Reviews - Enemy of God | The StoryGraph

330 reviews for:

Enemy of God

Bernard Cornwell

4.36 AVERAGE

patremagne's review against another edition

4.0

Another strong entry. Slow at times, and a distinct lack of Galahad for much of the book, but otherwise compelling.

wolfmantula's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

I have to say, Cornwell is such an incredible writer, and I’m saddened that it took me this long to read his works, but I sure glad I finally am. He just has such an amazing way with words that just flow effortlessly off the page. With how much I loved The Winter King, I was ready to dip back in to old Britannia to see what happened next to Derfel, Arthur, Lancelot, Guinevere and everyone else within this story. To my sheer delight, Cornwell spared nothing and went in like a sharpe end of a sword weaving such a realistic tale that had me reeling from one end of the emotional spectrum to the other, in a story that felt more real than actual history. Reading about this time in history has fascinated me and because of this series, I am going to be reading more interpretations of the stories of King Arthur.

Cornwell’s story telling is absolute perfection, there’s no other way to say it, he just has a way of sucking the reader in, and me as the current reader, was sucked in within moments of the first paragraph. There is a lot to unpack with Enemy of God, this story is mostly about the battle of religions, but it is also about heroism, romance and tragedy. A story told by Derfel of him choosing love over Arthur and the ramifications it has on Arthur’s war against the Saxons. Meanwhile, the Christian’s are trying to take over Britain with the new Christian faith and eradicate the paganistic faith of Druidism. Loved the inclusion of the infamous round table of Knights, but my favorite part of this was the inclusion of the story of the tragic star crossed lovers, Tristan and Iseult, Cornwell’s story is a bit different from the tale and the film, it is much much darker and ends horrifically. I knew this story wouldn’t end well, but it was only the beginning of what Cornell was going to do.

“he had the power to obliterate heathenism and did not do it, and that sin made him the Enemy of God.”

What I’m happy about most of all in this novel, was that Cornwell made Merlin more likable and a lot funnier compared to his more dark and mysteriousness in The Winter King. This didn’t change the mysteriousness of him, but the lighter tone of his personality did make his parts a lot more enjoyable. Derfel is still such an awesome character, I really love reading this story from his point of view. To see his relationships with all the characters and his arguments with Igraine on the type of story he is telling makes it so much enjoyable. There is a lot of growth with the characters from The Winter King to now, none grow near as much as Arthur from where he is at the end of Enemy of God, and rightfully so, since Arthur is the main point of the story that Derfel is telling.

The narration of Jonathan Keeble is just a masterclass in execution, this is the type of narration that every narrator should strive to reach. I love how he can bring the emotion of the characters to life, I could feel it all and there’s nothing better than being able to feel the emotion the writer intended the reader to feel than to have a narrator be able to produce that to the listener. There is one instance where I hadn’t expected to cry, but wow, that raw emotion of not only the words, but Keeble’s narration just wrecked me. I felt the anger boil up in me the way Derfel felt it boil in him, that raw emotion pours out on the page and into the ears with such perfection. With that said, the only negative I can really say is that I had the same audio production issues of random spots that stop whispersyncing throughout, that I had in book one, I expect this to continue with the final book as well, thankfully it’s not full pages, but just random paragraphs here and there.

abissette's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark emotional sad fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

zethun's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

rebeccawill's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

lgrunwald's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

5/5

Normally in trilogies it's usually the middle book that suffers a bit due to having to build up to something even more grand in the third book. So usually it's just a lot of fancy filler to get the story moving along to the authors intended end. However I am so glad to say that this book is not one of them.

Bernard Cornwells "Enemy Of G-d" is an absolute masterclass of a sequel. Not only does it keep the ball rolling from the first book almost like there wasn't even a split in the novels but it improves and enhances on that stories foundations tenfold! Before we had our narrator Derfel simply as a young man coming into his own after a tragedy and becoming a great warrior all under the watchful teaching of the warlord in shining armour Arthur. The world was violent but the perception of the future was bright and hopeful for Arthurs utopian version of the Britain he wished to create for Mordreds assention to the throne.

This tale took a different turn. As it turns out not everything in Arthurs vision quite turns out how he plans it and a sweeping darkness takes over the story. This book truely has it all from the romance of Derfel and his stolen star, to the journey down the dark road in hunt of the magic cauldron with Merlin and Nimue, great battles against the Saxons, great truths revealed, alliances shaken, oaths broken, and a betrayal that threatens to bring Brition to its end forever. It's epic, it's dramatic, it's shocking, and it's bloody and gory and a really...really good time. I absolutely loved every second of it.

Cornwell also (mostly) fixed my previous criticism of the female characters and the assaults and their treatment in this sequel. The things I previously mentioned happened but were rare and if it did it made sense to the context of the story and wasn't just for its own sake and I appreciated it immensely. Not only that but he improved on the writings of his female characters and showed that they could be strong in in different ways from Ceinwyns gentleness, love, and sacrifice for her family to Nimues pure and raw rage. All the female characters in this sequel were very well rounded and very well represented in my opinion! A massive, massive improvement and I'm genuinely impressed.

I won't say more in fear of spoilers but that cliffhanger at the end has me itching to get to the third book and the stories conclusion.