Finally finished it! I've been so busy lately that this book took me way longer to finish than it should have. But I'm done now. I didn't like this book quite as well as the first two, although it was still great. I felt like too much time was covered in it. It starts out in the beginning with teenaged Arthur pulling the sword from the stone and goes all the way until the tragic end to his reign with the occasional flashback to Arthur's childhood. It felt like Mr. Lawhead was simply trying to cover everything in one book. There were many details and characters that I wish he had lingered on a bit longer. For instance, King Arthur's wife Gwenhwyvar. She was a strong, kick-butt type of female character that doesn't show up often enough in this kind of epic fantasy. Actually, I think a whole book about her character would have been awesome. She wore ARMOR to be introduced to her future husband and fought alongside him whenever she was given the chance. We definitely needed more about Gwenhwyvar.I did like the fact Arthur had to fight for his crown. So often it seems that stories about Arthur simply give him the throne as soon as he gets the sword out of the rock. It doesn't seem all that logical that a country full of adults--and minor kings who had enjoyed ruling on their own for years--would hand over the crown to the first teenaged boy to perform a magic trick. In this book, Arthur was met with a lot of hostility and grudgingly given a title, some land, and a minuscule amount of power. With that little that he was given, he fought his way up, winning allies and freeing Britain from the threat of barbarian raids.The story is split into three parts and each part has a different narrators. I am unsure how I feel about that fact. On one hand, each narrator was equipped to give the reader a unique look at different aspects of the life of Arthur. Pelleas, as assistant to Merlin, was able to tell us about Arthur's character and rise to power. Bedwyr, one of Arthur's knights, showed us the kind of warrior Arthur was and what made him a great leader. Aneirin,who came into Arthur's service as a young boy, told about Arthur as a king. On the other hand, while these were all told in first person, they were still very third person accounts of Arthur. Pelleas served Merlin and, while close to Arthur, was by no means a confidante. Aneirin had very little interaction with Arthur--most information was relayed to him through Merlin or one of the knights. Only Bedwyr was a close, personal friend of Arthur's, but wartime is not a time when they would have had discussions to give us a glimpse into the mind of the Pendragon. I felt that I did not really know the book's namesake, but I was still supposed to root for him. (I did root for him though--I mean, it's King Arthur!) Maybe Mr. Lawhead intended for his hero to be a bit mysterious, but I still would have liked more of a personal touch.In contrast, Taliesin (book 1) was written in third person, enabling the reader to get a good look at the main characters without having to go through a separate one. Merlin (book 2) was actually told from Merlin's point of view. That's more what I was expecting from Arthur. I expected to be able to really get to know the hero.On a different note, the writing. Stephen R Lawhead's prose never disappoints. It's probably one of my favorite parts of his books. I love the poetic descriptions and the rich dialogue. There are always passages that I have to go back and read a couple times over just because the language is so beautiful. I'm such a sucker for well written prose. It's the main reason I like works by Charles Dickens.Overall, it was a great book, even though I think I've mentioned more about what was wrong with it than what was right. I did have some issues with the pacing and viewpoint, but I still enjoyed the story. I would have liked to read more about the characters themselves and less about their exploits. The writing style, though, is probably what elevated this book from three stars to four. I just love the writing style.
Overall I thought this book ended well, but it tended to drag on a bit. In general I was hoping for a book of Arthur's peaceful reign and meetings of the round table knights in their gleaming armor. However, that was not the case. I understand why, but after 2 full books building up the hopes of a Kingdom of Summer, I thought it would be more grandiose.I must note that Lawhead's treatment of Morgan was very good. He had created this image of an evil fiend, but through the second book even, I saw little of that reflected. In this final installment, however, she was exposed as a truly wicked creature. I don't want to saw too much, but I was glad to see that he really flushed out her character and included her more in this section.Probably what frustrated me the most was the changing narrators. In this book each of the 3 parts had a different storyteller. I felt like it was hard for me to connect at first with these new voices. I still wanted to know what Merlin was thinking or Charis, but now I was stuck only seeing the perspective of a servant boy. Nevertheless, by the end of each section I grew to like the character, of course, only to be cut off from their thoughtlife and plunged into another mind. I can now see the unique perspective of each narrator and probably why he was selected to retell that particular section, but it was a bit jolting overall.The ending was certainly not what I was expected, as I thought there would be the Guinevere and Lancelot betrayal, which was completely left out of this telling. The story had a resolution, but it did not seem to completely answer every question. In the end I enjoyed Lawhead's unique retelling of the legend and how it ended quite appropriately in a cloud of mystery.
