Roger Taylor (1) (1938–2023)
Author of The Call of the Sword
For other authors named Roger Taylor, see the disambiguation page.
About the Author
Author Roger Taylor was born in Heywood, Lancashire, England in 1938. He has written twelve fantasy novels all set in the same universe, but there is only minor interaction between the books. The first four books are collectively known as the Chronicles of Hawklan. He is also a civil and structural show more engineer and enjoys teaching and practicing aikido and shooting pistols, rifles, and shotguns. He currently lives in Wirral, Merseyside, England. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Kelly Martin
Series
Works by Roger Taylor
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1938
- Date of death
- 2023-03-25
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- UK
- Birthplace
- Heywood, Rochdale, Lancashire, UK
- Places of residence
- Wirral Peninsula, UK
- Associated Place (for map)
- UK
Members
Reviews
{first of 4 in The Chronicles of Hawklan/ first of 12 in Chronicles of Hawklan Universe; fantasy, epic fantasy, adventure, sword and sorcery}(1988)
The prologue starts with a text which depicts a battle in which a great evil was defeated and imprisoned but not without cost to the defenders including the loss of Ethriss, one of the four immortal Guardians; and they know that they have only put off the inevitable and there will be a second coming of Sumeral.
Hawklan is a gentle healer who appeared out of the mountains above the Orthlundyn village of Pedhavin twenty years before the story proper starts. He has no memory of his life before that but he did have the key to open the long-sealed gates of the legendary castle-fortress of Anderras Darion. He has since made a life there and made good friends, among them the raven Gavor who is as intelligent as a human (although he might claim more intelligent).
After the tinker Derimot Findeel Dan-Tor (who may be a predecessor of Padan Fain of The Wheel of Time) visits Pedhavin, Hawklan feels impelled to visit the Gretmearc, the perpetual market in the neighbouring land of Riddin, where he may find answers - or great danger. Before he leaves his friends tell him he needs to carry a sword and, from out of the depths of Anderras Darion, a black sword falls at his feet
This was probably one of the first series I bought in its entirety for my own shelves, back in my student days and I really enjoyed revisiting this world. I'd say it's epic fantasy because of the scope but it has an intentionally gentle feel to it though it still had me on the edge of my seat (so to speak) at times - and there I was worried that it wouldn't live up to my nostalgia. It’s well written and I like the humour too, which had me chuckling a few times.
(March 2025)
4.5-5 stars show less
The prologue starts with a text which depicts a battle in which a great evil was defeated and imprisoned but not without cost to the defenders including the loss of Ethriss, one of the four immortal Guardians; and they know that they have only put off the inevitable and there will be a second coming of Sumeral.
But in His falling, two things Heshow more
did. His mortal hand loosed the spear that struck down Ethriss, and His spirit shrank and vowed and learned and hid in the hearts of His most faithful until some future time would come.The peoples who exist in the present time (as the story begins) don't even have any racial memory of that war or the expected resumption except for a few practices and superstitions that they hold onto though they don't remember the reasons for them.
Hawklan is a gentle healer who appeared out of the mountains above the Orthlundyn village of Pedhavin twenty years before the story proper starts. He has no memory of his life before that but he did have the key to open the long-sealed gates of the legendary castle-fortress of Anderras Darion. He has since made a life there and made good friends, among them the raven Gavor who is as intelligent as a human (although he might claim more intelligent).
After the tinker Derimot Findeel Dan-Tor (who may be a predecessor of Padan Fain of The Wheel of Time) visits Pedhavin, Hawklan feels impelled to visit the Gretmearc, the perpetual market in the neighbouring land of Riddin, where he may find answers - or great danger. Before he leaves his friends tell him he needs to carry a sword and, from out of the depths of Anderras Darion, a black sword falls at his feet
Hawklan stood up and wrapped his right hand firmly around the hilt of the sword. As he did so, he heard a sound like a distant trumpet. A faint, infinitely distant clarion call from another age. For an instant he felt a surge of recognition, also from times past, but it slipped away like a dream at dawn.and has the effect of immediately transforming him from healer to warrior just in the way that he instinctively carries it.
'My sword,' he heard himself say softly.
Hawklan wore the clothes and the sword as if they were a natural part of him. The brothers saw before them the man they knew as a healer. A gentle, slightly innocent man, full of gentleness and light. But his healer's cowled robe had been laid aside and, standing armed, breeched, and booted, in a metal-buckled jerkin and with a long hooded cloak over his shoulders, the whole in black, his bearing was purely that of a warrior and leader. A warrior and a leader the like of which could be seen in the thick of battle in many of the carvings that filled the Castle.Meanwhile, we learn that Dan-Tor has come from another neighbouring country, Fyorlund, where he has weasled his way into position as the king's right hand - although he is no native of Fyorlund either but owes his allegiance elsewhere - and he seems to be undermining that country's policies from the inside.
This was probably one of the first series I bought in its entirety for my own shelves, back in my student days and I really enjoyed revisiting this world. I'd say it's epic fantasy because of the scope but it has an intentionally gentle feel to it though it still had me on the edge of my seat (so to speak) at times - and there I was worried that it wouldn't live up to my nostalgia. It’s well written and I like the humour too, which had me chuckling a few times.
'I wonder what killed it? I can't see any injury. It looks healthy enough.'I do like the cover (Headline edition) by Mark Harrison (9) which shows Hawklan’s castle of Anderras Darion, built at the mouth of a hanging valley, and the picture is framed by what looks like the gateposts of the castle that is in the illustration; it takes me back to that time of life when I was just starting to discover the fantasy genre, and the covers of the books I was reading could transport me to another world. Just looking at them again now sends a thrill through me.
'Apart from being dead,' chuckled Gavor, then, apologetically, 'Sorry.'
(March 2025)
4.5-5 stars show less
I think Robert Jordan strip-mined this or used the same sources for parts of The Wheel of Time, but I'm not saying he used the parts better. This volume is distinguished from its contemporaries by having the most pointlessly annoying sidekick of a peg-legged bird, Gavor, and his ceaseless "dear boys." If I could have throttled him, I would have, and let Hawklan get turned to the dark.
I thought I liked fantasy books that were all about the world and short on characterization, then I read this. Hawklan is boring and Gavor is just insufferable. I'm sure there's some in-universe explanation for at least one of those later on, but it's quite a slog in this book.
It is interesting to see the bits that Robert Jordan borrowed, though.
It is interesting to see the bits that Robert Jordan borrowed, though.
Taylor writes amazing epic fantasy that is often contained in a single book and this is one of them. He weaves a complex world that you can see as a possible otherworld but you can also see some of his weaknesses and commonly used character types.
Thyrn is a young in-experienced Caddoran, a group of people within this world who can relay messages exactly as said, from their ability to encompas the message and somewhat get the thinking behind the message this leads Thyrn to see too much into show more the mind of Vashnar, the commander of Arvenstaat's Wardens. This leads to Thyrn running from the world he knows, but his path will lead him back to fight against the evil that Vashnar has embraced.
The ending is very rushed and maybe it would have been better served by being two books instead of one. show less
Thyrn is a young in-experienced Caddoran, a group of people within this world who can relay messages exactly as said, from their ability to encompas the message and somewhat get the thinking behind the message this leads Thyrn to see too much into show more the mind of Vashnar, the commander of Arvenstaat's Wardens. This leads to Thyrn running from the world he knows, but his path will lead him back to fight against the evil that Vashnar has embraced.
The ending is very rushed and maybe it would have been better served by being two books instead of one. show less
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