Written by Jack Whyte
Book One in the Camulod Chronicles
Still experimenting with format of these blog posts. Trying
to keep the reviews separate from thoughts on how I’d use the material in a
game. Any opinions on that? Keep them separate? Bring them back together?
The King Arthur mythology is well tended. It’s had numerous
books, comics, and even movies done about it. Some of these are classic. For example, Excalibur with a young Patrick Steward and a fantastic soundtrack.
Despite the age of the myths, despite
numerous classic books like the Quest for the Holy Grail and modern books, such as Bernard Cornwell's own fist person telling through the Warlord Chronicles, there’s still room for others to plant
their vision.
In the Skystone, the first book of the Camulod Chronicles, we’re introduced Pubius Varrus. He is our
first person narrator for the tale of the Skystone.
Varrus is a bit of a Mary Sue.
He does face adversity. He does face loss. But when the chips are done, he
always comes through smelling of a rose.
He often finds himself in situations
where no, he should be dead, but nonetheless, comes out on top. As a main
character though, his flaws, such as his injured leg, help make up for the
overwhelming good fortune he has.
Unlike some books on Arthur, this one takes place well
before Arthur, or even Uther is introduced to the reader. This is a tale that
takes place when Britain is a land still under the control of the Roman Empire
but that control, over a number of years, slips and begins to vanish away.
Jack Whyte takes his time in the slow descent of Rome. It
doesn’t happen overnight. There are signs and portents of it everywhere. Some
people looking at things in America now might draw some parallels to how things
work in Jack’s Rome. For example, discipline in the Roman army is down. They
used to dig trenches prior to setting up for an overnight stay on the road for
defensibility purposes.
That in and of itself may seem small, but coup it with
soldiers not being treated right by Rome in the first place. In tandem with the
Roman empire accepting people of various nationalities that aren’t Roman but
who leave after service, bringing those skill sets with them. When people in
other countries have been under assault for years by the Empire, their children
killed, their resources drained. There are some parallels if one chooses to
look for them with modern America.
By the end of the tale, Varrus and his good friend Caius
Britannicus, have started to forge their own colony for the former Romans who
are of long standing British birth. They have their own plan and their own
method.
And more importantly, they have access to the fabled
Skystone!
Jack Whyte puts a little too much description and detail
into his writing but the good news is that it flows quickly. In terms of
writing style, it’s not an “as it happens” 1st person. It’s an “as
it happened” first person. The author is alive and well. We might fear
something bad is going to happen to Varrus, but we know he’s not going to die. An
editor who wanted to reduce this novel could probably have lopped out 50 pages
without doing it any harm as it would still weigh in over 400 pages.
With such rich details and interesting characters, Jack
Whyte has hooked me for at least the next two books as I already own the third
and will shortly hunt down the second.
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