An unusual take on Dark Ages drama which may well command a following.
First in a trilogy set in sixth-century Celtic Britain, starring the sister of the man who will be Merlin.
According to her author’s note, Pike has set out to reconstruct the historical underpinnings of the Arthur legends, tracing their roots to what is today Scotland. In this first volume, we meet Languoreth and her twin brother, Lailoken, children of chieftan-king Morken, who have recently lost their mother. Since their father is often absent at the court of the high king and overlord, Tutgual, the children are raised by their loyal nurse, Crowan, their tutor, Cathan, a Wisdom Keeper—that is, a druidic priest—and Ariane, a rare female Wisdom Keeper who appears one day to help prepare Languoreth for womanhood. Lailoken is being groomed as a warrior—the kingdoms to the southeast are being preyed upon by invading Angles—but his main aspiration is to be a Wisdom Keeper. As the twins reach adolescence it is clear that although Lailoken will be free to follow his path, Languoreth’s destiny is as a royal bargaining chip. One of the chief virtues here is Pike’s demonstration of the destabilization posed by Christian evangelists. When, at first, it's limited to a few monks, Christianity integrates well with the prevailing druidism. Then, a crusading monk named Mungo desecrates a druidic shrine and worms his way into Tutgual’s favor. Pike is sensitive to feudal politics: One of Christianity’s chief attractions for royalty is, apparently, a priesthood which submits to the divine right of kings, as opposed to the Wisdom Keepers, who guard their independence and sovereignty. Although the Celts cling to the old beliefs and to feasts like Beltane and Lughnasa (lavishly depicted here), Mungo will stop at nothing, including murder and pillage, to topple the ancient gods. Once Languoreth is wed to Tutgual’s heir, pregnant by her true love Maelgwn, and directly threatened by Mungo, the conflict never lets up. Despite a few clichés, the language does a fine job of evoking the period.
An unusual take on Dark Ages drama which may well command a following.Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-9141-1
Page Count: 544
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: June 17, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
PROFILES
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
At Buckkeep in the Six Duchies, young Fitz, the bastard son of Prince Chivalry, is raised as a stablehand by old warrior Burrich. But when Chivalry dies without legitimate issue—murdered, it's rumored—Fitz, at the orders of King Shrewd, is brought into the palace and trained in the knightly and courtly arts. Meanwhile, secretly at night, he receives instruction from another bastard, Chade, in the assassin's craft. Now, King Shrewd's subjects are imperiled by the visits of the Red-Ship Raiders—formidable warriors who pillage the seacoasts and turn their human victims into vicious, destructive zombies. Since rehabilitating the zombies proves impossible, it's Fitz's task to go abroad covertly and kill them as quickly and humanely as possible. Shrewd orders that Fitz be taught the Skill—mental powers of telepathy and coercion possessed by all those of the royal line; his teacher is Galen, a sadistic ally of the popinjay Prince Regal, who hates Fitz all the more for his loyalty to Shrewd's other son, the stalwart soldier Verity. Galen brutalizes Fitz and, unknown to anyone, implants a mental block that prevents Fitz from using the Skill. Later, Shrewd decrees that, to cement an alliance, Verity shall wed the Princess Kettricken, heir to a remote yet rich mountain kingdom. Verity, occupied with Skillfully keeping the Red-Ship Raiders at bay, can't go to collect his bride, so Regal and Fitz are sent. Finally, Fitz must discover the depths of Regal's perfidy, recapture his true Skill, win Kettricken's heart for Verity, and help Verity defeat the Raiders. An intriguing, controlled, and remarkably assured debut, at once satisfyingly self-contained yet leaving plenty of scope for future extensions and embellishments.
Pub Date: April 17, 1995
ISBN: 0-553-37445-1
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Spectra/Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
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