Jack Whyte (1940–2021)

I thought this was a fair bit better than the first book. It lost some steam at the end - and having now started book 3 I wonder if that could have been offset by starting the otherwise abrupt transition to a new perspective there more in this book - but I still thought structurally this book was solid, did a good job of developing and exploring some interesting topics, and kept the plot moving along well. Some of the same disappointments hold as before, I still wish I learned more about the history from these books, it almost feels like Whyte just needed a team of historians to read these books and suggest places to add more dashes of reality and context. But that’s a huge ask, they’re still good reads, even if I’m slightly apprehensive about the next book.… (altro)

This is challenging to review. On the one hand, I read it, and didnt put it down. On the other hand, I cant really say that this book “worked” for me. The parallel narrative with the previous book made me slightly curious about filling in the gaps, but also made the book drag a bit at times (and the points where the author “fast forwards” while reminding you of Merlyn’s perspective were very jarring). The main issue I had is that the character development and progression of Uther is just not great. Honestly, Merlyn’s wasnt either, and I found myself missing Publius Varrus and the general tone and theme of the first two books. There’s a lot of chaos in this one - armies appearing out of nowhere to put Uther into bigger and bigger messes that, while atmospheric, never really made a lot of sense. If Lot is so unlikable and nuts, how is he convincing thousands of mercenaries to show up and fight whomever they see on the road? Maybe the world was really like this, but from a reader’s perspective, it just felt like senseless chaos, and Uther’s abnormally developed sense of honor was completely at odds with the situations he found himself in. Concepts didnt develop in this book the way they promised to in the first 2-3. We didnt learn more about the concept of Camulod, or even Cambria, and overall the philosophical style of the first two books was totally absent.

Maybe all of this was intentional (to some extent, it surely was), but the books are definitely trending in a direction I’m less curious about, and thats disappointing. I’ll keep reading, but I look forward to the next less than I did before.

As a note, I read this after The Eagles’ Brood because that’s how my books were numbered. Realizing now that maybe that was not the correct reading order, but while reading it felt reasonable/natural.… (altro)