We've got your back. With the Tough-O-Meter, you'll know whether to bring extra layers or Swiss army knives as you summit the literary mountain. (10 = Toughest)
(4) Base Camp
There's a moment at the beginning of the book when we witness a meeting between two lovers who turn out to be Merlin's parents. We don't yet know who the characters are or what they're talking about, so it's a bit confusing. We've just got to keep on believing that the narrative will resolve all mysteries for us as it goes on (spoiler: it does).
The hardest part about this book is keeping track of the timeline—which really isn't very hard at all. Here are some helpful hints to help you navigate the time-space continuum in this work:
- The narrative voice is first person, from Merlin's point of view. Sometimes, Stewart has to skip backwards to fill us in on stuff that happened outside of his experience.
- Merlin tells this 400-page story from memory, in his old age. Basically, we have two first-person narrators who are the same guy at different times. Keep track.
- Merlin's a wizard. Trippy stuff happens to him. If an episode seems to come out of nowhere, it has. Roll with it.
Other than these challenges, the book will keep you turning pages—and will make you want to read the other three books that follow.