The Eagles' Brood / Jack Whyte

 

The Eagles' Brood by Jack Whyte
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Warning! This is a Petulant Pandemic Review (PPR). I fully admit to being cranky, picky, and squirrelly after months of aloneness. It's not the book's fault, it's very much my state of mind.

I really enjoyed the first two books back in the before times. I read them soon after meeting Jack Whyte at a readers and writers conference here in our city. With Jack's deep Scots voice still fresh in my memory, I could “hear" him in my head as I read. Jack has recently passed away and that news dragged me back to his Arthurian series, which I got distracted from by other shiny books.

Now, I adore the King Arthur story. I've been reading books based on it since I was a teen. But I have favourites and they are not the “Arthur as Roman" scenario. I am also a big fan of the magical and mysterious. So these are the biggest things bugging me with this series: Whyte's stated objective in writing this was to strip away all the hocus pocus and write a realistic version. It has taken three very thick books to finally have our potential Arthur appear and I have lived through an awful lot of descriptions of Roman warfare! Yes, it was a very warlike time, but surely there was more to life than just fighting.

Whyte gives his Roman-Briton men a very modern attitude towards women's rights, but he really doesn't give us substantive roles for female characters. Instead, we get Caius Merlinus Brittanicus, who is a Gary Stu character. He is tiresomely perfect, always coming up with successful plans and always winning the day. To Whyte's credit, he uses the Uther character to call Cay on this priggish judginess on a couple of occasions. Still, Cay is hard to put up with. And it is my belief that eliminating the magic, Whyte also got rid of the major roles of women in the story. No longer political powers, they are reduced to being mothers of the major actors.

I was also dismayed to find a lot of Christian religious debate in this volume, as Britain's relationship with Rome and the Pope is negotiated. Thankfully it never gets to The Name of the Rose levels (that book made me want to gouge out my eyes, so many heretics!) but I'm a confirmed pagan religion fan. Please don't strong arm my Arthur into Christianity! Once again, less room for women and for magic. At least, late in the game, Merlyn is given mysterious dreams that intrigue me.

So, a good book if Roman Britain is your jam. And I will undoubtedly read the next book to see what Whyte does with Arthur himself, but this isn't going to be one of my favourite Arthur series. Rest easy, Mary Stewart, your role as Queen of my Arthurian heart is unthreatened.


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