"Born of the nightmare chaos of the Dark Ages, the Dream of Eagles produced a King, a country, and an everlasting legend -- Camelot."




That's off the back cover. The Skystone is the first book in a four-part series by Jack Whyte. When I first picked it up, I expected Arthur, legendary King of Camelot, to appear in the first half of the book. Not so.




This is a book about how Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table (and especially the sword, Excalibur) come into being.




The story actually takes place during the Invasion that marked the Fall of Rome, during the 4th century. It's told from a first-person format, and we follow Publius Varrus through his life as a Roman soldier, then into his "retirement" as an iron-worker. He is one of Arthur's ancestors.

The pace of the book was excellent. It's long (624 pages, in paperback), but I read it in less than a week. It's great to see a main character who isn't perfect.

There is a great deal of discussion about how the Romans formed their armies--maniples, squadrons, different positions held within the army--Centurion, etc. I'm not a big military buff, so the passages that detailed the army strength didn't interest me. But you didn't have to understand it--for the most part Whyte indicated "We had a thousand men versus their three thousand."

I'm planning to read the rest in the series. I asked for them for Christmas, and they're on their way. :)

Whyte has also written a book called Uther who, as anyone following Arthur's legend, will know is Arthur's father. That's the book I read first. It is an "addition" to this series, but I'm not really sure where it fits in yet. I do recommend it though, as it would stand on its own.

I took a history course quite a while ago that detailed the Fall of Rome. The course was interesting, and a lot of the facts that I learned came back to me as I read this book. What made it more interesting is that Whyte has shown me the possible impact of these historical events on Roman citizens.




This book is a great read for anyone interested in Roman history or early British history.

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Created Jan 09, 2002 at 10:05am • Submit your own review...