The Warlord Chronicles: Books 1, 2 & 3: Excalibur / Enemy of God / The Winter King

These are the tales of the last days be­fore the great dark­ness de­scend­ed. These are the tales of the Lost Lands, the coun­try that was once ours but which our en­emies now call Eng­land. These are the tales of Arthur, the War­lord’; the King that Nev­er Was, the En­emy of God and, may the liv­ing Christ for­give me, the best man I ev­er knew. How I have wept for Arthur... Fifth-​cen­tu­ry Britain lies on the edge of dark­ness. Mem­ories of Ro­man civ­iliza­tion! are fad­ing; the pa­gan Gods are re­treat­ing be­fore the spread of Chris­tian­ity; the Sax­ons are snap­ping and snarling at the bor­ders. On­ly frag­ile bonds unite the un­ruly king­doms of Britain against the in­vaders, bonds ce­ment­ed by the vigour of the High King, Uther Pen­drag­on. But the Pen­drag­on is fail­ing, and his heir is no strong lead­er but a child, born on a bit­ter win­ter night. On­ly one man could keep Uther’s throne safe,-on­ly he could hold the war­ring king­doms to­geth­er to face their true en­emy, the Sax­ons. That man is Arthur: sol­dier, states­man, Mer­lin’s pro­tege, Uther’s il­le­git­imate son. But he has been ban­ished, ex­iled by his own fa­ther to Brit­tany. Der­fel, one of his spear­men, nar­rates the sto­ry of Arthur’s re­turn and of his quest for peace: em­bat­tled, bloody and, fi­nal­ly, tri­umphant. The Win­ter King is a mag­nif­icent tale of the Dark Ages and the re­al­ity of war and po­lit­ical strife in a land where re­li­gion vied with mag­ic for the souls of the peo­ple. It por­trays Arthur the man rather than the leg­end, a mil­itary ge­nius who, with a small band of war­riors bound to him by loy­al­ty and love, strug­gled to keep alive a flick­er of civ­iliza­tion.

It takes a remarkable writer to make an old story as fresh and compelling as the first time we heard it. With The Winter King, the first volume of his magnificent Warlord Chronicles, Bernard Cornwell finally turns to the story he was born to write: the mythic saga of King Arthur.

The tale begins in Dark Age Britain, a land where Arthur has been banished and Merlin has disappeared, where a child-king sits unprotected on the throne, where religion vies with magic for the souls of the people. It is to this desperate land that Arthur returns, a man at once utterly human and truly heroic: a man of honor, loyalty, and amazing valor; a man who loves Guinevere more passionately than he should; a man whose life is at once tragic and triumphant.

As Arthur fights to keep a flicker of civilization alive in a barbaric world, Bernard Cornwell makes a familiar tale into a legend all over again.

Library Journal

The Arthurian legend has seen countless renditions over the centuries. The Winter King is a retelling that is reminiscent of Mary Stewart's "Crystal Cave" series (e.g., The Crystal Cave: The Legend of Merlin, Dove Audio, 1989). Characters are rearranged, resulting in a vain and unpopular Lancelot, an ambitious and scheming Guinevere, a Merlin who is more absent Druid than mystic magician, and a Mordred who is Uther's grandson and legitimate heir. The tale is told by the Saxon-born monk Derfel Cadarn for Igraine, a young queen. He relates his childhood in Merlin's compound, his years soldiering with Arthur, and the deeds he witnesses. This gritty tale is well read by Tim Pigott-Smith. Author Cornwell is perhaps best known for his Sharpe military fiction series. Recommended.Denise A. Garofalo, Mid-Hudson Lib. System, Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

Set in Britain's Dark Ages, this story of Arthur journeys beyond the usual tales of chivalry and romance to introduce Arthur as a man of honor, loyalty, amazing valor, and a man who loves Guinevere more passionately than ever before. It takes a remarkable writer to make an old story as fresh and compelling as the first time we heard it. With The Winter King, the first volume of his magnificent Warlord Chronicles, Bernard Cornwell finally turns to the story he was born to write: the mythic saga of King Arthur. The tale begins in Dark Age Britain, a land where Arthur has been banished and Merlin has disappeared, where a child-king sits unprotected on the throne, where religion vies with magic for the souls of the people. It is to this desperate land that Arthur returns, a man at once utterly human and truly heroic: a man of honor, loyalty, and amazing valor; a man who loves Guinevere more passionately than he should; a man whose life is at once tragic and triumphant. As Arthur fights to keep a flicker of civilization alive in a barbaric world, Bernard Cornwell makes a familiar tale into a legend all over again Uther, the High King of Britain, has died, leaving the infant Mordred as his only heir. His uncle, the loyal and gifted warlord Arthur, now rules as caretaker for a country which has fallen into chaos - threats emerge from within the British kingdoms while vicious Saxon armies stand ready to invade. As he struggles to unite Britain and hold back the Saxon enemy, Arthur is embroiled in a doomed romance with beautiful Guinevere. A novel on King Arthur, the legendary 6th Century hero, as he battles the Anglo-Saxons in defense of the Celts. Off the battlefield his sidekick, the magician Merlin, does his best to save Druid gods from invading Christianity