THE ROAD TO CAMELOT

Fourteen writers from Down Under envision watershed incidents in the youths of as many Arthurian figures in this themed import, published overseas in 2002. In eras that range from post-Roman to medieval to contemporary, Garth Nix lays a heavy personal price on Nimue for gaining Merlin’s power, Isobelle Carmody combines the story of Guinevere with “Sleeping Beauty” and Ursula Dubosarsky recasts Percival’s life-changing first encounter with a knight as a boy’s first view of a race car. In other tales, “Morgan of the Fay” (Kate Forsyth) explains her bitter love/hate for Arthur, Mordred travels into the past to pluck the sword from the stone first (“The Plot” by Allan Baillie) and Gawain, Gareth, Lancelot, Galahad and others set out from home to find their destinies. Each author adds a postscript, and Masson sandwiches the collection between a quick history of the Arthurian legend and a select list of old and recent iterations of it. Maggie Hamilton’s tendentious opener (“Merlin”) aside, the stories are all chock-full of unusual, fan-pleasing takes and angles. (Short stories. 12-15)