Enemy of God is the second in Bernard Cornwell’s series The Warlord Chronicles. Its protagonist is still Derfel Cadarn, who is now near thirty years old and one of Arthur’s lords. The book begins immediately where The Winter King ended, after the battle among the British kings at Lugg Vale. Arthur is trying to keep…
I just finished Bernard Cornwell’s 1356, so I’m jumping ahead about nine centuries this week in my series on medieval fiction to allow for a review of yet another great work by one of my all-time favorite authors. “Go with God, but fight like the Devil!” 1356 is the fourth book in Cornwell’s Grail Quest…
The Winter King is the first book in Bernard Cornwell’s masterful retelling of Arthurian legend. From the very first chapter, it is evident that Cornwell’s version would be different from many tales of Arthur. The narrator, for example, is the little-known Derfel Cadarn, writing his story as a monk in a small monastery to Igraine,…
I recently re-read William Goldman’s The Princess Bride for the first time in probably sixteen years. Although I also saw the film adaptation when it was released in 1987, I have probably watched the movie ten or twelve times, so I found it nearly impossible to separate my feelings about the book from Rob Reiner’s…
This Sunday is Saint Patrick’s Day, one of my all-time favorite holidays! In honor of the great Irish saint, I’m re-posting an updated article from last year about Stephen R. Lawhead’s Patrick: Son of Ireland. I had little appreciation for the story of Saint Patrick until I began the research for Enoch’s Device. That novel begins in…
Season 3 of HBO’s Game of Thrones premiers on March 31st, so it’s about time for another review of a book from George R.R. Martin’s epic series A Song of Ice and Fire. As I’ve mentioned before, I started reading A Song of Ice and Fire shortly before the HBO series first premiered, so I arrived…
I picked up this book a while back because I’m a huge Bernard Cornwell fan and have always been interested in Stonehenge. It was not my favorite Cornwell novel, but that’s probably because of its Bronze Age setting (I really prefer Cornwell’s books set in the Middle Ages). To be clear, however, Stonehenge did not…
It took far longer than I expected to get around to reading Bernard Cornwell’s Death of Kings. I hoped to skim through the other five books in The Saxon Tales series before reading the sixth book, but that never came to pass. Eventually, I just dove into the novel, and I’m glad I did since…
I recently re-read J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit for the first time in probably ten years. Once I got past the older and awkward narrative viewpoint (in Tolkien’s defense, the omniscient point-of-view was in vogue back in 1937, especially for what was considered a children’s book), I was reminded of how rich and wonderful the story…
This week I finished reading Devil’s Lair by David Wisehart, a historical fantasy novel that’s part grail quest, and part return to Dante’s Inferno. It’s an engaging read, and my full review follows this image of the book’s cover. Part Grail Quest, Part Return to Dante’s Inferno. The premise of Devil’s Lair is that…
This week, I’m featuring my first ever guest post, a great article by Sci-Fi Bloggers about Patrick Rothfuss’ fantasy series, The Kingkiller Chronicles. Sci-Fi Bloggers is an online magazine covering all things science fiction and fantasy: movies, TV, books, video games, comics and more. It’s well worth reading! The fantasy genre has a hard time fitting in with most…