Customer Reviews

Reckoning

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This is the final episode in Penman's Welsh Trilogy. It follows Here Be Dragons and Falls The Shadow, running from 1271-1283.

Penman emerged long ago as one of the best historical novelists and continues to solidify her reputation with each new release. Her special genius lies in the bright and shining historical detail that she can weave into both plot and dialog (she's a very good student of history and at times is absolutely brilliant in conveying to us the workings of medieval minds).

One of the great things about Penman (and this book showcases it well) is her plots are always complex (because the history of these times was quite convoluted). She does an excellent job of keeping it all straight for us as she leads us through the maze of characters. If you read the history of these times you quickly come to see what a great job she does in her design of the story.

I have no problem with Penman's romantic feelings about her heros. From Eleanor in the 1st trilogy to Joanna in Here Be Dragons to her raising the standard of Simon de Montfort as a visionary (but historically too early) icon of democracy, she does use them as a vehicle to carry forward a dynamic presentation of history....all in the best traditions of the historical novel.

Penman's true genius is the broad historical scope that is painted on top of the shimmering details of brief moments. It truely does feel as if you are living the story yourself, and it is this bringing us readers in as witnesses that stands as Penman's contribution to the art of the historical novel.

If you prefer to read in chronological order:
1101-1154 When Christ And His Saints Slept (Vol 1 of Trilogy)
1156-1171 Time And Space (Vol 2 of Trilogy)
12th Cent Devil's Brood (Vol 3 of Trilogy)- not yet released
1192-1193 The Queen's Man
1193 Cruel As The Grave
1183-1232 Here Be Dragons (Vol 1 of Welsh Trilogy)
1231-1267 Falls The Shadow (Vol 2 of Welsh Trilogy)
1271-1283 The Reckoning (Vol 3 of Welsh Trilogy)
1459-1492 The Sunne In Splendour

"The Reckoning" is the last novel in Sharon Kay Penman's medieval trilogy of 13th century England, Wales and their larger than life leaders. Ms. Penman succeeds brilliantly in bringing these men and women, and the causes they fought for, to life in these books. She is a remarkably gifted writer. Her impeccable historical research, attention to detail and superb storytelling ability make her novels consistently excellent. "The Reckoning" is one of her best efforts, preceded by "Here Be Dragons," and "Falls The Shadow." Each of these wonderful historical novels stands on its own, however, and while it is an extraordinary experience to read each book in the order it was written, one does not have to do so to appreciate the history, the characters or the period.

Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, husband of Henry III's sister and the aunt of King Edward I, was one of the most powerful men in England. He was a warrior, great leader and politician who despised Henry III for his incompetence and the favoritism he displayed for the foreigners in his court. Henry was bankrupting England and estranging the peerage. Ahead of his time, Simon also espoused the idea that the common man deserved a voice in government. England was in the midst of civil war as factions split between Henry and his son and heir Edward. When Edward realized that de Montfort's reforms would limit his power and the Divine Right of Kings, he turned against him and in the bloody battle of Evesham, defeated him, with horrifying consequences for the entire de Montfort family.

During this same period there was terrible unrest in Wales, including civil war. Charismatic Llewelyn Farr, Prince of Northern Wales had fought to unite his country's nobility and provide a strong front against the English. His grandson, Lwellyn ap Gruffyd, became Llewelyn's heir and inherited the staunch commitment to keep Wales united. The Welsh leader was a cousin to both the English King and the de Montfort family and was betrothed to marry Simon de Montfort's daughter, Ellen. When de Monfort lost all at Evesham, Welsh politics changed. As Wales sought to consolidate its position and prevent being absorbed into a greater England, the new Prince's brothers were determined to wage war against him to gain power of their own and sacrificed Welsh independence in the process.

This is a complex and tragic saga of historic characters, politics, intrigues, betrayals, bloody battles and wars, romance, lust, power struggles, princesses held captive, revenge and forgiveness. Yet once begun, this extraordinary epic is almost impossible to put down. Ms. Penman portrays Wales, its people, culture and landscape vividly with glorious detail. It is fascinating to become involved with the characters and realize how linked they are by ties of blood - common ancestry. Not only is Welsh history tied to that of England's, but the royal families are linked as are their descendants. Ms. Penman joins the histories and characters of these two countries to give the reader, not just a superb tale but a look at the bigger historical picture also.

