Customer Reviews

Planets in Peril

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I forget how I came upon this series of books but I can tell you that once you start you will not be able to put the books down. This Canadian author must have travelled back in time to be able to write so discriptively and knowledgeably. The series begins just shortly after the Romans leave Great Britain and continues on through the life of Merlin and on through the early years of young Arthur. I cannot begin to tell you how enjoyable this series of books are....a must read.

I read the second book first, not realizing this was a series, and liked it enough to purchase the others. Reading them one after another, I see a marked dropoff in quality with this installment. Never strong on character, the plotting gets weaker and a lot reads like filler. If I didn't have the remaining volumes already I would not buy them. I recommend the Skystone and Singing Sword and stop there.

This is the third in the series of novels called the Camulod Chronicles. If this is your introduction to the series, you will benefit from taking them in order, beginning with 'The Skystone,' although the books will stand alone.

This book introduces us to a young Caius Merlyn Britannicus and the adventures he has growing up. The plot is complex, one adventure leading to another. The characterization is excellent, and the book held me enthralled. In the end, of course, since this is the story of Merlyn and Arthur, he meets his ward.

Jack Whyte, like Mary Stewart and Bernard Cornwell, has done his research well--such research as is available. Each wrote a fascinating series, and each approached their subjects from a different viewpoint, of course. It is, after all, fiction. John Steinbeck also wrote a book on the subject: The 'Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights,' deriving his material from one of the earliest sources, Thomas Mallory.

All are worthy and entertaining. My advice would be to read and enjoy all of them, which I have.

Joseph Pierre,
Author of THE ROAD TO DAMASCUS: Our Journey Through Eternity

Jack Whyte is a master at imparting historical data in gut-gripping fiction, even if you're not a fan of King Arthur. I loved this entire series, and have purchased it for several of my family members and friends. The whole series is an "I can't put it down" one. You'll be captivated!

Jack Whyte has written another extrordinary book. The Camulod Chronicals is an asome serious and each book in it keeps getting better. With death of of Uther and the birth of Arthur, Merlyn needs to keep high hopes for his coloney. This book was hard to put down because of the vision of action. Jack whyte is a genious.

This is the third volume of a superb series about the life and times of King Arthur from a historical perspective.

Whyte's narration and writing style continue to be excellent. Was this the way things really happened? Did Merlyn (using Whyte's spelling) and Uther actually exist, and really live their lives as Whyte describes? We'll probably never know for sure, but Whyte certainly made me believe they could have. All of his characters are three-dimensional, flesh-and-blood people - and though I know how the story had to turn out (this is, after all, the story of Arthur), there were quite a few moments in this volume that took my breath away. At some points I honestly believed that Whyte was going to play some kind of dirty trick on me and veer off into an alternate universe.

Along the way Whyte gives us several lessons in history and the religion of the time. I'm not enough of a scholar to know whether or not a debate such as the one he describes actually took place, but I certainly believed in his description of it. And he presents both sides of several religious arguments in a way such that any layman could understand them, without his (Whyte's) obviously taking one side or the other.

My only complaint with this particular entry in the series is that Whyte doesn't really dig into the life, history, or personality of Lot of Cornwall. What little description he does give makes Lot out to be evil personified, but I really would have liked to learn more about what made this man tick.

Unlike the first two, there is a little bit of "magic" in this volume, if you can call dreams magic. It seems that Whyte's Merlyn has a bit of precognition - his dreams accurately predict several events in the story. But there is no overt magic - nobody turns into a newt or anything else.

I'm eagerly looking forward to volume four.

Jack Whyte seems to be one of the few myth/fantasy writers who has been able to so comfortably (and successfully)co-mingle the traditional Arthurian legends with historical facts and actual geographic locations. I have been following him since I (quite by accident) purchased "The Singing Sword". I anxiously await his next release. In two words: GOOD READ!

This is a very interesting mix of historical facts and legend. Both combined fire the imagination. You follow Britain emerging from the ruins of the Roman Empire to find a unique identity. Characters that we are familiar with gain a depth before unknown. Jack Whyte is a superb writer that creates a world that very well could have been 1500 years ago. And you feel like you are there! Another fine addition to the Camulod Chronicles.

This book is enjoyable for the same reason that Mary Stewart's _Crystal Cave_ was. It presents Merlin as a real person, not a shadowy magician, and explores an estimation of the _real_ environment of King Arthur's world from Merlin's perspective. The first person narrative copies Stewart's approach, and works as well. Impressive historical setting and the rich description of late Roman Britain gives the story a depth not often found in the fantasy genre. The detailed ironmongery and militarist/feudal bent of the era are well captured, though a sense of how an agrarian economy supported all of these horsemen and warriors is missing.

The book's major shortcoming is the pornographic detail of some wenching scenes. It is one thing to explain how carnal appetites were approached with both pre-Christian casualness and great gusto by young Brito-Roman aristocrats-- it is entirely unnecessary to the story to go into genital approach angles and a detailed accounting of who was licking whom. In contrast, a very tender erotic scene was drawn where Merlin and Cassandra first become intimate, and it was done without using pornographic detail. Perhaps by using the extreme contrast Whyte was illustrating with heavy quill the difference between lust and love. And there was a bit of psychobabble thrown in where Merlin goes into a four page digression that amounts to measuring manhood, literally, with Uther. Again, a far too heavy handed, and basically unnecessary tool for showing the differences in temperament between Uther and Merlin.

Those weaknesses aside, the story is very readable, though only suitable for adult readers, due to the adult content of about fifteen pages of material. Better editing and less graphic language woud have made this a four or five star book. Of course, I will contiue enjoying the series, because old Britain fairly jumps off of the page and into my living room when I read it.

Once again, Whyte digs deeper into the mythos of king Arthur. This chapter focuses primarily on Merlyn as well as Uther, Varrus's son and Merlyn's Cousin.

Jack Whyte can get a little wordy when it comes to describing some things, especially battle scenes and military tactics so at times, the book seems like it may drag a little bit. That's pretty much my only complaint about this installment and his style in general.

It's still a great chapter in an extremely epic tale of the forging of a country and a legend.