Once & Future

Gr 9 Up–An interstellar science fiction/fantasy adventure story that offers readers a futuristic plot-driven King Arthur retelling. Ari Helix is a fugitive refugee who is on the run in Mercer controlled territory and crashlands on Old Earth. She is thrust out of hiding when she pulls the Sword Excalibur out of its old resting place in a willow tree and becomes the 42nd reincarnation of King Arthur. Ari teams up with a diverse cast of friends, including the backwards-aging teenage Merlin the Wizard and Queen Guinevere, as well as her stepbrother Kay and her adoptive mothers. Together they start a revolution to free the galaxy from the evil Mercer corporation's tyrannical rule. This epic space adventure features a teen character who must complete all three stages of a cycle: train Arthur, defeat the greatest evil in the universe, and unite all of mankind, in order to break the curse that brings the Arthur legend alive throughout time. A stimulating retelling that is adapted from T.H. White's The Once and Future King. Recommended to fans of Avalon High by Meg Cabot and Damar by Robin McKinley.