Definitely a different take on Arthur than ones I have read previously. This version stresses Arthur's Christianity and depicts Merlin much less a Druid than many other tellings of the legend. I probably would have enjoyed the book more had I read it in series order, but it was a reading group selection and I did not have the time to read "Taliesin" and "Merlin" first.

I'll definitely re-read at some point, but in series order.

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I just devoured this series. Loved the authors version of the Arthur tale.

This is book three of The Pendragon Cycle.

This book was not at all what I expected it to be. I assumed that this book would be about Arthur's childhood, his upbringing, and his tutelage under Merlin. Instead, this book opens with a teenage Arthur pulling the sword from the stone and ends with his mysterious death.

This book is a summary of Arthur's entire reign. It is a bloody book that focuses on the first seven years following the sword in the stone. Most of the book is simply a tale of battle upon battle, of political posturing and intrigue, and the establishment of Arthur's rule. There are only a few flashbacks to Arthur's childhood. Many parts of the book skip huge chunks of time with statements such as, "The war ended and then twenty years later..."

This book is narrated by three different authors: Pelleas, Bedwyr, and Aneirin. This approach provides interesting perspectives and insights into the story, yet it also removes the reader from some of the more intimate perspectives of the story's main characters.

In a way, this could have been the last book of the series because it provided a CliffsNotes summary of all of the improtant events from beginning to end. The final third of the book (Aneirin's story) and the Epilogue spoil the suspense of the remaining two books because you are told how the story ultimately ends. You are told what happens to the main characters. You are told who lives and who dies. But you never really know what happened to Arthur and that ending in itself adds a very unique mystery that is both haunting and beautiful, if not a little frustrating for its lack of closure.

Ho hum.

The King Arthur tale has been told so many times over the centuries that perhaps there's nothing left to say. Certainly this book adds nothing the to the King Arthur legend.

After I enjoyed *Taliesin* and *Merlin* quite a bit, this one has been a disappointment--too much account of battle narrated by minor characters.

This is the 3rd in the Pedragon Cycle by Lawhead. The ones I am posting have the older covers - featuring the face of the main character on the cover.

The story of King Arthur,brings to life a legend,vibrantly real

Book three of the Pendragon cycle.

Have not read it. It's my son's.

From a reviewer at Amazon.com:

"I was somewhat disappointed in this book. It presents a very watered-down version of the King Arthur legend. I am no medieval scholar, and it is possible that it is historically accurate and well-researched; this is not my gripe. It's just that so many of the elements of the story are missing, like the love between Guinevere (Gwenhwyvar in this book) and Lancelot (Llenlleawg). The prophecy about Arthur meeting his death at the hands of his son is mentioned once, but he never has a son - Lawhead does not incorporate Arthur's inadvertent incest with his sister into his story, hence there is no product of the union. It seemed to me that the search for the Grail was added almost as an afterthought, with a few foreshadowed lines thrown in here and there in Merlin, the book before this one.

Mostly, this book was about a seemingly endless series of battles, where all sorts of miracles happen like Arthur's army of 900 men defeating a barbarian army of 10,000 without a single casualty. Aside from the major players Arthur, Merlin, Charis, and the evil Morgian, none of the characters were very well-developed. They spoke the same, reacted the same, and had very few distinguishing characteristics. The women were all impossibly beautiful but (aside from Charis) never had much to say. The device of having the three sections of the book told from three different viewpoints didn't do much for me; I think I would have enjoyed the book more if it had just been written in the third person.

One redeeming quality of Lawhead's writing is his descriptive ability. Every once in a while he describes a landscape so clearly that I could see it in my mind's eye.

If you are looking for a quasi-historical account of the battles that King Arthur fought, the politics of the Roman empire at the time, and the rise of Christianity in Britain, then this book may be for you. If you are looking for a retelling of the legend in all of its magic and with all of its darkness, go read Marion Zimmer Bradley's "The Mists of Avalon" instead."

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