Peregrine: Primus

Ostensibly the tale of a wandering youth, bastard son of the last pagan king in Christiandom, this is an opulent romp of baroque language, sly puns, and wicked satirization of both early Christianity and of the decaying Roman empire.

This historical fantasy has been in my library for a long time, along with the sequel. It's been long enough since I read it (sometime in the 1980s) that I had pretty well forgotten the storyline. About the only thing I remembered about the story (and that only after I read it) was the ending.

The eponymous Peregrine is one of the many bastards of the last pagan king in Europe. Coming of age, he is banished from the kingdom so as not to muddy the waters for the legitimate heirs. This is the story of his wanderings, at first aimlessly, later following his older half brother who had been banished a few years previously.

It's written in a picaresque style, replete with classical allusions. I can see it being of interest to gamers, especially show more Ars Magica players, as magic is very much alive (albeit in retreat before Christianity) so it could form the background for a Dark Ages Covenant.

Probably not to everyone's taste, but I like it. Recommended. show less

In a medieval world that's like a seedy and disreputable neighbour to Guy Gavriel Kay's, where paganism is giving away to Christianity, the bastard son of a pagan king is invited to go seek his fortune elsewehere, and with a stableboy and tutor as his companions, he has assorted encounters and adventures that mingle the sacred and the profane more or less routinely, and which are as often baffling to everyone concerned as not. Peregrine soon gets the swing of things, however. With it high erudition and colourful characters and situations, this is Umberto Eco crossed with jack Vance, but, as with all Davidson, still very much its own thing.

This is a wonderful comic romp. If Davidson had not written "Ursus of Ultimate Thule", this would have established his reputation forever! There are few books for Comparison, "Guards, Guards" by Pratchett, or "Catch 22", perhaps. It belongs in the home of all literate people. Oh, and, it takes place in the Central Roman empire, and features Hun Horde #17.

A humorous picaresque set in a mythical Latter Rome (though not that of Davidson's superior Vergil Magus series). Light, but amusing and full of Davidson's strange wit and inventions.