The Serpent and the Grail (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A truly, amazing, towering, talent!" -- Los Angelos Times

"By far the most lyrically written of recent Arthurian Books . . . fresh and engaging" -- Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction

"Strikingly unconventional . . .passionate . . .remarkable . . ." -- Locus

This retelling of the King Arthur legend is almost beautiful enough to be poetry...Viscerally powerful, as if we're reading a real book of forbidden magic...an epic that some long-ago Saxon poet should have written years before. -- New York Post --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

The boy-king Arthor has beaten back the berserker wolf warriors of the Saxon god, uniting his island kingdom -- but at a terrible cost. For the Grail, the chalice of the Last Supper and the magical shield of Britain, has been stolen.

Without the Grail's protection, Britain lies parched and barren, a demon-haunted landscape where sulfurous vapors taint ther air. To find the Grail, Arthor's mother, Ygrane, must strike a dark bargain with Bright Night, elf-prince of the "pale people,"in the hollow hills. Merlin must use his magic to show the way. But it is Arthor himself who must confront the Serpent, Sword in hand.

A.A.. Atanasio's epic retelling of humankind's most powerful legend weaves together, for the first time, the hallowed yarn of ancient Arthurian lore and the shimmering strands of modern quantum science.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Eos (July 3, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061059730
• ISBN-13: 978-0061059735
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #403,113 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Legend continues...., July 10, 2000

By	Damien Bosley (Orlando, Florida) - See all my reviews

I have just finished reading the serpent and the grail and I must say that it was again one of the best books I have ever read! Just like the rest of the Arthurian books he has out it was in one word...beautiful. The way this author writes is incredible. It is almost like reading poetry. The book taking place after Wolf and the Crown,finds the young king once again in a quest to save Britian. This book was one of the best i've read in the series and hopefully not the last. This book is a must read for A.A. Attanasio fans. But if you've just discovered the author and the series i recommend picking up his first book in the series The Dragon and the Unicorn.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Arthurian account ever!, September 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Serpent and the Grail (Paperback)

I was so amazed by this book that I read the whole series. Attanasio keeps the reader in suspense, and does not disappoint. Mixing science and folklore and Norse gods, this is better than Tolkein

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Arthurian Legend ..... retold (?), October 25, 2000

By A Customer

I picked up the first book of this series because I am an Arthurian legend fan. At that time I had never even heard of Attanasio....I am now an avid Attanasio reader.

The Serpent and the Grail is a hard-to-put-down book and continues the fantasy world of Arthur's rule started in the earlier books. The only problem I have with this book is that this is still not the end of the series (I hope!). As an Arthurian fan, I hope that Attanasio will continue telling this story until the end of the legend and that the next book in the series comes out before I forget the characters again (that's another problem ... the wealth of characters!). If you're already familiar with the legend then reading this series is as if you've never heard of Arthur and Camelot before .... very refreshing.

As an Attanasio fan, this is another example of the diversity of Attanasio's vivid epic-telling talents. You need to read other Attanasio's works to appreciate what I mean (personal recommendations: The Last Legends of Earth, The Dark Shore)

My advice to all would-be readers .... get all the books in the series and read them straight through from the first to the last, in sequence. It won't be easy reading, but it will be worth it.