This is truly one of the best historical novels I have ever read, and the trilogy by Ms. Penman is absolutely outstanding. She paints an unforgettable picture of medieval England and Wales and the characters who made history. I cannot recommend these books highly enough.
JANA

Pirates, politics, betrayal and redemption, Penman's final book in her Wales trilogy has all these things but above all it is one of the most beautiful, tragic, and haunting love stories I have ever read. As the Wales trilogy progresses, Penman's writing and character-development just keeps getting better until it culminates in "The Reckoning." At the center of the tale is Llewelyn, fated to be the last native Prince of Wales, who struggles against impossible-seeming odds to unite his countrymen, keep his wily brother Davydd under his thumb, evade the ire of the power-hungry Edward I of England, and to at last be united with his soul mate, the Lady Ellen, exiled daughter of the dead rebel, Simon de Montfort. Finally putting aside her somewhat annoying tendency to get bogged-down with her minor characters, Penman is at last able to concentrate solely on her main characters, and on the world they inhabit. In "Reckoning" Penman follows her characters all over the known world, bringing to life such places as the steaming Crusader fortresses of the Holy Land, a pirate ship on the high seas, soaring cathedrals and humble, ice-encrusted, haunted shrines, and, most of all, the haunting, sweeping, beautiful and, ultimately, doomed land of Gwynedd. Probably the most interesting and compelling character in this novel is Davydd, Llewelyn's charming younger brother who's concept of loyalty is...peculiar, to say the least. Forever straddling the fence, Davydd serves both as Llewelyn's foil and, ultimately, his truest ally. (His "soliloquey" while awaiting his fate at Edward's hands in the second to last chapter is just wrenching.) Of all the characters in the novel, he is the one most concerned with discovering himself and where his heart lies. If it were possible to feel empathy for Cain...Penman does this justice. Read this novel! But like the other two, make sure you stock up on kleenexes, first, because if this novel does not ultimately break your heart, there is something wrong with you, I think.

"The Reckoning" is really a tale of revenge. The last in Sharon Kay Penman's "Welsh Trilogy" (or "Welsh Tragedy"; take your pick), it concerns Edward II's conquest of Wales and the end of the Montfort family. And in Penman's perfect, profound prose, it etches the portrait of Edward in acid. Great he might have been to his peers, but here he is shown as a larger-than-life bully, intolerant, expedient in regards to his own wishes, and cruel.

You can tell where Penman's sympathies lie. Llewellyn, grandson of Llewellyn Fawr, fights to keep the English yoke off Wales, only to find himself tripped up time and again by betrayal--from his brother Daffyd, a charming liar who could probably talk his way out of Hell; from other Welsh lords; from Edward himself, who denies him his bride, Ellen Montfort, until he's certain that he's brought Llewellyn to heel. Ellen, perhaps the only Montfort who has a truly happy life, does indeed marry Llewellyn, and their marriage is the only weak part of this story--it has the feel of "Llewellyn and Joanna Redux." Only Ellen is not half as enchanting as Joanna. She does come close to being just as infuriating.

Penman's pace is at its fastest in "The Reckoning." Small wonder. The tragedies and defeats pile up until the climax, and the outcry at the end of the world as the Welsh know it is heartbreaking. Llewellyn is not the man his grandfather was, but he is heroic in the face of certain defeat. Determined not to go down without a fight, driven by a love of his people and homeland, Llewellyn is a character to cheer and to mourn for.

Daffyd, on the other hand, is a man you'd like to strangle, the sweet-tongued bastard who seems to slip past punishment no matter how much he deserves it. And yet his marriage to Elizabeth, Edward's ward, is an amusing surprise. He too shows his worth in the end, finding his own strength in the shadow of death. This is how "Braveheart" should have ended.

As for Edward . . . after finishing "The Reckoning," I went to see "Braveheart" and cheered when Isabelle whispered to the old man that his line would die with his feckless son. Now if Mel Gibson had had the ghosts of the Welsh royal family show up to watch the old goat die, I'd have been perfectly pleased with the movie.

This book doesn't just pluck at your heartstrings. It rips them out and stomps on your heart for good measure. This is easily the best book Penman has written yet.

King Edward I "Longshanks" of England was known as the "Hammer of the Scots," but he started out as the hammer of the Welsh. This last volume of Ms. Penman's "Welsh Trilogy" left me mourning for the lost spirit and independence of Wales. I think I would have resented the book for leaving me depressed, in spite of the fact that it recounted documented history most accurately, had it not been for Ms. Penman's genius as a novelist. She creates lovable minor characters, mostly semi-historic, who manage a personal happy ending while the major historic characters are killed in battle, humiliated, executed, or thrown into a dungeon for life. I was most thankful for those gifts of optimism. I would encourage purchasers to buy the entire trilogy and read it in order. During this period, which few of us know well, people had bewilderingly similar names, and they intermarried for political reasons, leaving relationships that baffle the modern reader. Taking it in chronological order works well with Ms. Penman's careful guidance.

If tragedy is the genre that depicts people triumphant in defeat, then this trilogy is, indeed, a tragedy. If I say that Wales is the true protagonist of the triology, I may leave the wrong impression, for there is nothing impersonal about Penman's triology. You will admire, love, and mourn Joanna and Llewelyn, Simon and Nell, Elen and Rob de Quincy, Ellen and Llewelyn II, and yes, Elizabeth and Davydd. But, over and over, you will grieve for Wales and the Welsh people, and yet Wales and its people still endure-to our joy and admiration. I have never been so moved by historical fiction. Please read this triology. Begin with Here Be Dragons and I guarantee you will read Falls the Shadow and the Reckoning. And when you have finished them, read The Sunne in Splendour (the best historical ever written) and When Christ and His Saints Slept. Then go back and begin the triology again-you won't be sorry.

