Someone is Stirring the Cauldron
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Bernard Cornwell is one of that rare breed of authors who are able to write convincingly on a broad range of subjects. Present day thrillers, the Sharpe novels about riflemen in the days of the Duke of Wellington, even an ancient historical novel about Stonehenge and it doesn't come much more ancient than that. His more recent novels have been about the Saxons and very good they are too. But I think that the trilogy he has written about the Arthurian legends are certainly among the best, if not the best of his novels. Having visited the authors website he also believes they are the best books he has written.
The legends of King Arthur hold a magical attraction for many people, myself included and I enjoy reading about them very much. The tales of Arthur and his knights of the round table riding about in full and shining armour are of course a total nonsense and a more or less modern day depiction of Arthur. Suits of armour were not even invented until several hundred years after Arthur's death, if indeed he existed at all. But if he did it would be more around the time in which the Winter King is set.
Mr. Cornwell puts a more realistic slant on the existence of Arthur in or around the sixth century, and the author himself believes that Arthur was some sort of war chief rather than a king.
This is the second book in the trilogy. At the end of the previous book (The Winter King) Arthur has fought the decisive battle that unites the warring British Kingdoms and now he sets out to face the real enemy . . . Merlin has led a dangerous expedition into the West of the land to retrieve a cauldron, one of the treasures of Britain. Merlin believes the ancient treasures of Britain will bring the old gods onto the side of the British against the Saxons and the Christians, whom Merlin hates. However he is not the only one plotting, Arthur's wife Guinevere wants to make magic of her own . . .
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A fine piece of story-telling.
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Any middle part of a trilogy makes for difficult reviewing; after all, even the Two Towers on it's own lacks any real conclusion, so it might be best to look at Enemy of God in the wider context of an evolving story; in which light, it certainly does itself justice. The novel has a direct continuity with the first part, The Winter King as the action continues right where it left off, the passage of time is well handled with a real sense that we know these characters as of old and can truly understand their motivations and desires, which perhaps underlines Bernard Cornwell's excellent grasp of creating people that have depth and humanity. Derfel continues his narrative and there are plenty of unanswered questions, and overwhelmingly for me, is Derfel's apparent change of faith, which has to be answered in the final instalment. Overall, I would say that Enemy of God is an excellent continuation of what is an impressively well conceived and finely wrought tale, there is almost nothing to criticise here and I look forward to completing the trilogy, whilst being a little disenchanted with the fact that there are no more Warlord Chronicles to savour after this.
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A brilliant second chapter in the W arlord Chronicles.
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Enemy of God is a brilliant second part to Bernard Cornwell's Warlord Chronicles.We meet again with Derfel Cadarn the narrator of the story of Aurthur a character so deep and rich it feels like you miss him when the book is over.This book and the entire series has a feel of the real life and times of Aurthur and not a romantic Hollywood version.It has love,honour and blood and guts.Read all three of the Warlord Chronicles it's a masterpiece and well worth putting on the big screen.
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A very good book which starts off slowly
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This is a very good sequel to the first book in the series if not quite as good as ''THE WINTER KING''. The plot starts of where the prequel ends and the book does take a while to get going. Perseverence is needed for the first seventy pages or so. The novel then picks up at the 100 page mark and we see Arthur and Derfel's attempts to unite the British kingdoms against the Saxons which is not achieved easily as you would expect. There are quite a few plot twists which keep the story interesting and overall this is a very good book with an unexpected twist at the end which makes the slow start worth the wait.
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