Book Review: Exiled from Camelot

[osprey_archer]

skygiants’ reviews are always great, and her review of Cherith Baldry’s Exiled from Camelot is one of the most hilarious of many amazing reviews.

ARTHUR: I want to officially make Loholt my heir. Kay, draw up the legal papers. I know you don't like him --
KAY: Yes, well, he did try to kill me that one time, for no reason.
ARTHUR: -- but otherwise he's a good kid and I love him more than I love you and you need to get over it.
KAY: :(

(Arthur in this fic, by the way, will be playing the role of The Asshole Who Doesn't Love Kay The Way He Deserves And Must Be Proven Wrong Through Kay's Absence And Extensive Suffering.)

Well, I finally read the book, and I am DELIGHTED to inform you that it is exactly the kind of OTT tragic woobie fic that the review led me to expect, only somehow even moreso. I strongly suspect that Baldry read Phyllis Ann Karr’s The Idylls of the Queen and said “what if exactly like this but also WAY more focus on how Kay is UNDERAPPRECIATED and MISTREATED” (also a much softer focus on Kay’s own flaws).

This suspicion is fostered by the fact that Baldry seems to have borrowed Kay’s crush on Guenevere wholesale from Karr, right down to their habit of playing chess together (unless that’s just a general Kay & Guenevere thing?). Also, Baldry thanks Karr in the acknowledgements.

Our hero is Kay, King Arthur’s Tragically Underappreciated Seneschal, a top notch organizer in a culture that values military prowess highly and organizational ability not at all. Arthur himself is the Underappreciater-in-Chief. Although they grew up as foster brothers, Arthur has come to take Kay for granted - so much for granted that when Arthur’s newly-discovered illegitimate son Loholt tries to kill Kay, Arthur doesn’t care. In fact, the whole court, including Kay’s BFF Gawain, seem to be on Team “Haven’t you gotten over Loholt’s attempt to murder you yet, Kay?”

After a battle goes south, Arthur orders Kay to escort Loholt to safety through the lines. Loholt takes advantage of this opportunity to kidnap and torture Kay. When Kay escapes, he accidentally kills Loholt, then makes his battered, bleeding, traumatized way back to Arthur’s temporary court at Carlisle. Concerned that Arthur won’t believe that his beloved son Loholt is a kidnapper and a torturer (or, worse, that he just won’t care, any more than he cared about the whole attempted murder thing), Kay only tells Arthur that Loholt is dead. Enraged, Arthur orders Kay out of his sight, and Kay faints at his feet.

Kay accepts all of this with the adoring misery of an unloved puppy. He loves Arthur so much! And Arthur has long since ceased to love him at all. “I don’t think he holds me in his heart,” Kay whispers to Gawain, who is tenderly bathing Kay’s wounds in his rooms.

But worse is in store! A prioress shows up at court, holding a box that can only be opened by the knight who murdered the man whose head lies inside. The head is, of course, Loholt’s, and Kay’s touch opens the box, at which point Kay is… EXILED FROM CAMELOT!

Etc. etc., if you want the summary of the rest of the book you can read skygiants review. SUFFICE IT TO SAY that Kay suffers a GREAT DEAL MORE, not least when a foul enchantress mocks him with an illusion of Arthur saying, “Kay, I need you!” Meanwhile Arthur’s court, deprived of its seneschal, is at sixes and sevens, and Kay’s fanclub (chiefly Gawain and his little brother Gareth) often meet to wistfully discuss how much they miss Kay. At one point Gareth claims that working for a year in Kay’s kitchen taught him more about knighthood than all of Lancelot’s lessons.

After nearly dying yet again, Kay heroically saves them all, faints at Arthur’s feet for a second time, and wakes up in Arthur’s room, where Arthur tells Kay that everything that has happened was Arthur’s fault for failing to appreciate Kay, but now Arthur has realized how much he loves and needs Kay. Would Kay please come back to fill the position of seneschal, as the kingdom is falling apart without him?

Only a stone could remain unmoved by such a thorough grovel. Kay, deeply moved, agrees. Kay and Arthur reconcile, and Kay plans a feast. Happy end!

***

After I finished Exiled from Camelot, littlerhymes let slip that Cherith Baldry is one of the ghostwriters behind the Warrior Cats series, which are about rival clans of feral cats who war ceaselessly over territory!

