Lawhead takes a new view of the Arthurian cycle, beginning with this "prequel" telling the story of Taliesin and Charis, whose child Merlin became Arthur's teacher and mentor. Some interesting images here.

I hated this series because I felt Lawhead took all the mystic things out & made them commonplace. The Lady of the Lake is Merlin's mother, so named because she met her husband while swimming in a lake. Excalbur is only a sword she bought for her father. And there is a heavy Christian bent that I don't think fits Merlin at all. But your milage may vary. One of my good friends thinks this is the best seriees ever written.

I thought the book was definetly a different version of Arthurian era than I'm familar with. I enjoyed the combination of Arthurian and Atlantian characters.

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This is Book 1 of the Pendragon Cycle.

I will admit that I had a very hard time getting into this book. I would read a chapter here and a chapter there but I never really felt compelled to keep reading more. The purpose of the first 2/3 of the book is to set the scene and establish the characters. It wasn’t necessarily boring so much as it was just slow and relatively uneventful.

Finally, in the last 1/3 of the book, the story hit its stride. I found myself staying up past my bedtime just to see what would happen next and was pleased enough with the end result. I was willing to forgive the tedious beginning because it had an interesting ending.

However, there are two reasons why this book will not be for everyone. The first reason: The final 1/3 of this book has some very strong Christian themes that many would consider “preachy.” I was not bothered by it, but there are others who will not be able to get past it at all. It is my understanding that these Christian themes continue throughout the series (including the conversion of Merlin to Christianity). If that sounds like something you would have an issue with, you would probably be happier not reading this series at all.

The second reason: This book is something of a loose historical fantasy. The story of Atlantis is woven into a different time in history and the story of Arthur is grafted into a different culture. For the historical purists out there, the changes and liberties taken with the retelling and reworking of such a familiar story will be frustrating. Add that to the Christian themes and you will find a contingency of people who loathe this book. But there will be just as many, if not more, who liked it well enough to continue reading and who would name this series among their favorite Arthurian tales.

It's a good book, detailing the early life of Charis, who is later to be known as the Lady of the Lake. However, the storyline has little impact on the remaining books in this series. You could easily skip this book and begin the series with "Merlin" if you are only interested in King Arthur lore.

Mine has a different cover.

It's been a while since I read it...that was my King Arthur phase!!

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