Excalibur

by Bernard Cornwell Narrated by Jonathan Keeble

Overview

With Excalibur Bernard Cornwell draws his Arthurian trilogy to an exciting close that will have listners gripping their headphones.

If Arthur existed (and I am quite certain he did) then he was probably the great British war leader who won the battle of Mount Badon. No one knows where it was fought, or how it was fought, but we do know that the battle took place and it was the one great defeat inflicted on the English invaders of Britain. In Excalibur we follow Arthur and Derfel to that enormous struggle and incredible victory. It not only throws the Saxons back, but reunites Arthur and Guinevere. He might hope now to be left alone, to have a time of peace after gaining a great victory, but new enemies arise to destroy all he has achieved. First is Mordred himself, the crippled king who owes everything to Arthur and now tries to kill his benefactor. Mordred's ally is Nimue who has come to hate her mentor, Merlin. And so the story ends as it has always ended, at Camlann . . . 'and so my lord was gone. And no one has seen him since.'

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Readers of Mallory and other sources of Arthurian lore may be struck by their conflation of bloody savagery and Christian pieties. In his new Arthurian novel, Cornwell (The Winter King) dramatizes the confrontation of Christianity--here depicted as the political tool of self-righteous brutes, opportunists and hypocrites--with the old religion of the Druids. Chief among the Druids are Merlin and his nemesis, Nimue, who cast spells and preside over rituals of fire and human sacrifice in order to bring about a return of the old gods, saving Britain from the Saxons. Priestess Nimue wants to sacrifice Arthur's son Gwydre to this end, but Merlin resists, as do Arthur and his warrior friend Derfel: for this they suffer terribly. The tale is told by Derfel, now an old monk in the service of an illiterate and sadistic bishop who would punish Derfel if he knew what he were writing. This frame works well to flavor and deepen the whole. The book is a military tale--alliances, strategies, battles, betrayals--and is stirringly told as Arthur routs the treacherous Lancelot and his Saxon backers. It is also the tale of the reconciliation of Arthur, honest to a fault and tortured by his wife's betrayal, with Guinevere, extraordinary in her bravery, wisdom and forthrightness. Equally central is Derfel's devotion to his mate, Ceinwyn, for whose life he sacrifices his shield hand, averting Nimue's curse. The action is gripping and skillfully paced, cadenced by passages in which the characters reveal themselves in conversation and thought, convincingly evoking the spirit of the time. Ways of ancient ritual, battle and daily life are laid out in surprising detail. One feels the element of fantasy only in the incredible integrity of Derfel and Arthur, men who sacrifice all for a vow--but our reluctance to believe may be only a sign of our times. (July)

Library Journal

In a compelling finale, historical novelist Cornwell concludes his three-part retelling of the Arthurian legend (The Winter King, LJ 5/15/96; Enemy of God, LJ 7/97). Despite the rather misleading idealized jacket cover, Excalibur portrays not romantic Camelot but a nasty, brutal fifth-century Britain in which heads and other body parts literally pile up. Indeed, this novel is even more graphic than its predecessors in its depictions of gore and violence. Although Arthur temporarily halts the invading Saxons at the battle of Mynydd Baddon (during which Lancelot meets a coward's death and Guinevere is reconciled with her husband), his dream of a unified Celtic kingdom is doomed. Thwarting him is the vicious Mordred who makes a pact with Nimue to bring back the old Druid gods and destroy the new Christian deity. Cornwell's attention to historical detail, his penchant for lively storytelling, and his vivid characters make this a good choice for all collections.--Wilda Williams, "Library Journal"

Kirkus Reviews

This completes Cornwell's well-received Warlord Chronicles, an Arthurian trilogy (The Winter King, 1996, and Enemy of God, 1997). And, yes, this is the same author who wrote the wonderfully entertaining Sharpe series of 18th-century military adventure. Here, a revisionist Cornwell moves away smartly from Malory's Morte d'Artur (not to mention John Boorman's magnificent film Excalibur), which is all Frenchified romance and not sixth-century British history, which itself is very sketchy. Cornwell's Guinevere has betrayed and left Arthur, while Lancelot too departs as both coward and traitor. In this last of the series, Arthur strives to unite Britain under one throne, while Merlin and Mordred bring down upon him the Druidic gods, who can be stopped only by Arthur's baptism into Christianity. Splendid, white-hot storytelling.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170211746
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	11/18/2014
Series:	Warlord Chronicles Series
Edition description:	Unabridged

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