Rotten ol’ Andrew suggested I try this book. You’d think I’d know not to listen to him. Turns out this is only the first in a series of nine. Please. Do I look like I time to get addicted to a nine-book series? Do I?
Whyte has a fascinating premise for these historical novels, known collectively as the Camulod Chronicles. Starting with The Skystone, he recasts the Arthurian legend in a completely plausible way. There is no magic. There is no fantasy. This is Camelot in a way that could have really happened.
Not that you get to see any of Camelot in the first book. Instead you get to know some Romans during the sunset years of the Roman Empire’s influence in Britain. That’d be in the late 300s, more or less. The narrator, Publius Varrus, is a metalsmith who creates a wondrous sword from a stone that fell from the sky. He decides to call it Excaliber.
Publius also happens to be King Arthur’s granddad, though we don’t actually learn that in the first book. I only know that because I cheated and read it on the inside jacket.
If you want a quick read, I’m afraid you’ll have to turn elsewhere. (Try Penelope’s Beach Reads display.) But if you’re looking for a luxurious read, give this one a try. The Classical-cum-Dark Ages setting teems with accurate historical details, and the characters are compelling. (Well, okay, I confess that I thought the characters were a little too predictable—the good guys were too good, the bad guys too bad—but they showed a lot more depth in the second novel in the series). Be warned that the violence is gory and frequent, and the sex frank and descriptive. If you want Arthurian without the blood-n-sex, you should try T.H. White’s The Once and Future King. But if you want macho, chest-thumping warriors and a believable historical setting, try Jack Whyte.
Hah! Gotcha!