A key word to get me into a book is putting "Camelot" into the title. Wasn't the best but was pretty good.

I love the Arthurian legend and as soon as I saw the title, I wanted to read Once and Future Camelot by Felicity Pulman. There isn’t actually any Arthur, though: Camelot has vanished and the characters faded to stories being told. I liked that Camelot was still considered to be real, but I had hoped for more of the legend.

The plot is divided into two: modern-day Morgan, trying to make something of her life after an unplanned pregnancy, and Marie, a woman who lived a thousand years ago and daughter of Morgana – the Morgana. The two women, through magical means, are able to communicate with one another, learning of their linked ancestry and working together to try and stop the world as Morgan knows it from ending.

Despite the plot being split between these two time-lines, the reader follows Marie’s story for the vast majority. We follow her through the intervening years, while Morgan’s story skips seventeen years. I wondered if that was because the world Marie lives in is not familiar to a modern audience, so in order to like Marie’s character, we had to have a deeper understanding of her world compared to Morgan. The balance was unequal which made it feel like it dragged.

I enjoyed Marie’s characterisation though; she lost everything and didn’t let it defeat her. She had a hidden strength compared to Morgan: Marie believes her mother tricked her from her own world into another, only to lose her husband as she realises she is carrying her child. But Marie is able to make sense of this new world and the situation she finds herself in.

Morgan, however, needs others to help her through her troubled time. She doesn’t develop that inner strength in the same way. She also didn’t appear to be too shocked that she was talking to a woman living a thousand years ago through a well. At least Marie already knew magic was real!

I also didn’t particularly like where Morgan’s story led. It felt cliché that she is suddenly reunited with her family and those she loves, despite her being the one to push them away. She caused the friction and the end of the world is a convenient excuse for everyone to forgive each other.

The pacing is slow. There are several chapters dedicated to Marie’s progress through court and raising her daughter. The reader follows one character for several chapters at a time, even as the book climaxes, and it keeps it slow and stops the tension from building.

Despite the danger, the ending of the book didn’t feel satisfactory to me; it was the end that the book had been building towards from the beginning, with no twists or turns thrown in the way. I didn’t feel that it built, it just developed at the same pace throughout.

I did enjoy this book. It just isn’t one to get your heart racing. There’s magic and love and family reunions though, so it scores some points.

What have I gotten myself into? This is another Net Galley ARC. When I requested this title it was unrated. Now I see it has fewer than three stars. My normal guideline is at least 3.75 overall rating. Well, let's crack this spine and see....

Update: Have finished reading this novel. As other reviewers have noted, the tale is based on the legend of Camelot but more specifically on Morgana, her daughter Marie, and a 21st century descendant Morgan.

The intertwining of the past and present was interesting but dragged in places. The language seemed to be true to courtly language but the author used "towards" instead of "toward" and "further" in regard to measuring distance. These errors could have been (and should have been) caught by a good editor.

The female characters were strong women so that is a plus.

Overall, I will give this novel 3 stars.

A lovely story sure to please fans of Arthurian legend. It doesn't reinvent the wheel--but then again, it doesn't need to do so to be a successful book.