The Lost Years of Merlin - T.A. Barron
by Zia ~ July 31st, 2006. Filed under: Books, Random.The cover exhorts young sorcery fans to “set aside Harry Potter and pick up Merlin.” Alas, I disagree. I found Merlin to be extremely irritating and more than a little smug. To be honest, I am not sure if this is Merlin or the author, who made the strange decision to write this in the first person. First person, third person–usually writers know when it works. In this case, it most decidedly did NOT. For me at least. I found myself disliking Merlin and disliking Barron even more. It was a struggle to finish, and I only did so because my library pile was woefully small.