It was the winner of the 1998 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award (Children) so it should not come as a surprise that I am reading these books as part of the Mythopoeic Reading Challenge.

They won the award as a trilogy so only counts as one book towards that challenge, and so short are the individual books (around 90 pages) I’d feel a little guilty doing anything else! (which means of course I am only going to count them as one towards my target of 100 books this year - that is of course unless I fall a couple short!

I sort of chose these books, because at the moment I am watching the Saturday-night BBC series Merlin, which focuses on the magician’s younger years as well (in the case of the TV series, his late teens) and I though they’d be a bit of associated fun.

The first in the series, Passager, follows a eight year old Merlin from the time his is left in the woods, the year there he survives alone and when he is found by (and goes to live with) a falconer a journey of hardship, danger, and magic that will one day make him the most famous wizard of all time.

The second book of the Young Merlin trilogy, Hobby, follows Merlin from the age of 12. Merlin has lived with the falconer and his family for four years, when a devastating fire leaves Merlin alone once again. And so begins an adventure with a street magician and his wife.

In the third of the trilogy, Merlin, the young wizard, having just escaped the king in book two, Merlin finds himself first saved by and then imprisoned in a cage by a group of wild woodland folk called the wodewose. It his here that be meets and befriends the small boy who will one day grow up to be King Arthur.

Aimed primarily at the 8-12 market there is enough about the books that they will probably appeal to the adult reader as well. The books are extremely slim (as I said, around 90 pages a piece) so they are more glimpse into the story than a fully fledged epic. Each an simple sketch into the boy who would become the most famous wizard ever.

If you have an hour or two to spare and enjoy Arthurian tales (or even just a light fantasy) then these could be definitely worth your time!

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Buy, the Young Merlin Trilogy from The Book Depository.

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