Customer Reviews

Pendragon (Pendragon Fiction)

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_Pendragon_ seems older than its publication date of 1930. It has digressions from the plot which are lengthy (but not to say uninteresting), and it uses a lot of old-fashioned words (e.g. leman, agnate, kern). It is also jarring to modern sensitivities the way the British enemies are treated e.g. Arthur says "To my mind the battle is not over until ... all the prisoners [have been] flogged and slain." Nevertheless Faraday somehow manages to keep a light touch, so the novel is surprisingly easy to read.

It tells the story of just one year in the history of Britain, 502/3, but what an year! Faraday packs his story with characters and events from throughout dark age history. e.g. it features Drust, king of the Picts (usually dated in the first half of the 5th century) and Urien of Reged (usually dated in the late 6th). And it includes both the Night of the Long Knives and the battle of Badon. It is also a love story (though a very chaste one).

When it comes to historical accuracy, _Pendragon_ suffers from having been written when much less was known of post-Roman Britain. Faraday's Britain of 502 A.D. is much more like the Britain of 3 centuries earlier (apart from the spread of Christianity). It still has "Great and beautiful cities". It still has 3 legions to defend it, each with 5000 men equipped with square curved shield and short swords. The size of the enemy forces (half a million Picts, Scots and Saxons) is ludicrous. But if you read this as an historical novel in both senses of the word, then maybe you can regard these anachronisms and exaggerations as part of the book's charm.

I had high hopes for this novel about Arthur (Artorius) but was soon disappointed. This rendition is about the small kingdoms of Britain being harassed by its various enemies, Picts, Irish Pirates, and Saxons. Rome has long since left, however, Artorius remains as a brutal Roman general trying to protect Britain from her enemies.

A surprising twist to the story is Gwendaello (Guenevere), who instead of remaining in the background is a ruler in her own right, and is the successor to the Pendragon title not Artorius. Merlin (Merddin) plays but a small role in this tale and I would have liked to have seen more from his character.

The bottom line is that Artorius tries to convince all of the small kingdoms to band together to fight the invaders. He makes a strong case for it, because if they don't and continue to squabble among themselves there will be no Britain left to squabble over.

There wasn't nearly enough action in this book considering all of the battles "Arthur" actually fought, which was disappointing. However, what was more disappointing was the verbosity in the book. Descriptions of ordinary things was way overdone and/or done in a most tiring manner. This story could have been very good if the author had fleshed out the characters more and treated them more as human beings than characters in a stale play. If you want to read some exceptional books about "The Matter of Britain" (or King Arthur) check out some of my "lists" on Amazon.com.