Customer Reviews

Camber of Culdi (Legends of Camber of Culdi)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

While most people start with "Deryni Rising", this book is what brought me into the Deryni epic, about the legendary Saint Camber, appearing as a regular man. Or as close to that as a Deryni can get, actually.

This book has action, adventure, suspense, political intrigue, and sacrifice, the last often lacking in pulp fantasy. The system of magic is based on the Ceremonial Magic of Europe, and should also be familiar to the reader.

Gwyned is clearly a anglo/celtic/welsh country, a setting close to home to almost anyone who speaks English, so you are able to step right into the mindset of the characters. That makes it an easy read on it's own.

Katherine kurtz has always been my favourite athor. Her combination of the medieval world and her deryni characters is really weel detailed and researched. There is lots of character developement and conflict. Her ideas are original and full of ingenuity. Anyone who lies History and magic will love her books!

Camber of Culdi is a story about a plot to overthrow the tyrannic King Imre of Festil, and replace him with the last survivor of the Haldane line, who happens to be a middle aged monk. Eighty years before, it was the Festils who overthrew the last Haldane king. More importantly, this book introduces us to Camber, the man behind the legend; an aging, wise, and moderate person, whose family has served the Festils loyally for generations, and only joins the plot, after his son is murdered by Imre. This book combines a conflict of loyality verus justices, with reason against radicalism. It is well written and its plotline is quite believeable. It is a great book for pure escapism. Read it and enjoy

Or so it seems. I've been a fan of Katherine Kurtz' work for quite some time. I read this book first, since it was chronological in her canon, but it was not her first book of the Deryni series. The feeling of mystery and mysticism are very strong in all Kurtz' works, but I find her Camber series books to be the most intriguing. The characters of Camber and his family are so beautifully and intricately described that you can almost feel their presence in the room with you as you're reading. The plot and all its convoluted intrigues are finely wrought and believable, as long as you suspend belief, of course, in the ordinary course of things. Kurtz' world, so much like ours of the medieval period, fools you for a moment into thinking it's just a Dark Ages religious story. Then the magic is woven, subtly, lovingly, into the story. The religious aspects are very detailed and clearly are based on Catholic theology, but diverge when the magic enters. But the magic only heightens the solemnity of the faith, not detracts from it. Some people have criticized Kurtz and others like her for toying with the Catholic faith, but I see she means no disrespect, but instead, reveres the faith. Most of all, her Deryni stories are moral tales denouncing religious and ethnic persecution. This is really the essence of her work. Read them for the power of faith over prejudice.

These days there are those worried about this question. As a devout Roman Catholic, let me state that Kurtz's Deryni novels answer this question in the affirmative.

Her heroes are obviously devout people of Faith and of high moral and ethical standards, willing to sacrifice their personal welfare to do the right thing. They prove the value of self sacrifice again and again. The use of scripture to head off chapters is a nice touch as well.

I highly recommend this novel for anyone tired of the same old Tolkien-derived elves and goblins in their fantasy.

This was a re-read for me. I had been a fan of the Deryni books many years ago and had read most of the series. When I saw Camber of Culdi on the shelf, I picked it up out of curiosity to see if it would inspire me to circle back around and pick up the books that I hadn't yet read.

I am pleased to report that this first book in the series holds up well under time. Kurtz is a master at creating a sense of foreboding. Unlike many writers in the fantasy genre, you always have the feeling in her world that you might not be getting a happy ending. This is a rare talent, and gives her work its own kind of attractive tension.

For the modern reader the largest drawback of Camber of Culdi is its length. The books were released at a time when the average book length was significantly shorter than now, and the result was often multi-book series. The titles in these series often have the feeling of being either a little bit overstuffed or a little bit thin. I really enjoyed Camber of Culdi. However, as a modern reader used to being served my fantasy in larger chunks, I felt frustrated that it was forced very quickly to a kind of resolution. Had Kurtz been working in a longer form, I think we would have seen some much more interesting development of the political and religious threads which are among the major strength of the book.

If you have not read any of the Deryni books, be sure to begin here. The necessary background is laid for the rest of the series and you will miss it if you do not have it. This book should appeal to fans of historical fantasy or people interested in the link between religion and magic. Although adult situations are implied, it should be both suitable and enjoyable for teenagers.

