Is it true, one should not judge a book by it's cover. But it's also true that everyone judges a book by it's cover.
I have had this book series on my shelf for decades, every time I touched them and saw the covers a feeling of pure melancholy and boredom took over and made me put them right back into the shelf. I own fourth edition of the Portuguese translation of the "Pendragon Cycle", published by Bertrand in 1997, and this is it's cover:
Now that I have finally read the book, I can confirm that this cover has nothing to do with the book itself! Who even is this person on the cover? Why is everything so dark? Did they (cover "design" is credited to Fernando Felgueiras - Lets blame him... I guess) just used some random painting for the cover? The original covers look dated, by today's standards, but they represent the book better by having Taliesin's harp featured as the main focus of the cover:
While the Portuguese cover doesn't represent anything about the book, and it still looks dated!
Sigh... anyway, I have made my point. Because of the I kept my distance from this book series up until now, but it actually positively surprised me.
Sigh... anyway, I have made my point. Because of the I kept my distance from this book series up until now, but it actually positively surprised me.
**Warning: The text below might contain spoilers and a fair amount of sarcasm**
**Disclaimer: All of this is purely my personal opinion. That means that it's not worth anything for anyone but me.**
Stephen Lawhead's idea of merging the myth of Atlantis with the Arthurian legends is actually somewhat refreshing (at least at first). I feel like this book (not having read the sequels yet) is the foundation for what the author really wanted to write, his own take on the Arthurian legends. Because very little is left from the Atlantis side of the story by the end, since Atlantis is gone.
I very much enjoyed the first 2/3 of the book, we got to explore Atlantis while following Charis our main character, while following the story of Taliesin (starting with his father) in Wales. I liked the dynamic of alternating between the two stories from chapter to chapter. Even when one side started to feel a bit uninteresting, the other side would compensate for it.
The text is very rich, and the author really manages to immerse the reader into the world. However, I don't know if this was a decision by the author, or if it's a mistake of the translator/editor for the Portuguese version, but sometimes the dialogue is a bit of a mess. It's still understandable, but it takes some re-reads to fully comprehend when the dialog ends and the narrator starts. And even this is inconsistent, sometimes it's done in a regular way (paragraph break or divided by a - text - ), other times there's no break at all. I'll make up a small example (too lazy to go dig for an actual example - it would be in Portuguese anyway, so I would have to translate it).
Example:
Example:
- The wind is getting stronger. - said Maria while looking up at the sky. - It will surely rain. But what Maria didn't know was that a sad spirit was causing the bad weather. Once she realized it, she called for Geralt of Rivia to solve the situation for a few coins.
Separating this into dialog and narrator:
- The wind is getting stronger. - said Maria while looking up at the sky. - It will surely rain. But what Maria didn't know was that a sad spirit was causing the bad weather. Once she realized it, she called for Geralt of Rivia to solve the situation for a few coins.
The problem lies between the second bit of dialog and the narration. Now imagine this with more than one character talking and the narrator in the middle. Sometimes it is a real mess. Again, I don't think that this is the work of the author... but I don't know.
But anyway, onward to other complaints (because that's all that enjoy doing).
I loved Charis in the first 2/3 of the book, while she is in Atlantis, after that I feel that she looses all her personality. The same happens to the other main character Taliesin. I don't know the author, so I also don't know if this is due to where he wants the story to go, does he want to prove a point, or if he is just giving the reader a sermon (if so, it really didn't work). Charis was adventurous, curious, brave, self determined, a leader of her people and a role model for others! And then she hears Taliesin sing and done, all her personality is based on her "love" for him, she wants him and... well that's it. Somethings seem to be imposed for the sake of fulfilling a trope, for example, when Charis tells Taliesin that they can not be together because she has "duties" to her people and her father. This makes it look like Charis is still the same as in the first 2/3's of the book, loyal to her people and devoted to help them, as their princess. But all the she does since they left Atlantis is go on horse rides everyday "exploring" the surroundings of her father's palace. She is literally useless, just someone to bow to and praise when she passes.
