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frogman_doug 's review for:
The Winter King
by Bernard Cornwell
Cornwell attempts an "historically accurate" (with as little asynchronous details as possible) adaptation of Arthurian legend... and it just wasn't my cup of tea I guess.
There is definitely a lot to like and enjoy: Cornwell is a hell of a writer, and his style is at its best enthralling, pedantic at its worst. The action is great, and the character work just as great. Arthur's cool, Merlin's is a little problematic yet purposeful (and Cornwell's favoured deus ex machina), Guinevere is up to no good, and our main man Derfel is your standard affair of unexpected hero badass, "started from the bottom..." affair. The other characters are good too.
What didn't "click" for me was the total commitment to realism: such that much of what makes the Arthurian myth so appealing to me (the magick-y bits, faeries, romance, oh my!) was purposefully left out. What I got from this was simply a story of Early Medieval Britain soaked in feud and internecine war with characters who resemble those of the source. I just felt a little let down and hoped that Cornwell would deliver some exciting twist (but that never came). Things wrapped up a little too neatly (and brutally...like YIKES) with little to no incentive for me to finish this trilogy.
Don't get me wrong: this book is good, I see it and know it, but it's not "my" kind of book.
There is definitely a lot to like and enjoy: Cornwell is a hell of a writer, and his style is at its best enthralling, pedantic at its worst. The action is great, and the character work just as great. Arthur's cool, Merlin's is a little problematic yet purposeful (and Cornwell's favoured deus ex machina), Guinevere is up to no good, and our main man Derfel is your standard affair of unexpected hero badass, "started from the bottom..." affair. The other characters are good too.
What didn't "click" for me was the total commitment to realism: such that much of what makes the Arthurian myth so appealing to me (the magick-y bits, faeries, romance, oh my!) was purposefully left out. What I got from this was simply a story of Early Medieval Britain soaked in feud and internecine war with characters who resemble those of the source. I just felt a little let down and hoped that Cornwell would deliver some exciting twist (but that never came). Things wrapped up a little too neatly (and brutally...like YIKES) with little to no incentive for me to finish this trilogy.
Don't get me wrong: this book is good, I see it and know it, but it's not "my" kind of book.