After 1800 years, you’d think he’d have it all figured out.
He certainly thinks he does.
MERLYN’S MISTAKE
The limited series
NINE
In Which the Knight Falls
When Merlyn knows what must be done, when Vivica fearlessly faces machine gun fire and Frankie, her loving and beloved knight takes the barrage for her, when surrounded by hostile fire and capable of grabbing the woman he loves and running away from this place to let it play out and return for the stupid sword later, our hero must make his decision, set down a pretty huge duffel bag of self-recriminations, and newly-revealed raw-nerve regrets if he’s going to be grown up ancient wizard, flare out his piss-elegant, deeply enchanted magic coat, walk out onto the battle field and do what he has come to do.
Also at that moment, he just sort of confessed to the woman he loves who has always trusted him, even though she has only recently begun to believe him, that he doesn’t actually know how to destroy the sword and the scabbard. He built an awful lot of self-protection into both.
Protecting his much younger friends, the not at all delusional, deeply neurotic Druid solves the puzzle while under fire from a couple dozen military-grade weapons protected by magic that really wasn’t designed for anything stronger than a lance. He stands between them and death as they destroy the scabbard first, so that the magic of the sword – preventing him from dying in battle – can protect the critically wounded Frankie but only as long as the battle continues to rage.
In addition to a whole bunch of magic and archetypes of power and trapped elementals and Djinn and dragons, the destruction of the scabbard releases a surly elf who carries a seed. The seed, planted, grows into a new Tree of Life. This gives them cover and the gunfire slows. It seems the battle might be coming to an end and once that happens, clearly the Knight’s wounds will take him.
At the intersection of Roger Zelazny and Jim Butcher stands a small monument to individual agency, This magical, funny book that calls not for accountability but responsibility. As painful truths come to light, Merlyn’s conscience compels him to redress old wrongs only to realize that he has endangered all the people he loves. Still, despite machine gun fire, plane crashes and giant spiders, they will stand by him.. When he needs them, even his old Faerie ally Nimmue will be there to do her part. Still, if he can’t unravel the last riddles woven into the Arthurian Excalibur construct they may be too late to save themselves or the world.
“Brody’s writing is brilliant.”
Robin Williams
In the words of the wise, ancient magician himself, “If I see a way that I might save the world and I don’t at least try, then I’m sort of dick.”
