Shadow of the King - Helen Hollick

I've just finished reading this book, the last of a Helen Hollick's Pendragon's Banner trilogy on King Arthur.

"What?" I hear you ask. "Another set of novels about King Arthur?"

Yes, it's true. For some reason, the Arthurian legend continues to generate more and more novels as the years go and back, some good, some bad, some fantastic, some indifferent.

In recent years, Stephen Lawhead's ...
...(he originally finished it in 3 volumes--then decided to write more, so went backwards and added two more volumes which make very sense).

The very best ever Arthurian book in my opinion is Marion Zimmer Bradley's Mists of Avalon. Forget the would-be sequels to this book and concentrate on the original masterpiece. You won't regret it.

Most recently, Bernard Cornwell's Warlord Chronicles turns King Arthur into the sort ... more

I've just finished reading this book, the last of a Helen Hollick's Pendragon's Banner trilogy on King Arthur.

"What?" I hear you ask. "Another set of novels about King Arthur?"

Yes, it's true. For some reason, the Arthurian legend continues to generate more and more novels as the years go and back, some good, some bad, some fantastic, some indifferent.

In recent years, Stephen Lawhead's Pendragon Cycle has proved very popular, despite the confusing format (he originally finished it in 3 volumes--then decided to write more, so went backwards and added two more volumes which make very sense).

The very best ever Arthurian book in my opinion is Marion Zimmer Bradley's Mists of Avalon. Forget the would-be sequels to this book and concentrate on the original masterpiece. You won't regret it.

Most recently, Bernard Cornwell's Warlord Chronicles turns King Arthur into the sort of character he most probably was if he ever actually existed--a warrior king determined to keep the British people alive in post-Roman Britain despite the increasing incursion from Angles, Saxons and so on. All the magic and mystery--Merlin, the Holy Grail take a back seat, if they're there at all.

And this is basically the same approach taken by Helen Hollick. And most successfully, I might add. This means that this book does not really belong to the fantasy genre that most books on Arthur fit into, but is rather simply superb historical fiction. If Arthur didn't exist, somebody like him certainly did.

Thank goodness there's no Lancelot or Knights of the Round Table this time. Lancelot was always a prig and the whole Knights was just a bit goody two shoes if you ask me. In these novels, Arthur is a real-blooded king, not always popular, not always moral, a serial adulterer and an irreligious so-and-so. But when push comes to shove, he will fight to the death and he loves Gwenhwyfar his feisty childhood sweetheart, who is herself not a pushover and perfectly of wielding a sword when need be and finishing off any foolish Saxon who attempts to deflower her.

If this all does sound a bit over the top, it's actually very gutsy and very much focused on the political situation at the time and the various leading characters among the Britons and Saxons. It always focuses on the complex, though ultimately solid, relationship between Arthur and Gwenhwyfar. No evil Morgan Le Fay who purposely sleeps with her brother to beget the villainous Mordred who will slay his father. In this version, Morgaine sleeps with Arthur without knowing he's her half-brother, and the issue of the union, Medraut, is a loyal though arms-length son, who is filled with self-loathing when he discovered during adulthood that he's the product of incest. His misguided attempts to prove he's worthy of his father's pride and love tear at the reader's heartstrings, but he's ultimately semi-reconciled with his family.

Where Hollick differs from Cornwell is that she focuses less on the minutiae of battles and more on politics and emotions. The battles do take place and are essential to the plot, but it's the events that bring them about and their consequences that matter here. Ulimately, you know Arthur's fighting a losing battle as the Anglo-Saxons do take over and the Britons disappear, but you're with him every step of the way.

Highly recommended stuff!  

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