|
-
Hivemind social net
-
News
- Features
- Blogs
- Events
Calendar
- Editorials
- Monthly
Zine
- Offworld
Report
- Our Daily
RSS Feed
- Google Toolbar scifi
- Movie/TV
Reviews
> Recent movies
> Movies by year
> Movies by title
- Book
Reviews
> Recent books
> Books by year
> Books by title
- Home
- Worlds
- Biography
- Bibliography
- Appearances
- Reviews
- Blog
- Community
- Press
- Links
Become
an Advertiser
- Web
Site Directory
- Search
the Net
- StephenHunt.net
- WoodenRocket.com
- Check
your E-mail
- Non Sci-Fi
News
|
The Broken Kings (The Merlin Codex book 3) by Robert Holdstock
01/11/2007 . Source: Joules Taylor 
pub: TOR/Forge. 367 page hardback. Price: $25.95 (US), $34.95 (CAN). ISBN: 978-0-7653-1109-2 - pub: Gollancz. 357 page hardback. Price: £14.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-0-575-07930-4. Buy The Broken Kings in the USA - or Buy The Broken Kings in the UK  check out website: www.tor-forge.com , www.orionbooks.co.uk and www.robertholdstock.com
Two champions drawn together from time long past, the enchanter Merlin and the hero Jason, continue their quests in this last volume. Still voyaging on the Argo, they return to Albion, to Urtha's stronghold of Taurovinda, the place of the bull. The Dead are returning from the realm of the Shadows of Heroes, encroaching on the living, trying to take back the land - but for whom? Who is directing them from the shadows? The answer is both surprising and shocking and draws yet another archetype into the tale...
The line between the real and the Other is a faint and hazy one, revealing a world in which both the Dead and the Unborn can be spoken with and affect the Now of the living, much as the world the Celts inhabited was filled by and overlapped with the Otherworld of deities, ancestors and spirits. From the Celtic identification of the land as a living, personally-knowable entity comes Nantosuelta, a goddess of abundance and well-being, whose name means 'winding river' and who acts here to protect the living, keeping the Dead at bay with her swift waters. From Greek Land comes the tension of the dichotomy between Nature in the shape of the wild woman Queller and Science in the form of the Shaper, whose body has been augmented mechanically: their conflict adds an unexpected complexity to the battle. Labyrinths in the Earth echo labyrinths in the minds and perceptions of the characters, with times and locations overlapping impossibly, existing side by side with the present - whatever you perceive that to be! There's Merlin, still walking the paths of time, of the world, still afraid to fully live since it literally shaves years off his apparent immortality. Then there's the living ship Argo made, we discover, by Merlin himself back at the beginning of time, whose feelings of guilt and betrayal have pulled the central characters together. There is violence, treachery and casual brutality in these pages, but there is also self-sacrifice, beautiful compassion and profound love.
'The Broken Kings' is a magnificent work, densely-textured, the style reminiscent of ancient Celtic texts themselves. The story is so well-crafted, it's almost impossible to tell where myth becomes imagination, where the ancient Greek and Celtic tales end and the author's extrapolations begin. I would say, however, that a knowledge of Celtic myth enriches the readers' experience of the book. Although it can be enjoyed without it, an understanding of how the Celts saw their world greatly enhances the story.
Joules Taylor
www.heartsown.biz
|
|
