In The Other Merlin by Robin Schneider, Emry Merlin is used to being overshadowed—by her father, the court wizard to King Uther Pendragon, and by her twin brother, trained in magic despite his mediocre talent. She had to beg her father to teach her anything, because in their society, girls don’t learn magic. So after her father disappears and her brother is summoned to the king’s side, Emry sees an opportunity: she can go to the castle disguised as her brother and become more than the rest of her family believed was possible. The only problem, though (other than the constant risk of being caught), is her hard-to-ignore attraction to the prince, Arthur. And as drama starts to build around them, Emry has to decide what she really wants to be.

This was cute, but not nearly as compelling as the other take on Arthurian legends that I read recently.

First of all, my main issue with this was the way the dialogue was written. So much of it sounds way too modern, using current slang a lot of the time. I understand that this was written for a teen audience, but this really didn’t work for me. Maybe if there were other anachronistic elements, then I wouldn’t have minded, but everything except the dialogue is set firmly in history. I found it very weird and distracting.

However, that said, the characters were fine. I liked Emry’s toughness but also her humor. She and Lance especially have some decent banter. I liked Arthur, who reminds me a bit of Elend Venture from Mistborn, though less well-rounded. I even liked Guinevere and Gawain, though I could have used more character development from both of them. Uther I couldn’t stand (though, granted, that’s exactly how the protagonist feels), and I wish I had seen more of Morgana. But generally, this was a good cast.

I also liked the scenes that featured magic, and I wanted more of that. Annoyingly, this is the first of a series (maybe a duology?), but I doubt I’ll read the second one, though I assume there is more magic and adventure in that one. I also found the romance to be fine; the bond between Emry and Arthur is nice to see develop, though it’s nothing super swoon-worthy to me.

In the end, The Other Merlin was a perfectly fine book, though it didn’t really wow me. The characters, setting, and magical elements are good, but the dialogue and resolution left much to be desired. The latter I suppose is due to the fact that this has a sequel, and there is presumably more development of things like Emry’s fate, Arthur’s rise to the throne, and so on. But the story in this book was not really compelling enough to entice me to keep going, and the dialogue was frankly irritating. Oh, well. I have plenty of other books waiting to be read, after all!