This fell into my lap yesterday. The cover is horrible and the reek of the Sci-Fi/Fantasy aisle at Barnes&Noble is usually enough to ward off my troublesome geek streak, but sometimes I will not be budged. I'm a big Holdstock fan, and the prospect of intertwining Arthurian and Greek storylines had me standing slack and salivating for more than a few minutes.
What held me was the idea of Merlin as one of the Argonauts. I'll admit I've had some passing theories of my own about the many incarnations of Merlin in literature (the ageless Schmedrick, anyone? Prospero? Hello, Gandalf, who came streaking out of the west from the direction of a place called, uh...Avallonne?) Most of mine are pretty ludicrous, but Holdstock's makes perfect sense--Merlin the Timeless, the Deathless could indeed have been around during the time of the Argo. And if he were, it certainly follows that he would have been a member of what was essentially the Bronze Age Justice League. Everyone who was anyone was on that ship (Hercules, Atalanta, Peleus, Orpheus, Castor and Pollux--even two dudes with wings, a la Hawkman)--it would have been incumbent on him as a B-rated hero to man an oar for the shining Jason.
So now, I've taken it on myself to ferret out which of the thirty-odd crewmen he could have been. Odds are I'll lose interest in the P's (who the hell was Peneleos, and why should I care if he was Boetian?), but it should prove fun in the meantime.
No comments:
Post a Comment