I was born during the fires of Beltane. My mother was called the Witch-Queen and my father, Arthur, King of the Britons. From New York Times bestselling author Douglas Clegg comes a spellbinding novel of Arthurian fantasy. Conceived in violence, born of royalty, and raised in exile, Mordred grows to manhood torn between his powerful mother’s desire for revenge, his own conflicted feelings toward the father who betrayed him, and his passionate coming of age into first love with one of the greatest knights of Camelot.
Author's Note: This novel was 360 pages in its first hardcover print run which was published in 2006. It has since been re-edited for this new edition. For those fans of this book, it has taken so long to re-publish it owing to contractual obligations with its earlier publisher. The second book will be out in early 2018.
This is the first book of The Chronicles of Mordred series.
Reviews of Mordred, Bastard Son
*Starred Review* “Riveting…Clegg puts an inspired wrinkle in the hoary tale of Arthur and the grail by casting Arthur’s kindred enemy, Mordred, as a gay man. An injured stranger in a cloak and odd, paganish mask, is captured and held in a monastery, igniting wild speculation among the locals, who believe him a notorious traitor. And so he is. He is Mordred, the bastard son of Arthur Pendragon and his half sister, the witch-queen Morgan Le Fay, and he now awaits trial for murder and treason…How excellent.” – Booklist.
Mordred, Bastard Son by Douglas Clegg – Arthurian fantasy, historical fantasy, legend“Douglas Clegg’s stunning Mordred, Bastard Son will inspire and refresh…” – Michael Rowe, Advocate Magazine.
“Clegg (The Priest of Blood) maintains a nice balance between the human and mythic dimensions of his characters, portraying the familiar elements of their story from refreshingly original angles.” – Publishers Weekly.
“Well-crafted. Written in lyrical prose with colorful characters and historical depth. Lovers of both history and fantasy will discover…an enchanting read.” – Edge Boston.
“Clegg beautifully skewers the Arthurian legends, weaving a compelling story, single-handedly reinventing Mordred’s sexuality. He is no longer the betrayer of Arthur, the knight Lancelot, and Guinevere, Queen of the Britons; he is now the seductive and passionate hero, a lover of men given the almost insurmountable task of finding the cauldron of rebirth…” – Michael Leonard, Curled Up with a Good Book Blog.
“…Magic—true magic that really works—takes center stage in…Mordred, Bastard Son…a refreshing return to the myth and magic of the legends…Clegg’s approach recalls Sir Thomas Mallory, Chrétien de Troyes, and even Edmund Spenser at times; his setting is never made temporally explicit but rather melds Celtic, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, and high medieval British elements.” – Strange Horizons.
Discover Douglas Clegg's fiction:
Lights Out
Neverland
The Children’s Hour
The Halloween Man
You Come When I Call You
The Hour Before Dark
Nightmare House
Mischief
The Infinite
The Abandoned
Isis
The Necromancer
Goat Dance
Breeder
Afterlife
Purity
Dark of the Eye
The Words
Wild Things
Bad Karma
Red Angel
Night Cage
Naomi
The Nightmare Chronicles
The Attraction
Night Asylum
The Priest of Blood
The Lady of Serpents
The Queen of Wolves
Dinner with the Cannibal Sisters
Mordred, Bastard Son
Author's Note: This novel was 360 pages in its first hardcover print run which was published in 2006. It has since been re-edited for this new edition. For those fans of this book, it has taken so long to re-publish it owing to contractual obligations with its earlier publisher. The second book will be out in early 2018.
This is the first book of The Chronicles of Mordred series.
Reviews of Mordred, Bastard Son
*Starred Review* “Riveting…Clegg puts an inspired wrinkle in the hoary tale of Arthur and the grail by casting Arthur’s kindred enemy, Mordred, as a gay man. An injured stranger in a cloak and odd, paganish mask, is captured and held in a monastery, igniting wild speculation among the locals, who believe him a notorious traitor. And so he is. He is Mordred, the bastard son of Arthur Pendragon and his half sister, the witch-queen Morgan Le Fay, and he now awaits trial for murder and treason…How excellent.” – Booklist.
Mordred, Bastard Son by Douglas Clegg – Arthurian fantasy, historical fantasy, legend“Douglas Clegg’s stunning Mordred, Bastard Son will inspire and refresh…” – Michael Rowe, Advocate Magazine.
“Clegg (The Priest of Blood) maintains a nice balance between the human and mythic dimensions of his characters, portraying the familiar elements of their story from refreshingly original angles.” – Publishers Weekly.
“Well-crafted. Written in lyrical prose with colorful characters and historical depth. Lovers of both history and fantasy will discover…an enchanting read.” – Edge Boston.
“Clegg beautifully skewers the Arthurian legends, weaving a compelling story, single-handedly reinventing Mordred’s sexuality. He is no longer the betrayer of Arthur, the knight Lancelot, and Guinevere, Queen of the Britons; he is now the seductive and passionate hero, a lover of men given the almost insurmountable task of finding the cauldron of rebirth…” – Michael Leonard, Curled Up with a Good Book Blog.
“…Magic—true magic that really works—takes center stage in…Mordred, Bastard Son…a refreshing return to the myth and magic of the legends…Clegg’s approach recalls Sir Thomas Mallory, Chrétien de Troyes, and even Edmund Spenser at times; his setting is never made temporally explicit but rather melds Celtic, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, and high medieval British elements.” – Strange Horizons.
Discover Douglas Clegg's fiction:
Lights Out
Neverland
The Children’s Hour
The Halloween Man
You Come When I Call You
The Hour Before Dark
Nightmare House
Mischief
The Infinite
The Abandoned
Isis
The Necromancer
Goat Dance
Breeder
Afterlife
Purity
Dark of the Eye
The Words
Wild Things
Bad Karma
Red Angel
Night Cage
Naomi
The Nightmare Chronicles
The Attraction
Night Asylum
The Priest of Blood
The Lady of Serpents
The Queen of Wolves
Dinner with the Cannibal Sisters
Mordred, Bastard Son
