As remarkable as Joan Upton Hall's Arturo el Rey (also reviewed on Myshelf.com) is, her sequel to this post-apocalyptic retelling of the Arthurian legend flat-out tops that first endeavor. The Shadow of Excalibur is a fast-paced adventure with as much romance, revenge, and myth-making as the original grand story penned by T. H. White in his classic The Once and Future King. But instead of magic, Hall has her characters use psi-abilities and precognitive dreams. In The Shadow of Excalibur, Arturo el Rey, the new king of the Alliance, faces not only the challenge of administering the new government of several southern states, but also the insidious evil creeping into their peaceful realm through his former girlfriend Gloria and her teenage son, who stakes a claim to the throne and Art's parentage. Glorialso manages to whip up hostilities with the NeoAmericans, a group of white-only militiamen who are bent on overthrowing the Alliance and eventually subjugating all people of color. To make matters worse, Art is left without the familiar counsel he has always received from his mentor Nilson, an aging former teacher who sees himself as a modern Merlin. Nilson has suffered a debilitating stroke that leaves him without speech. Meanwhile, Art's queen Shanna soon finds herself attracted to magnetic Steven Dubois, the Lancelot element in the story; the attraction is definitely mutual.

Hall's characters are so well drawn, especially the evil ones, that I had to force myself to read the sections where they were injecting their venom into the public good. In a society without forensic science, trying to sift out the truth is almost impossible when there are so many manipulative liars. But new psi powers developing in some youngsters have offered a solution. They have become Truthers, able to detect when people lie, while they themselves can only tell the truth. Yet one very powerful Truther, Seth, a teenager taken in after his mother abandoned him as a toddler, finds that he isn't even believed when he tries to reveal the evil within Gloria's son. I found Seth's storyline to be one of the most interesting plot developments and characterizations of the book.

Once again Hall writes a no-holds-barred novel with vivid battle scenes, grisly murders and realistic dialog. Each one of these books could have been written by a street-wise author such as Gregg Hurwitz, but instead is the dedicated work of a Texas grandmother and former English teacher! Brava, Ms. Hall! Very well done!