THE MERRIKAN KING

About the Book

A four-thousand-year-old prophecy warned that when mankind had made certain advances over nature, it would face an unstoppable tide of evil unless certain bizarre events came to pass.

Jake King, an American forestry consultant, chanced upon a medieval shield while tracing his English ancestry. The shield began to glow, drawing him into a glen where an ancient thornbush unfurled a bedraggled Merlin, magicked there fifteen hundred years ago.

Merlin hailed the bewildered Jake as the prophesized reincarnation of King Arthur. Before he can gather his wits, Jake finds himself thrust into a series of unbelievable Arthurian adventures, confronting a man-eating giant, a fire-breathing dragon, marriage, and the devil himself.

In parallel, Merlin is thrust into his unbelievable images of twenty-first-century England (cars, TV, telephones, etc). But the combination of his rusty magic and seventeenth-century English caused mayhem everywhere he trod, and nearly everybody he met was left teetering on the edge of insanity. Accordingly, his innocent quest to save the world elected him to Public Enemy Number 1.

Could Arthur and Merlin fulfill the conditions of the prophecy and save both worlds?

About the Author

Gerry was born on Merseyside a year before World War 2 started, a coincidence he has played down even though his grandma’s house was later bombed.

Thirty years later, another war broke out—the War of Independence in Rhodesia—and many bullets were fired and mines exploded while he worked in forestry. But none bore his name. One lasting memory was a personal battle in Zimbabwe with a much-feared witch doctor called Henry. This confrontation was carried over into the astral plane, which was more remarkable as he had never set foot on the astral plane before.

When he flew into Saudi Arabia to take up a position in a pharmaceutical company, Saddam Hussein was also making his way into the country, but Hussein’s objectives were not as kindly disposed as his. Fortunately, Gerry was working closer to a forward US Desert Storm airbase than he was to Hussein’s invading forces.

Another perspective of war presented itself when working in Papua, New Guinea. One of his staff, an intelligent and hard-working Papuan, requested early leave. The reason given was his clan had declared war on a neighboring clan over a land dispute. The unwritten rules of engagement were battle that commenced at 8:00 AM and closed at 5:00 PM, Monday to Friday, for two weeks. The only allowable disruptions to this were luncheon and giving medical attention to the wounded.

Such a civilized aspect of warfare completed Gerry’s education on the subject.