So, basically, Arthuriana where the knights are feral cats. This finally tipped me over the edge into trying Warrior Cats, which I have long meant to do, but alas the vast cast of warrior cats defeated me: I’m just too old to make that kind of upfront investment in the lore. However, I feel that “feral cat Arthuriana” is exactly where Cherith Baldry wanted and deserved to end up, and I hope she got to write wounded woobie cat h/c to her heart’s content.

Comments

[philomytha]

OMG this sounds like something I'm going to want to read in those moments when OTT TRAGIC WOOBIE H/C is the only thing that'll cut it.

One of my friends has a kid who is 100% obsessed with Warrior Cats, I think there's a huge fandom somewhere too.

[osprey_archer]

There are days when one wants quote-unquote "quality" and there are days when nothing short of OTT TRAGIC WOOBIE H/C will do.

I've heard of Warrior Cats fandom! There's a HUGE cast and a lot of different clans (fandom loves clans) and undoubtedly loads of drama and h/c, so of course it's fandom catnip. If the books had come out when I was in the target demographic I would have eaten them up and poured out some OTT TRAGIC WOOBIE H/C fic of my own.

[rachelmanija]

Exiled from Catmelot.

[troisoiseaux]

You joke, and yet...

[osprey_archer]

For some reason that link is taking me to a counting book called Swallow the Leader, but I looked up the cover on Amazon and... I hope Baldry is the one who ghost-wrote this one because WOW.

[troisoiseaux]

For some reason that link is taking me to a counting book called Swallow the Leader

Well that is. Incredibly not what was on the page when I linked to it.

[osprey_archer]

The URL is still Exile from Shadowclan! Something has clearly gone terribly wrong in the bowels of the HarperCollins website.

[asakiyume]

NICE

[troisoiseaux]

littlerhymes let slip that Cherith Baldry is one of the ghostwriters behind the Warrior Cats series

Every single detail of this is So Much but this pushed me over the edge. Incredible.

[osprey_archer]

Oh, I SCREAMED when littlerhymes shared this little factoid. Actually howled in real life. Not sure why it hit me so hard when I hadn't even read Warrior Cats but I absolutely lost it.

[troisoiseaux]

Maybe because there is something inherently absurd about Warrior Cats as a series? It is Game of Thrones with feral cats for third graders and it has been going on for twenty years. I just looked up the series on Wikipedia and this is an actual quote: "Major themes in the series include adventure, forbidden love, the concept of nature vs. nurture, acceptance, the struggle of good vs. evil, the reactions of different faiths meeting each other, and all people being a mix of good and bad. The authors draw inspiration from several natural locations, and other authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien, J. K. Rowling, and William Shakespeare." IT IS ABOUT FERAL CATS.

I was o b s e s s e d with these books as a kid (although, again, looking on Wikipedia, it turns out I only ever read the first three sub-series; they're currently on #8) and I'm sure they're, like, objectively not actually good books, but they were such a fun world to play around in and the Official Warrior Cats Fan Forum was actually my first foray into fandom, circa like, 5th grade. (Mostly in the form of roleplaying as Warrior Cats OC[s] on the internet.)

[osprey_archer]

Yessssss,so glad to be able to ask questions of an actual Warrior Cats fandom alum. Are the books in fact stuffed with epic hurt/comfort and feral cats standing above the body of a slaughtered comrade and swearing eternal vengeance on the perpetrators? Is there a series woobie who is simply So Misunderstood by the other cats but ultimately saves the day? This is what I've envisioning as a result of the Cherith Baldry connection.

My impression also is that Warrior Cats takes itself 110% seriously (inspired by Shakespeare) which may somehow heighten the inherent absurdity of the series.

[troisoiseaux]

Is there a series woobie who is simply So Misunderstood by the other cats but ultimately saves the day?

The one (1) character from the entire series that I remember with any clarity is Ravenpaw, who was born into ThunderClan - the Gryffindors of the four Clans - but was too much of a cinnamon roll (too smol, too pure) for a life as a warrior, and also he witnessed a murder, so his friends help him fake his death and he goes to live with his best friend, a "loner"/barn cat, outside of the Clan system. (This was probably not a metaphor for being gay, but it definitely kind of feels like a metaphor for being gay.) He periodically shows up to be helpful throughout the rest of the series.

Are the books in fact stuffed with epic hurt/comfort and feral cats standing above the body of a slaughtered comrade and swearing eternal vengeance on the perpetrators?

I can't remember the plot well enough to point to any specific examples, but definitely, yes. Absolutely chocka with vengeance.

