Helpful Score: 1
What an amazing conclusion to a brilliant trilogy.
The first 1/3 of this book deals with ramifications left over from the ending of The Silver Hand. It is the calm before the second storm. The final 2/3 of this book sends the characters into an incredibly oppressive and harrowing journey that leads to the final and captivating conclusion.
In places I found this book to be equally as suspenseful, dark, and brooding as the second book. When the book ended I was hungry for more. It left me with that haunting feeling you get when you finish a book but the book isn't finished with you.
Lawhead is a Christian. While there are Christian themes strung together throughout the trilogy, they are subtly woven into the plot, are not overdone, and are never preachy. Lawhead strikes a delicate balance. He writes very good fantasy that happens to have some Christian themes, which is different, I think, than trying to write purely Christian fantasy. His approach appeals to a broader audience and the quality of the writing is better because of it.
It is rare that I ever re-read a book or series, but I can see myself coming back to this trilogy in the years to come. I enjoyed every page and was truly sorry to see the adventure come to an end.
The first 1/3 of this book deals with ramifications left over from the ending of The Silver Hand. It is the calm before the second storm. The final 2/3 of this book sends the characters into an incredibly oppressive and harrowing journey that leads to the final and captivating conclusion.
In places I found this book to be equally as suspenseful, dark, and brooding as the second book. When the book ended I was hungry for more. It left me with that haunting feeling you get when you finish a book but the book isn't finished with you.
Lawhead is a Christian. While there are Christian themes strung together throughout the trilogy, they are subtly woven into the plot, are not overdone, and are never preachy. Lawhead strikes a delicate balance. He writes very good fantasy that happens to have some Christian themes, which is different, I think, than trying to write purely Christian fantasy. His approach appeals to a broader audience and the quality of the writing is better because of it.
It is rare that I ever re-read a book or series, but I can see myself coming back to this trilogy in the years to come. I enjoyed every page and was truly sorry to see the adventure come to an end.
it started off wonderfully i loved the start of it then the adventure got a little odd but it was still good but the end is a dosey i didn't like the way it ended the end makes the series kinda a waste after reading it i was kinda mad i wasted my time with the series.
Evil will always triumph because good is dumb!
Looks like Darth Helmet had it right my friends. Throughout the Song of Albion series Llew and friends keep getting owned by the bad guys because they have to follow the heroic rules, or the rules set down by the bards and history and all that. The bad guys dont so they take credit for the good guys, sneak around them, and generally cause a lot of mischief. Luckily this is fiction so the good guys can still win in the end. Sort of.
Case in point. Paladyr is a world class douche. He murdered the last King, raped and killed two of the three oracle sisters, and generally wreaked havoc throughout the countryside. In this book he pops back up and causes death, destruction, and theft of sacred items. But they catch him! He will be dragged before the Kings justice! Except not. Apparently theres this right call naud that means that he can claim. It means that all of his sins go to the King, in this case Llew. If Llew refuses to take them on then hes less then the criminal. So Paladyr goes free to keep causing problems until the very end of the story. Yay! Bad guys get recycled in perpetuity.
This whole series is written like a Celtic ley (or whatever the correct phrase is). If that interests you Im sure youd like this series a lot more then I have. It worked in the second book because the narrator was from the culture so it all made sense to him. The first and third books are narrated by someone from our world so I was often lost.
My biggest problems with the style are these: Since its all in the grand heroic style all the bad guys are bad and the good guys are good. The ones who change have only glancing attempts at motivation. All the characters feel like caricatures because they cant act except in ways that would be approved of by the style. Plus it has a rhythm thats freakishly slow. Im not kidding. There is no real antagonistic force. It exists, but it doesnt really put pressure on the good guys. They just do their own thing because theyre heroes, and heroes chase down and deal with bad guys. The few times there actually was a bad guy working against them he was the font of all evil that happens off screen.
Worse was the ending.
!!!SPOILERS!!!
There was, I kid you not, an it was all a dream trope pulled. He died in Albion, and everyone you cared about moved on without him, then he came back to our world to live his life again. I have a hard time with the man from our world goes to magic land trope as it is. This just felt like cheating. Im sorry, but a whole long trilogy where I find out at the end that it all was a renewal rite and Llew/Lewis is going to write his experiences down in a book- that we all get to read. As he lives the same life he would have had but made better by his experience. Grrr.
The Endless Knot is an older book. Im pretty sure its Lawheads first series. It usually happens that an authors early work is less interesting then his later work, and if youre not from an era you have difficulty appreciating its popular fiction. Maybe that explains some of my troubles. Sadly The Endless Knot, and the rest of the series, is just frustrating to read. I wouldnt recommend it to anyone.
Looks like Darth Helmet had it right my friends. Throughout the Song of Albion series Llew and friends keep getting owned by the bad guys because they have to follow the heroic rules, or the rules set down by the bards and history and all that. The bad guys dont so they take credit for the good guys, sneak around them, and generally cause a lot of mischief. Luckily this is fiction so the good guys can still win in the end. Sort of.
Case in point. Paladyr is a world class douche. He murdered the last King, raped and killed two of the three oracle sisters, and generally wreaked havoc throughout the countryside. In this book he pops back up and causes death, destruction, and theft of sacred items. But they catch him! He will be dragged before the Kings justice! Except not. Apparently theres this right call naud that means that he can claim. It means that all of his sins go to the King, in this case Llew. If Llew refuses to take them on then hes less then the criminal. So Paladyr goes free to keep causing problems until the very end of the story. Yay! Bad guys get recycled in perpetuity.
This whole series is written like a Celtic ley (or whatever the correct phrase is). If that interests you Im sure youd like this series a lot more then I have. It worked in the second book because the narrator was from the culture so it all made sense to him. The first and third books are narrated by someone from our world so I was often lost.
My biggest problems with the style are these: Since its all in the grand heroic style all the bad guys are bad and the good guys are good. The ones who change have only glancing attempts at motivation. All the characters feel like caricatures because they cant act except in ways that would be approved of by the style. Plus it has a rhythm thats freakishly slow. Im not kidding. There is no real antagonistic force. It exists, but it doesnt really put pressure on the good guys. They just do their own thing because theyre heroes, and heroes chase down and deal with bad guys. The few times there actually was a bad guy working against them he was the font of all evil that happens off screen.
Worse was the ending.
!!!SPOILERS!!!
There was, I kid you not, an it was all a dream trope pulled. He died in Albion, and everyone you cared about moved on without him, then he came back to our world to live his life again. I have a hard time with the man from our world goes to magic land trope as it is. This just felt like cheating. Im sorry, but a whole long trilogy where I find out at the end that it all was a renewal rite and Llew/Lewis is going to write his experiences down in a book- that we all get to read. As he lives the same life he would have had but made better by his experience. Grrr.
The Endless Knot is an older book. Im pretty sure its Lawheads first series. It usually happens that an authors early work is less interesting then his later work, and if youre not from an era you have difficulty appreciating its popular fiction. Maybe that explains some of my troubles. Sadly The Endless Knot, and the rest of the series, is just frustrating to read. I wouldnt recommend it to anyone.