It has been five years since Simon de Montfort and his followers died at Evesham in their ill-fated rebellion against the English King Henry. Henry's charismatic son rules England in all but name. Simon's family is slowly rebuilding their lives. His wife, Henry's sister, Nell, is seeking a marriage for her beautiful daughter, Ellen. Although betrothed at 12 to Llewelyn, ruler of Wales, her engagement was ended by Simon's rebellion and death. Simon's youngest son Bran still struggles to cope with his guilt over failing to reach his father before Edward's army butchered Simon and Bran's older brother, Harry. In Italy, Bran's clever older brother, Guy, has married the ruler of an Italian province and is gaining fame as a soldier. On the surface, the de Montforts appear to be getting on with life; but the hatred and guilt created by Evesham will prove too strong to save all the de Montforts. In Wales, Llewelyn has reluctantly named his faithless younger brother, Davydd, as Llewelyn's heir. But Davydd's ambitions and his reckless disregard of the dangers of plotting with Edward set in motion events which will destroy Wales. Penman has written a sad, magnificent tale of courage, boldness that illuminates the inevitable clash between two cultures: the proud, independent Welsh and the determined England. She is most adept at creating the minor characters who are swept up in events not of their making: Hugh, the loyal squire to the doomed Bran de Montfort; Caitlin, Davydd's illegitimate daughter torn between her father and Llewelyn, the generous uncle who raised her. Through Hugh and Caitlin, the reader experiences the tragedy of the battle between Edward and Llewelyn. It is the human face of history that endures for the reader; the people who die; the places that are destroyed.

Sharon Kay Penman concludes her Welsh trilogy (after Here Be Dragons and Falls the Shadow) with this, The Reckoning. And what a reckoning it is.

For anyone familiar with British history, it's well-known that the story of Wales' struggle for independence is a sad one. Penman certainly doesn't write "down" to her audience, sugar-coating things or putting a more positive spin on events. She makes it very plain, seemingly from the first, that the Welsh are fighting a losing battle against the English. The Prince of Wales cannot even get his own wife into Wales due to the English crown- how to fight a battle against the crown?

A previous reviewer said that the story of Ellen and Llewelyn seems sometimes to be a rehash of Joanna and the earlier Llewelyn. I'd tend to agree with that- the two also allude to Joanna and her Llewelyn fairly often. But they are characters of their own, especially this Llewelyn ap Gruffyd who tries so hard to unite Wales against England and keep sovereignty with his countrymen, even as he is betrayed time and again by his own family. And even the romance between the two speaks so much to me about medieval poems, all about glory and honor and love that I think it fits perfectly well into the story.

The only thing I did *not* think fit as well into the story was Penman's inclusion of two characters (Hugh and Caitlin) that have little or no historical basis whatsoever. It's fine to include these people as small characters, but these seem sometimes to overwhelm the rest of the story. However, by the end, their inclusion seems to make sense, as they help the story come to a more satisfying conclusion as would have been possible without them.

Even with that slight negative, the story overall is very moving. It's painful to read, and yet you cannot put it down. Over and over, you will cheer with the Welsh and cry with them, and by the end ... you'll want to go to Wales.

...is a Welshman who trusts an English King."

This is the best book in the trilogy! It's very good and portrays the reign of Edward I. I thought the nicknamed "Black Prince of Wales" was a cool guy before I read this book.

He's not. There's a reason they called him "black"- he was cruel and shady, a guy who will get his way. Llewelyn ap Gruffydd makes the very same choice that Simon de Monfort made in "Falls the Shadow" which is to fight for his cause, what he believes in. And to fight for his long-dead grandfather, to achieve the dream Llewelyn Fawr had -for a united Wales- or die.

Another character I like is Davydd ap Gruffydd, Llewelyn's double-dealing brother who is -even though you can't help it- a little likable once he gets married or once you get used to him. Davydd has betrayed Llewelyn too many times to count. He even planned an assasination attempt(which failed, true to history)!

The reason I, a fiction/fantasy -holic , like these books is that I easily get a very good view of history (a lot of things that happened in this book are true- read the Afterword if you'd like to know, but only after you've finished the book!). For example <<spoiler>> Edward I was the initatior of the tradition that allows the heir to the throne the title "Prince of Wales" b/c he gave it to his son and it's been done ever since.

A somber book. As one reviewer said, NOT for the faint of heart.
But it's still wonderful!!

Actually, I had to put it down several times. The grief is unbelievable. Ms. Penman has an incredible talent for creating relationships that you believe and cherish.

I can not think of better way to understand this period then through these books.

Beware: This author will take you away to her world.