Camber, a man torn between his sense of duty and his sense of right and wrong, the Deryni lord who led the war to end the tyranny of his kind and restore a human king to the throne of Gwynedd. Now he must witness the consequences of his moral act as the humans, now in control of the kingdom and the church, systematically strip all Deryni of power, title, land, and humanity. This may be a fantasy novel, but it brilliantly and starkly illustrates the horrors of fanaticism, intolerance, and oppression. It is a dark and tragic book(no escapism here!), and its emotional impact will stay with the reader forever. If you've ever longed for a fantasy with REAL depth, then read this series.

Another tasty installment in Kurtz's Deryni series.
Preoccupied with the fortunes of the Deryni, a human race
possessing extensive telpathic and empathic powers, this
book offers yet another "stay up all night" read. As in
all the books of this remarkable series, Kurtz weaves
together a beautiful and sensitive examination of human
responsibilities, the majesty of the Catholic church, and
a rollicking good tale. Great for gifts!

Katherine Kurtz has penned many fine novels in her Deryni/Culdi world. Most present excellent sword-and-sorcery intrigue in a setting that moderately parallels our actual Christian Medieval Catholic era -- yet, in a strongly Celtic-British centered way.

But, in addition to very finely balanced interwoven psionic-magic usage [like "The Faith" plus-or-minus "The Force"], her world is like a compressed fantastic Occident -- as if Celtic-Britain was in direct landscape continuum with Western, Northern and Eastern Europe -- as well as Saracen desert -- with a strong focus on various Dark Age Celtic Christian [Culdi] aspects.

These finely interwoven sword-and-sorcery intrigues are vivid, lively and colorful -- as one enters the times of deep challenge, dark tragedy and fair victory of the believable easy-to-like heros and heroines. "Camber of Culdi" [and Camber of Culdi] is one of the best +++

I have to admit that I was a little nervous when I started reading this book. One of the things that drew me into the other Deryni books that I've read was the characters, but this book is the start of the prequels to the two series that I've already read, and is set approximately two hundred years earlier. It involves a whole different set of characters, most of whom I had never heard of and those that I had were only legends in the books I had already read. Would they be able to draw me in the way the characters in the other books had? What if I didn't like them? Would I be able to enjoy this book as much as I had enjoyed the other series that I had read?

Fortunately, my fears were unfounded. The characters in Camber of Culdi drew me in perhaps even more rapidly than the ones in the other Deryni novels I'd read. In particular, I liked Evaine, and not just because she represents a group that seems to be lacking in most fantasy novels-strong females. That was, of course, part of it, but I also found her to be an endearing character in her own right.

Most of the other characters were similarly endearing, though Evaine was my favorite, which really drew me into the book. It only took a few chapters for me to genuinely care about what happened to these people.

I will, however, admit that most of the characterization was not terribly complex. It seemed that the bad guys were bad and the good guys were good and there is only one character that I can think of off the top of my head that was really a mixture, only one that I couldn't tell if I was supposed to like or not. I found that to be a little disturbing, because while generally a person is predominately good or evil, most people do have some demeaning or redeeming qualities, and I found those to be far and few between.

One thing in the book that I have very mixed feelings about is the use of magic. On the one hand, I enjoyed seeing the spells that were only legend in Kelson's time actually be used, but on the other hand the integration of magic with the Church was even stronger here than in the books that take place later, and I found that to be a bit disturbing. The Church in this world is a Christian Church, basically the Catholic Church, though it's never actually called Catholic, and it was disturbing to have Christian Saints invoked for magical spells. I'm not a practicing Christian, but I was raised Christian, and I can definitely see how this would be disturbing to someone who was a practicing Christian.

However, I do think that the inclusion of the Church made the world seem more real. Religion does play a big roll in the lives of many people and so many fantasy writers completely ignore it. I liked the added realism and the similarities with an existing religion did make it easier to relate to than some completely made-up religion.

I thought that the plot of this book, while enjoyable, was its weakest point. There were several things that just happened too easily for me to readily accept them and there were a few rather obvious holes in the plot as well. It wasn't anything that ruined the book, but there were places that left me wondering why or how and other places that just seemed too easy, but never turned out to be that way. It seemed that the Deryni magic, though well done in terms of how it worked, was fallen back upon a little too often and just made a few things a little too simple to accomplish.

Still, I thought that the characters more than made up for that lack, keeping me interested in reading even through the jarring plot moments because I truly did want to know what happened to them and how things worked out in the end.