Druids follows Ainvar of the Carnute tribe as he is admitted as an apprentice to a druid to the time region's the druids ceased or retreated to obscurity to avoid Roman persecution. Through Ainvar, Llywelyn weaves fiction into the historical role of Vercingetorix of the Arverni tribe who eventually unites Gaul's tribes to fight Julius Caesar's campaign to conquer the region.

I haven't conducted the research to know how much of the story is fiction and how much is nonfiction, but from what I do know the book impresses me. I learned the many tribes of Gaul (basically Iron Age France), tribal cultures and wholesome Gaulish culture, relations with Latium (Italy), and principles of what is known about real world druids (not the fantasy deviation that has almost nothing to do with the name besides the names).

Most of the story feels like a smooth narration of actual history with fictional subplots hovering in the background. Normally I don't enjoy such books, but in this case it was done well and I kept a strong reading pace. The main character, Ainvar, is a bit of an idiot in his personal life and that was probably written that way on purpose to counter how brilliant he is to his community as a druid and to his friend, Prince then King Vercingetorix, as a war strategist that could intellectually compete with Caesar.

I appreciate that Llywelyn included women as druids. There isn't much historical evidence of this, but in the story the community act like it isnatural to occasionally have a woman who lives as a professional instead of a baby maker. Not only are there two female druids, but some women fight in battles--a few because "they are Celts" and Celts are fighters, but many and more typically there are women in the German forces, and Germans are regarded as the true brute fighters that everyone fears.

Much of the book chronicles back and forth between Caesar's campaign in Gaul and how to respond and Ainvar visiting his village, being a regular druid, and participating in the fictional subplots of his women issues and petty back stabbing from a former friend. Most people in his home town have little to do with the greater plot, so I think of everything set there as meant to be the personalizing of the story and everything beyond that location as the historical narrative. An intriguing structure, really.

I intend to read other books from this author. Some historical fiction can be over dramatic and emphasize cliches like romance triangles and petty political struggles--themes I suspect are considered to be guilty pleasures by most people--but these were besides the point in this book instead of being the main point and the history just a back drop. The history he was rich and had just enough personalized flavor to make me read fast but not displace education from the pages. ( )

Druids is an historical fiction book about the Roman conquest of Gaul (modern France) from the point of view of the Gauls. Specifically from the POV of a druid named Ainvar, who shrugs off the expectation he’ll become a warrior like his father and brothers, and instead embraces his talent for magic. Llewelyn toes the line between full fantasy magic and magical realism. It’s unclear whether actual magic is happening, or if it’s just Ainvar’s interpretation of natural events and feelings, and I love this.

This book very nearly brought me to tears, a rare feat as I am not a crier (except when the anxiety hits), and was one of the first books to make me seriously emotional. The characters just feel like such real people and when - spoiler alert - one of my favorites met a tragic end, it was like losing a friend.

I’m sure the author has taken some creative liberties with history and the handful of actual historical figures that make appearances, but it’s clear she’s done her research and there’s no obvious anachronisms that stood out to my casual history buff knowledge. ( )

People. Trees. One. History. Atmospheric magic, prancing around. ( )

I would have liked to have had a pronunciation guide like the one in the sequel. I sort of read out loud silently--I need to hear the names and unfamiliar words in my head, and I kept stumbling over the unfamiliar sounds of the Gallic/Gaelic names. I also have a hard time following troop movements and battles, so between that and the names, a large part of the send half of the book was lost on me.

It was a welcome change to read a positive view of the peoples that Caesar defeated. Western civilization would have taken a different turn entirely if the Nature-loving, nature-integrated Celts had defeated the mechanistic, war-loving Romans.

The druid Ainvar tells of Celtic life in Gaul (modern-day France), and of the coming of Julius Caesar and the Romans. The Celts worshipped under the stars and bore a healthy respect for nature. The Romans, in contrast, were obsessed with war, rigidity, and man-made structures. Ainvar's friend Vercingetorix is a Celtic prince determined to stave off the Roman invasion. The story is a sad tale of the conquering of Gaul, for Vercingetorix, of course, ends up a prisoner of Caesar's and is eventually paraded as a spectacle through Rome before being executed. ( )