At the same time, Taliesin was raised to be a druid and a king, as a child he is thought to understand all natural things and respect the gods and traditions, but always with a critical mind. And then he grows up and has an encounter with... GOD. And "GOD" tells him that he can only believe in him, all else is lies and evil, and that he must worship JESUS! And that's it for his character as well... now everything has to do with god's will, everything is due to Jesus, and everyone that still does not believe is described in a condescending way. All was good until everyone started getting happy converted into christianity, the world was mysterious, the plot interesting, people were dense and complex. In the last third of the book, everything is determined by Jesus. At one point, Taliesin is confronted with the fact that Charis is having pregnancy problems, and he states that he could solve the situation by using his powers as a bard... but then decides not too, let Charis and the baby suffer and pray to Jesus instead.
To have a king and all his vassals, suddenly abandon all their traditions and religion, accept and convert to christianity, just because it is "obviously the true religion", is more "fantasy" than having a bunch of goblin riding dragons suddenly show up...
And to think that Charis, on the half of the book, started to take a stand against religion itself, opting to trust herself and not prayers and sacrifices... all wastes because of her love at first sight, Taliesin, and immediately had a baptized without her questioning anything.
Anyway, leaving Jesus behind, there is another thing that really bothered me. Though this might be due to my misinterpretation of the text. When we start the story, Charis is described as "young woman" (I don't think we ever get actual ages), I take that as maybe between 12-16 years old. Meanwhile, Taliesin, was just born. Then by the middle of the book, after a series of events, Charis is advised to leave the arena and the dancing with the bulls due to her age, she is not that young anymore, and might get hurt if her body fails to make a jump in time. By this I took that she is past her physical prime, maybe between 25-30 years old. Meanwhile Taliesin is a young man now, maybe around 17? Then Charis leaves the arena and goes home, when she gets there, she finds that she has a new stepsister, Morgana, and she is described as a young child - maybe around 5 years old.
Anyway, leaving Jesus behind, there is another thing that really bothered me. Though this might be due to my misinterpretation of the text. When we start the story, Charis is described as "young woman" (I don't think we ever get actual ages), I take that as maybe between 12-16 years old. Meanwhile, Taliesin, was just born. Then by the middle of the book, after a series of events, Charis is advised to leave the arena and the dancing with the bulls due to her age, she is not that young anymore, and might get hurt if her body fails to make a jump in time. By this I took that she is past her physical prime, maybe between 25-30 years old. Meanwhile Taliesin is a young man now, maybe around 17? Then Charis leaves the arena and goes home, when she gets there, she finds that she has a new stepsister, Morgana, and she is described as a young child - maybe around 5 years old.
After this, Atlantis sinks and Charis and Morgana escape to the British Isles. In the last third of the book, Taliesin and Charis fall in love etc etc, and Morgana tries to get in the middle, seducing Taliesin and causing a miscommunication problem between the lovers, almost a love triangle.
Wait wait wait, so Morgana is now described as a beautiful young woman! WHAT? So, considering that Morgana is between 17-20... Taliesin maybe around 25-30... Charis is... errr in her 40's? Then why is she still described as being young as her sister Morgana!? Why did Morgana age, and Charis remained young? Am I missing something? Maybe I am... but it confused the hell out of me.
Finishing this, with the end of the book, I can see the set up for the continuation, Morgana is evil and behind the death of Taliesin (as expected), along with Annubi. But honestly, I think that the book would be much more interesting following Morgana rather than this "new" Charis. Morgana still wants to discover the mysteries of the world, with Charis now everything is Jesus's will.
I was going to give this book a solid 4. At times I even considered a 5. But then with the last third of the book everything came tumbling down to a 3, a shame. The book is not bad! Don't get me wrong, I'm just not very found of when christianity is imposed in such a forceful way upon the reader, and everything that was built before gets discarded without a plausible explanation. But I still liked it more that I thought I would by looking at the cover... I'll get to reading the next one... in a few months.
