THE DISHWASHER KING
by Jonathan Day
In Day’s YA fantasy, the mythological Arthur Pendragon is a modern-day teen who must get back to eighth-century Camelot to claim his throne.
Merlin the wizard and Sir Lancelot time travel from 773 C.E. to present-day New York, where they locate a youth named Art Penn. Art has survived on the streets for some time after his foster parents kicked him out of their home; he washes dishes at a diner and lives at a shelter. He has trouble believing Merlin’s claim that the wizard hid the infant Art in this era to protect him from someone trying to kill him in his own time. But Camelot’s king (Art’s birth father) is now dead, and the teen’s half-sister, sorceress Morgan Le Fay, has seized the throne that’s rightfully Art’s. Morgan time-travels her way to the present, too, and goes to great lengths to eliminate her half brother. While Merlin and Lancelot fight to get Art back to their time, Art’s 17-year-old girlfriend Kate Cambridge must decide if she’s willing to join him and leave her life behind. Day delivers a fast-paced standalone tale with Art and the others constantly evading Morgan and fending off her attacks. The narrative maintains suspense—Morgan’s “shape-change” ability makes her unpredictable, and Art, once he’s in Camelot, still needs to retrieve the powerful, anvil-embedded sword Excalibur. The author injects humor into the story throughout; for example, Morgan’s minion Crow (whose cawing she understands) stamps most of his comments with sarcastic addresses from “Your Royal Svelteness” to “Your Royal Tastelessness” (on account of her flashy attire). Likewise, the time travelers often find themselves amusingly in awe of contemporary tech, including cell phones, a VR headset, and those horseless, moving “metal boxes.” While Art is a likable hero and Kate proves herself a self-sufficient possible future queen, the fashionable and flaming-red-haired Morgan steals the novel with her tenacity and inventive murder attempts.
A diverting adventure combining a present-day setting with magic-infused, medieval-style battles.