THE HEDGE OF MIST

A fleet of spaceships, led by St. Brendan the Astrogator, left Earth in the fifth century and founded the space empire of Keltia: such is the premise of Kennealy-Morrison's series of yarns retelling Irish and British myths and legends unencumbered by traditional or historical backdrops—except where the author considers them expedient. This one, the third of a trilogy (The Oak Above the Kings, 1994, etc.) recounted by the bard, Taliesin, completes the career of space-Arthur and his star-crossed associates. If Druids-and-spaceships strikes you as an apt modern take on a genre heavily encrusted with romantic verdigris—and you can tolerate ghastly pseudoscience, ludicrous plotting, and pompous, inflated prose—you'll probably have fun. Others will reflect that if Arthur can survive this misapplied treatment, he can survive anything.