The first one involves the fall of Atlantis from the perspective of Charis, a cunning but troubled princess. There are two plot threads that remain separate until a little over three quarters of the way in, when they finally merge. Lawhead isn’t the only author to combine these approaches in the same series (I think Mary Stewart also does it in her Arthurian saga), but he’s the first I’ve read, and he does it well. Examples of Type 2 are Rosemary Sutcliff’s Sword at Sunset, Anne McCaffrey’s Black Horses for the King, and Bernard Cornwell’s Warlord Chronicles. White’s The Once and Future King and T.A.

14 th century armor and castles in what is supposed to be the 6 th century), and 2) the historical approach, which involves lots of research on the part of the author and generally explores the possible real people behind the legends. I’ve noticed two main approaches that are generally used in retellings of King Arthur legends: 1) the mythical approach, which emphasizes magic, mystery, and sometimes anachronism (ex. Recommendation: Fans of Arthurian fiction will especially want to check this series out for its genuinely interesting take on the legend, but fans of high fantasy in general will probably appreciate it too. Patrick, and even some urban fantasy ones, apparently, and I definitely want to try them all. He’s written a bunch of other books on topics ranging from Robin Hood to St. His integration of historical research is top-notch. But most of the time his writing style works well for the story he is telling. His handling of especially dramatic character arcs is a bit rocky. At worst he can skirt the edge of purple prose in a way that brings you out of the story a little bit. Tolkien, nor the textured grace of Rosemary Sutcliff (though he tries). Lawhead doesn’t reach the level of sharpness and poetry of someone like Guy Gavriel Kay, nor the mythic resonance of J.R.R. It’s straightforward, detail-driven in most of the right ways, and fairly textured and colorful. But since it seems that a lot of little things are being set up that will have huge payoffs later on, maybe when I’m done with the series it would be neat to reread Taliesin and understand more of them.Īuthor Re-readability: Yeah, I like Lawhead’s style, for the most part. I’m more interested in getting to the other books in the series than in rereading this. Story Re-readability: Maybe a couple years from now. Reason for Beginning: Arthurian fiction! Plus I’d heard of it before and just wanted to try it out. It is the story of an incomparable love that joined two worlds amid the fires of chaos, and spawned the miracles of Merlin…and Arthur the king.” (Back cover) Spoiler-free Synopsis: “ Taliesin is the remarkable adventure of Charis, the Atlantean princess who escaped the terrible devastation of her homeland, and of the fabled seer and druid prince Taliesin, singer at the dawn of the age.

Taliesin stephen lawhead