so, you pulled the sword from the stone, now what?
were you a fan of BBC’s Merlin? did you like the King Arthur subplot of Once Upon a Time? have you ever dreamt about pulling a sword from a stone? this list of aurthurian inspired books is for you!
disclaimer: I have not read all of these books
as always, taking any and all suggestions!!
created by erintripsey
last updated January, 2026
Comments
i dnfed "a tempest of tea" pretty early. i didn't know it was arthurian inspired? how so? /gen
the mc is named Arthie and the Arthurian aspect has to do with how she acquired her weapon, so while it is pretty loosely inspired by Arthurian lore, it’s there!
Recommending the Once & Future series by Kieron Gillen if you're open to graphic novels. One of my absolute favorites!
amazing!!! I love graphic novels, I haven’t read nearly enough! adding now :)
The best, probably most realistic, and likely the most researched King Arthur book I’ve ever read is Rosemary Sutcliff’s Sword at Sunset. It focused on the king/leader/warrior known as Artos the Bear. Sutcliff was known as a YA fiction writer whose stories focused primarily on the fall of Rome in Britain. Her stories were all well researched. This was her only adult book. I thought it was fantastic.
Incredible!!! Thank you for this thoughtful suggestion! I will certainly be adding it now!!!
Woah, I've had this as a naked hardcover on my shelves for years. I found it at a used bookstore without the dust jacket and never really looked into it—I wanted it more as a display/accent piece since it was in the 25 cent pile. What a small world! Maybe I'll actually add it to my tbr
I love it! I’ve never really looked at king author retelling except legendborn. So this is so fun!
thank you!! several of these are on my tbr so I’m looking forward to getting into them next year!
