A worthy reinterpretation of the Grail legend and solid addition to the pantheon of Gawain stories.
An imaginative retelling of the Arthurian saga that casts Sir Gawain as a druid under the tutelage of Merlin.
There are innumerable versions of the story of King Arthur, his Knights of the Round Table and their quest for the Holy Grail. This one, however, features some unusual twists. In addition to the usually boisterous and garrulous Gawain being reserved to the point of melancholy, Arthur is a sometimes-irrational zealot who distrusts Merlin and, after being cuckolded by Guinevere and Lancelot, focuses solely on attaining the Grail, neglecting the maintenance of Camelot in the process. Lancelot, the greatest knight in the world, is also one of Arthur’s brothers, a creature of magic created by the Dark Druid Morganna for the purpose of destroying the Grail and unleashing an unholy evil upon the world. The story begins when Gawain, badly injured in a fight with Lancelot in an attempt to claim the Grail for Camelot, stumbles upon the castle of the druid Rhiannon. With Gawain’s memory gone and his wounds in dire need of care, Rhiannon takes him to the mysterious Terran Stone, a work of magic created by the Far Druids. As he touches the lights emitted by the Stone, Gawain pieces together his memories through a series of flashbacks. The episodic nature of the narrative is occasionally disconcerting, though it creates a dreamlike atmosphere that suits the story well. The prose is sharp, and, aside from Lancelot’s excessively French accent, the dialogue rings true, with a formality that seldom becomes stilted. Most intriguing is the interplay between the old ways of the Druids and the rise of Christianity, with Gawain serving as the fulcrum that unites the two worlds. By highlighting the influence of the Druids and allowing the two faiths to coexist, the author creates a harmonious mixture that offers intriguing possibilities for future tales.
A worthy reinterpretation of the Grail legend and solid addition to the pantheon of Gawain stories.Pub Date: June 30, 2006
ISBN: 0-9713278-3-1
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
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