Enemy of God (The Arthur Books #2) [Hardcover]

Bernard Cornwell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1997

Having reinvented the legend of Arthur in his bestselling "The Winter King", Cornwell resumes his magical recreation of the well-known story in this sequel. After securing a fragile peace with the Saxons, Arthur turns his attention toward new a new kind of foe: those who pose as friends.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Embattled, honorable executive Arthur faces revolt by Lancelot and betrayal by Guinevere. King Mordred comes of age, but should he be king? Arthur is faced with more than one dilemma as quests and plots, treachery, lies, and mysteries proliferate. Adultery and violent revenge strain Arthur's alliances, horrifying even war-hardened narrator Derfel Cadarn and endangering his beloved family.

Little faults plague this book and its prequel. Bernard Cornwell insults Welsh princes with the Saxon title "Edling," and someone should tell him what gold weighs--he has a gigantic gold cauldron carried on one man's back and generally throws gold bars around like wood chips. However, his rearrangements of the well-known tale are ingenious and plausible, and these books are very entertaining. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Historical novelist Cornwell continues his lively retelling of the Arthurian legend, begun in The Winter King (LJ 5/15/96). Having secured the throne of Dumnonia for the infant King Mordred, Arthur seeks to bring peace to the kingdom by uniting the various rival Celtic factions into the "Brotherhood of Britain." Derfel, one of Arthur's warriors and the book's narrator, sardonically notes that "the Round Table, of course, was never a proper name, but rather a nickname." But Arthur's good intentions are gradually undone: by Merlin's quest for the Thirteen Treasures of Britain; by Lancelot's and Guinevere's ambitions; by Mordred, now an unpleasant young man incapable of wise rule; and by the growing conflict between the old Druid religion and the new Christianity. To the fanatical Christians, the pagan Arthur is the Enemy of God. Despite the overabundance of confusing Celtic and Saxon names (there is a list identifying characters), this is an entertaining read, a fresh look at an old story.
-?Wilda Williams, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 728 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Pr (August 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786211008
• ISBN-13: 978-0786211005
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (72 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,782,022 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Bernard Cornwell was born in London in 1944 - a 'warbaby' - whose father was a Canadian airman and mother in Britain's Women's Auxiliary Air Force. He was adopted by a family in Essex who belonged to a religious sect called the Peculiar People (and they were), but escaped to London University and, after a stint as a teacher, he joined BBC Television where he worked for the next 10 years. He began as a researcher on the Nationwide programme and ended as Head of Current Affairs Television for the BBC in Northern Ireland. It was while working in Belfast that he met Judy, a visiting American, and fell in love. Judy was unable to move to Britain for family reasons so Bernard went to the States where he was refused a Green Card. He decided to earn a living by writing, a job that did not need a permit from the US government - and for some years he had been wanting to write the adventures of a British soldier in the Napoleonic wars - and so the Sharpe series was born. Bernard and Judy married in 1980, are still married, still live in the States and he is still writing Sharpe.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Journey to 5th Century Britain, September 8, 2000

By 

Bruce Kendall "BEK" (Southern Pines, NC) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Enemy of God (The Arthur Books #2) (Paperback)

This is my first encounter with Richard Cornwell. It has definitely piqued my interest to read the other two volumes in the trilogy and to investigate other books by this author.

If you are familiar with Grail literature and with such classics as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Le Morte d'Arthur, etc., you will have certain preconceptions about the major characters that are here transmorgrified by Cornwell. The chivalrous Arthur is transformed into a more human, too-trusting, well-meaning leader of a tribe. Guenivere is a scheming, conceited megalomaniac, who mellows somewhat as the story progesses. The narrator's (Derfel's) harshest judgment is reserved for Lancelot. He is definitely not the same Lancelot-du-lac that we have come to know from Mallory. He's more like the 5th century version of a matinee idol. He's all image, no substance. He's not someone to be counted on in the heat of battle. Merlin is a rascally magus whose main concern lies in stemming the tide of Cristianity that he views as an invasion of the old order. Cornwell is obviously making judgement calls here, but he's not doing it purely for the sake of novelty. This is a thoroughly-researched, as well as an eminently well-written work.

Tolkien fans who have been turned-off by the pale imitators that have attempted to emulate the master's style will no doubt find many parallels in Cornwell. That's not to imply that Cornwell is imitative by any means. He just handles prose almost as adroitly as his predecessor. If there were a worthy Tolkien successor writing today, though in a slightly different genre, it would have to be Cornwell. Cornwell has created a truly heroic saga, and has left this reader looking forward eagerly to the other two volumes in the trilogy. Enemy of God is definitely several cuts above the mass of historical fiction being churned out today. The man can write!

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding and Original Retelling or the Arthurian Tales, December 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Enemy of God (The Arthur Books #2) (Paperback)

Having read Caxton's Mallory's Morte d'Arthur, and a fair number of Middle English scraps of Arthurian lore, I had been looking forward to finding a good modern retelling for quite some time. Frankly, the originals are striking conceptually, but relatively unrewarding as literature -- one keeps thinking, while reading them, that they would make a good book. But it seemed to much to hope for -- too difficult a task for nearly any author to achieve an even partial success.

Cornwell has succeeded fully.

The characters are full and real and strikingly well conceived, even while being a fair reflection (in a broad sense) of the original texts with which I am familiar. The actions of the characters make perfect sense in context, and their actions are complex and difficult to foresee, as they should be. The story is firmly grounded in the realities 5th Century Britain, which gives it a feeling of, well, realism. The author clearly not only knows his history, but his strategy and his philosophy, yet he never comes across to the reader as overbearing or heavyhanded -- these essential items for an epic like this are kept in the background, where they should be.

You get the idea. Cornwell has done it, and really done it right. It's a big story, and it hasn't been told very well for a long, long time -- and now Cornwell has retold it best of all.

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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most satisfying books I ever reas, December 6, 1999

By 

Doug Vaughn - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Enemy of God (The Arthur Books #2) (Hardcover)

Being a long term fan of Cornwell's Richard Sharpe series didn't prepare me for how much I would enjoy the Warlord Trilogy - of which this is the second book. The main character, Derfel Cadarn, is a masterful achievement. This retelling of the 'King' Arthur story as gritty, though imagined 'history' rather than fairytale legend, creates a stunning human saga as gripping and emotionally satisfying as any piece of fiction I have ever read. Cornwell's use of language is superb and each sentence is so well crafted that I was tempted to read the book out loud. I loved the story, the characters, the sturcture of the book, the irony gained by having the book narrated by Derfel in his old age - as an unbelieving priest who is pretending to be writing a translation of the gospels while actually writing Arthur's story as an entertainment for the young queen.

This is a fabulous book - as are the other two. Cornwell obviously just gets better and better. If you haven't read any of his many books, this is a great place to start. I highy recommend it.