Kevin C. Wong

Morgan Is My Name (2022) [+]

Morgan Is My Name is an Arthurian fiction novel by Sophie Keetch and as the title implies it is the story of Morgan le Fay as told in first person by Morgan. This is the first book in a trilogy and it covers Morgan's childhood through to the birth of her son Ywaine.

She sees her father go off to war and then "return" to begot the future King Arthur and she also sees Merlin and the Lady of the Lake take Arthur away at birth. She is quite rebellious against her new father King Uther, falls in love with a squire and later knight, and is sent to a convent where she learns healing and a bit of magic. Eventually recalled and made to marry King Accolon and live in the North where her marriage starts out fine but sours after a few childless years. Arthur becomes King and she meets him and Merlin reveals their relationship. They are friendly and she returns home, becomes pregnant, and has a final confrontation with King Accolon (who has been cheating on her for years) before she leaves him.

I like all the references since the story interweaves with events that are in the Great Pendragon Campaign, though there are many small differences since Arthurian lore was written over hundreds of years by several people. I also like that she's basically a decent and good person at the start and even at the end of this book still a good person though one willing to use magic to hurt in self defense. She also starts with a fairly good relationship with her half-brother Arthur. In future books she will probably turn darker though from her point of view maybe quite justified.

I listened to the audio version read by actress Vanessa Kirby. Overall I enjoyed it especially as it is a fantasy-type book that is not YA romance.