendants, a well-coordinated cast of diverse, mostly young people took on the adventures of teamwork and courage against enchantment and darkness that makes any fantasy saga, including the legends of King Arthur, so enjoyable. The specific traits given each country not only created challenges to help the team grow as leaders and warriors but also built great visual images for a complex world. The concept of Merlin being an official title granted to any great master of magic, in this case a woman, expanded this character into one of my favorites in the book, a perfect mentor and contrast to the developing talents of young Arthur and his band of friends.

E. C. Fisher has brought the Arthurian legend to life in a new and different way in the novel Re: Camelot, The Complete Edition. Young Arthur is unaware he is a direct descendant of the great King Arthur of Camelot. After Arthur’s parents are killed in a car crash when he was just twelve, a miserable aunt sends Arthur off to a boarding school where he is lost and alone, his only solace the books and stories his mother used to read to him, so assiduously, of Camelot, the Knights of the Round Table, King Arthur and their adventures. Obsessed with everything Arthurian, Arthur wishes for nothing more than to be transported from his hell here to the days of legend, one he somehow feels intimately connected with. On the planet Avalon, trouble is brewing. The sleeping black dragon is awakening and about to spread its evil across all of the land that was once Camelot – unless, a young man can be summoned to save the world, a young man capable of drawing Excalibur from the stone, of reuniting all of the sacred weapons and defeating the evil that threatens to destroy Avalon. Could young Arthur be that man?

Re: Camelot, The Complete Edition is certainly a unique twist on the old Arthurian story. Author E. C. Fisher has created a whole new world in which Camelot once existed and although now fragmented, can be unified again by the right person. I loved the unique premise and it is not one I have found in my Arthurian readings to date. It is always difficult to take a legend such as Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, which has been so written about over the years and give it a new and fresh twist. Fisher does this well and the descriptions of the planet Avalon and its environment are well done. Arthur and indeed the main characters of the story, for me, were a little superficial and their treatment and characterization not in-depth enough for my liking. That may be a feature of the author’s desire to have such a large ensemble cast but, nonetheless, apart from Arthur we really did not get to know the other characters in any real depth. That being said, the story is one that rollicks along at some pace, with plenty of action and fight scenes in the narrative, along with some budding romances between the characters. I suspect this is squarely aimed at the young adult audience and the speed and unique qualities of the story will doubtless appeal to them. I did particularly like the lack of gender bias the author built into the story – automatic rights of accession regardless of gender and, of course, a female Merlin all go a long way to address the need to be gender equal in today’s world. Well done to the author for that.