The Book of Merlyn, partially because it is further removed from Malory than The Once and Future King, is freer from violence; there are simply not so many knights running around to get their heads lopped off. Most of the fighting in the book is left to the ants, and Arthur is snatched from the ant colony before the battle begins. Furthermore, with Lancelot and Guenever out of the book for all but the last few pages, the only sexual interest is a very gentlemanly attraction on Arthur's part for a certain female goose. In fact, White wasn't compelled to write about any human females, which seems to have suited him very well. He was well aware of the problems he had in creating female characters that were not evil.

White is also slightly less biased against people of Celtic descent in this novel than he...