What do You think about Arthur (1990)?
Rating: 2* of fiveThe Publisher Says: In a forgotten age of darkness a magnificent king arose to light the world.They called him unfit to rule—a lowborn, callow boy, Uther's bastard. But his coming had been foretold in the songs of the bard Taliesin. He had learned the uses of power from his guide and protector, Merlin. He was Arthur, Pendragon of the Island of the Mighty—who would rise to legendary greatness in a Britain torn by violence, greed and war; the Lord of Summer who would usher in a glorious reign of peace and prosperity . . . and whose noble, trusting heart would be broken by treachery.My Review: Battle, battle, battle; foreshadowed Religious Event; battle, battle; Merlin and Morgian (variant spelling in the source document, even though I hated it I'm using it) sparring; oh hell, nothing much new.BORING!B...O...R...I...N...G!!! This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
—Richard Reviles Censorship Always in All Ways
I liked this book as a whole. The ending of it made me very thoughtful and a little depressed. I like when books leave a strong feeling in my heart. That's a sign that it was a good book. The thing I didn't like was the lack of relationship and feeling in the story. Until the end, the story revolved around war and basic male camaraderie and fealty. Aneirin was by far my favorite part of the book.Edit: I have finished this series finally. I went back and read the third book of Arthur again to wrap everything up and bring some closure. I do have to say that not every thing matches up between the sequels and the end.1. Gwenhwyvar gave Arthur the plans for the Rotunda in Brtain in Arthur and in Ierne in Pendragon.2. Gwenhwyvar and Merlin are only just patching up their relationship after 13 years in Arthur and they do it quite a lot sooner in the others.3. Llenlleawg is still Arthur's champion in Arthur. After what happened in Grail, I don't see Arthur taking him back as his champion. Forgiving him? Yes. Letting him come back to join the Cymbrogi? Yes. Champion? No.4. When Morgian is caught by Gwalcmai in Arthur, all the others act like they don't know what Morgian has done. Seems to me that they would remember they had a whole campaign against her.5. At the very end of Arthur, Bedwyr, Rhys, and Bors go in search of the Grail over in Damascus when they know plain as day that Avallache had the Grail. I also don't understand why Bors stayed over there and had a wife and five brown children when his brother was back in Armorica.Of course, some things are bound to be different since Pendragon and Grail were written afterward. I do have to say that I found a lot more insight in Aneirin the second time around. It felt sadder when the members of the Dragon Flight died. I felt I knew them a little better, especially Gwalchavad. Although, I am glad at least that the twins died together. It would've been so hard for one to live while the other died.Speaking of Gwalchavad and Gwalcmai brings me to Morgian. I wish there was some sort family tree for her. So far as I can gather she has had 3 children. Urien with Loth. Medraut with Urien. And Morgaws with Lot. She also insinuates that she is mother to the twins (their father is Lot), but I don't think that's really so. That also means that she only technically committed incest with Urien since Lot was her step-son. Still, she is pretty freaky.Edit again: I was thinking about this the other day, and I wanted to add it here so I don't forget. At the end of the book, Arthur told Bedwyr to take care of Gwenhwyvar and tried to give him his sword. I think that Arthur knew that he was never going to return, and tried to pass the throne to Bedwyr. Bedwyr just didn't get it because he had such faith that Arthur would return. So perhaps the Kingdom of Summer may have lasted a bit longer if Bedwyr had become High King instead of Cador. Who knows? Ah.
—Jessi
I'm giving this 2 stars because the first section was OK. I really wanted to like this book, since the series was recommended by a friend (although she did warn me it got slow in the middle). I really liked Taliesin, and Merlin was interesting, too, but this one just got so boring! Most of the book was battle scenes, which I guess makes sense because it's the part of the Pendragon Cycle when Arthur earns his right to the high kingship by ridding Britain of its enemies. However, it could have been cut waaaaay back with some liberal editing of repetitious and redundant sections, and beefed up a bit with some strategy and dramatic conflict. In all of the battles, the Good Guys rode into the Bad Guys and then won, with very few hardships. Even with all the battling, it seemed like nothing ever happened. I'm going to continue on with the series anyway, because the friend who recommended it told me the best is at the end. Even so, I may need a couple months' break before attempting Pendragon, especially knowing the "best" is still a few books away.
—Becky