My impression also is that Warrior Cats takes itself 110% seriously (inspired by Shakespeare) which may somehow heighten the inherent absurdity of the series.

Also yes!

[asakiyume]

Aww, I like this character and his barn cat friend already.

[osprey_archer]

YESSS, so glad that this series lives up to all my expectations that were based purely on the covers. It sounds very Redwall except even moreso.

[troisoiseaux]

I completely forgot to mention the prophesies! This series is VERY big on prophesies. Also in the third series, the protagonists have magic powers, which I imagine continues to be a thing in later series because that doesn't seem like an attempt to up the stakes you can back down from??

Anyway, I've taken one for the team and borrowed a couple of the early-ish ones from Libby, so stay tuned for that review.

[osprey_archer]

Of COURSE it's big on prophesies. OF COURSE it is.

Looking forward to hearing about your reunion with the Warrior Cats books!

[troisoiseaux]

Posted!

[osprey_archer]

!!!!!! I will be visiting the Indiana Medical History Museum with a friend this afternoon, but I'll look forward to reading this post this evening!

[skygiants]

I ALSO SCREAMED, FOR THE RECORD

[osprey_archer]

WE ARE HUMAN BEINGS WITH EMOTIONS, WHAT OTHER COURSE OF ACTION WAS OPEN TO US

[black_bentley]

My 11 year old nephew tried to explain Warrior Cats to me recently, and I was entirely lost. I am clearly far too old.

[osprey_archer]

I firmly believe that certain properties have to be discovered when one is the target age and Warrior Cats is almost certainly one of them.

[kore]

....WOW. This author was clearly working out some things here and good for them! Must acquire.

[osprey_archer]

Always better to work it out in fiction! In real life, you can't puppet-master your unappreciative loved ones (who probably wouldn't even care if you nearly got killed! WOULD YOU, UNAPPRECIATIVE LOVED ONES??) into total and complete surrender.

[asakiyume]

Warrior Cats sound like a LOT of fun for kids of the right age. As for woobie Kay, I'm discovering a little suffering goes a long way in my case--most of the woobie stuff you've described recently sounds waaaay beyond my carrying capacity--but it's still fun to see you sturdier spirits reacting with enthusiasm ;-)

[osprey_archer]

I strongly suspect that "ability to withstand fictional suffering" often ebbs as one grows older: there are things I tore through as a teenager that I'm now like "Damn, that's dark! That's so dark! ....no seriously it's too dark for me. My younger self was so tough."

Having said that, Exiled from Camelot has that fanfic feeling where it doesn't feel like the suffering is *really* happening, if that makes sense. You'd feel bad for Kay if this happened to him in canon, as it were, insofar as canon and non-canon is a distinction that even makes sense for Arthuriana... but this is clearly happening in a pocket universe.

It's like the woobie counterpart of those characters who kill people, but it's supposed to be a fun cute character trait? I'm not sure I'm explaining that well. In both cases the characters' suffering/murdering is not meant to be taken literally.

[asakiyume]

I get it! The killing-people-as-a-cute-n-fun character trait is a good comparison!

(And I think maybe you're right about fictional suffering in non-fanfic-ish reading material)

[littlerhymes]

The joy this book is bringing... brings a tear to my eye just to witness it.

I am sorry to hear there were simply too many Warrior Cats but I think you're right, we're just out of demographic. Needed to read it when we were like 13.

[osprey_archer]

Truly Exiled from Camelot is a gift that keeps on giving!

troisoiseaux is taking one for the team and rereading a few of the Warrior Cats books, so at least we have a review to look forward to! Perhaps someday someone will published a Paperback Crush style book solely devoted to Warrior Cats. Or perhaps there's already a Warrior Cats blog and/or podcast? These books clearly have a lot going on.

[sovay]

I strongly suspect that Baldry read Phyllis Ann Karr’s The Idylls of the Queen and said “what if exactly like this but also WAY more focus on how Kay is UNDERAPPRECIATED and MISTREATED” (also a much softer focus on Kay’s own flaws).

I skipped this one because Kay getting in his own way is so much of what makes The Idylls of the Queen for me, but I am glad it continues to give value for money!

[osprey_archer]

Yes, this is definitely one of those books where you have to be on board with the core project, and the core project is "Kay is a faultless suffering angel who can do no wrong." Sure he is rude sometimes, but that is only because he needs to keep people at a distance to protect his soft marshmallow heart!