Merlin

Rarely have I had such a strong negative reaction to a book. I hated it. And part of the reason, I think, I that the first volume, Taliesin, was superb. But while in Taliesin Lawhead spun an intriguing tale that treated the source material with respect, Merlin quickly becomes a religious tract proclaiming how superior christianity is to the pagan religions that it displaces.

For me, Lawhead did two unforgivable things in this book. First, he makes Merlin a christian and a missionary. Yes, of course the Arthur cycle is part of European christian heritage - but Merlin is ALWAYS the link back to the pagan past, the holder of the magic of ancient knowledge and the oral tradition that stretches back before the christians and even the Romans. show more To co-opt him as a tool to preach the christian that destroys that tradition, when almost every other aspect of the story already serves that purpose, is both pointless and offensive.

And even worse than this, the author turns aside from writing a fine, gripping, meaningful story with strong religious sentiments and begins to write a sermon. show less

Very violent, but otherwise interesting adaptation of Arthurian legend. Appears to be more closely related to the Vulgate cycle and Welsh folklore than anything that Mallory picked up on.

Rating: 2.5* of five

The Publisher Says: He was born to greatness, the son of a druid bard and a princess of lost Atlantis. A trained warrior, blessed with the gifts of prophecy and song, he grew to manhood in a land ravaged by the brutal greed of petty chieftains and barbarian invaders.

Merlin: Respected, feared and hated by many, he was to have a higher destiny. for It was he who prepared the way for the momentous event that would unite the Island of the Mighty—the coming of Arthur Pendragon, Lord of the Kingdom of Summer.

My Review: Merlin's first-person narrative of how he makes Arthur into ARTHUR.

More Jesusy stuff. Now admittedly it's not the Roman Catholic horror that's called, very puzzlingly, Christianity (it's not); but the show more whole subject area grates on me when presented to me as An Undelniable, Inevitable Progressive Event. It wasn't. It made things a lot worse for a lot of people for over a millenium. (Religious wars pretty much non-stop from Western Imperial fall until...wait, until now! So TWO millenia!)

I liked Merlin's first-person narrative voice a lot more than the first book's omniscient narration. But the Atlantean horse pucky and the religious nonsense...well, had it not been for a cute boy wanting me to read his favorite books, I'd've dropped them fast.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. show less

I read this one a long time ago but I still feel the adrenaline of the bullfight in my veins and the love story and the strength for survival. I’m not saying that I’m pro bullfight but the character makes you feel so much when she in the arena, her passion her moves you.

This is the second book in Lawhead's series on The Arthurian legend. The action takes you from the birth of Merlin, to meeting Uther Pendragon and it ends with birth of Arthur. The story is told through Merlin's POV.

The story line in this series is so much different then the one in The Mists of Avalon -in Mists everyone is Pagan, in this one the central theme is Catholicism. Personally I just could not comprehend Merlin being a Christian, and the monks converting everyone they came into contact with, it was just not believable to me. However, besides the old Disney version, this is only my second experience on this topic, so I have no idea how other author's have handled the religious aspect.

And then there is Morgian. Lawford has show more portrayed her as an evil force to be reckoned with. I am still not sure how I feel about this.

The first book, I loved-this one kind of falls between "I liked it" and "so-so". It dragged for me in a lot of places and I think it was because of the non-ending story-line of Christianity.

I will continue on with the series and hope for better reading. show less

Interesting take on Merlin. I've always suspected that the most realistic take was Mark Twain's in _Connecticut Yankee_, but Lawhead gives the old wizard a heavy Christian spin, which, I suppose, he had to have to send the knights out after the Grail. There's not much discussion of why Merlin is the way he is, although we know from the first book in the series that he was raised at least partially by Atlanteans; and I'm looking forward to learning who his actual grandfather was as I progress in this series. Characterization never seems to me to be particularly strong in this sort of epic fantasy, but then since many of the characters are familiar to the reasonably literate, maybe that's not a big loss. It's fun having a little bit of show more the back story in your head, too, so you can see where Lawhead is going when he brings out the Fisher King or the Lady in the Lake. Susan Cooper did something similar in the _Dark Is Rising_ series. Worth reading so you can say you've done it, but I don't think I'd pick it up twice. show less

The second book in the Pendragon Cycle by Stephen Lawhead does not disappoint. Lawhead provides an excellent, albeit a bit religious, adaption of the legendary Merlin. I felt the first book in the series, Taliesin, was a great book, but Merlin is a must read. Unlike Taliesin, Merlin is told in the first-person, by Merlin, which I felt made the book more enjoyable. The book is loaded with high kings (yes, there are several), bards, druids, evil, and epic battles with the ever present and menacing barbarians, the Saecsen. Now, on to book three in the series, Arthur.