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We know the legends: Arthur brought justice to a land that had known only cruelty and force; his father, Uther, carved a kingdom out of the chaos of the fallen Roman Empire; the sword Excalibur, drawn from stone by England's greatest king. But legends do not tell the whole tale. Legends do not tell of the despairing Roman soldiers, abandoned by their empire, faced with the choice of fleeing back to Rome, or struggling to create a last stronghold against the barbarian onslaughts from the north and east. Legends do not tell of Arthur's great-grandfather, Publius Varrus, the warrior who marked the boundaries of a reborn empire with his own shed blood; they do not tell of Publius's wife, Luceiia, British-born and Roman-raised, whose fierce beauty burned pale next to her passion for law and honor. With The Camulod Chronicles, Jack Whyte tells us what legend has forgotten: the history of blood and violence, passion and steel, out of which was forged a great sword, and a great nation. The Singing Sword continues the gripping epic begun in The Skystone: As the great night of the Dark Ages falls over Roman Britain, a lone man and woman fight to build a last stronghold of law and learning--a crude hill-fort, which one day, long after their deaths, will become a great city . . . known as Camelot.… (más)
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. ( )
With the second volume of the Camulud chronicles, Mr. Whyte has departed from the world of "Historical Fiction" to the murky area between "Arthuriana" and Fantasy. The first volume, "the Skystone" worked well in presenting a pre-scientific world, quite reasonably. But now, we have the invention of the hilted sword usually thought to have occurred in Scandinavia in the 900's CE. And, the stirrup, now considered to to have ben brought to Eastern Europe at about 650 in Byzantium, and sliding into the further west in the Carolingian period. of the 800's. So, we are into romance as opposed to the tighter world of say Sharon Penman, or Bernard Cornwell. So, how does it stack up as fantasy, dealing with the matters of "Things too real to be true." So so, so far. The characterization is a bit stiff, and now we are coming to see how well the tropes of the Arthurian world are negotiated by Mr. Whyte. Overall the series remains readable, but not compelling. Looking at the title, which could be an homage to the "Prince Valiant" Comic strip of Hal Foster, I am now searching for further little amusing touches. The novel was first published by Viking Penguin in 1993, in Canada. ( )
When we last encountered Publius Varrus and his friend Caius Britannicus, the two men had founded a colony in south-west Britain, hoping to preserve Roman values and public order even after the Empire inevitably withdraws from the island. This second book in the series shows us the teething struggles of the infant colony, as Saxon raids multiply along the coast and, far across the sea, the Roman empire begins to tear itself apart. While I was glad to be reunited with our two doughty protagonists, of whom I grew rather fond in the first book, I felt that this sequel failed to live up to its eventful predecessor. Pacing becomes a serious issue here, and some factors which only niggled faintly in the first volume became problematic in The Singing Sword. And yet there’s still the pleasure of watching various Arthurian motifs (or characters) coming into being. In short, a curate’s egg – and hopefully only a temporary misstep...
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
For Beverley... my personal Jean Armour
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Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
The tribune recognized the first signs from more than a mile away, just as the road dropped down from the ridge to enter the trees: a whirlpool of hawks and carrion-eaters, spiralling above the treetops of the forest ahead of him.
Citas
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Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
Within six years, even the legions left behind had followed that first exodus, and after four hundred years of Pax Romana - Roman peace, protection and prosperity in Britain - the country lay soft and undefended, at the mercy of her enemies.
We know the legends: Arthur brought justice to a land that had known only cruelty and force; his father, Uther, carved a kingdom out of the chaos of the fallen Roman Empire; the sword Excalibur, drawn from stone by England's greatest king. But legends do not tell the whole tale. Legends do not tell of the despairing Roman soldiers, abandoned by their empire, faced with the choice of fleeing back to Rome, or struggling to create a last stronghold against the barbarian onslaughts from the north and east. Legends do not tell of Arthur's great-grandfather, Publius Varrus, the warrior who marked the boundaries of a reborn empire with his own shed blood; they do not tell of Publius's wife, Luceiia, British-born and Roman-raised, whose fierce beauty burned pale next to her passion for law and honor. With The Camulod Chronicles, Jack Whyte tells us what legend has forgotten: the history of blood and violence, passion and steel, out of which was forged a great sword, and a great nation. The Singing Sword continues the gripping epic begun in The Skystone: As the great night of the Dark Ages falls over Roman Britain, a lone man and woman fight to build a last stronghold of law and learning--a crude hill-fort, which one day, long after their deaths, will become a great city . . . known as Camelot.
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