 |
 |
Uther - Jack Whyte - 0140260870 - Penguin Books - 2001 - $11.99 Canadian funds A hot-headed young warrior must decide whether to follow the longings of his own heart or rise to the challenge of leading his people. Will he be the greatest king the Cambrians have ever known, or will he fall prey to the darkness in his own soul? Uther tells the story of young Uther Pendragon, cousin to the sorcerer Merlyn and father of Arthur, the future King of Britain. In his boyhood, Uther divides his time between two radically different worlds. Within the solid walls of Camulod, along with Merlyn, he enjoys the luxuries of a civilized community and trains in the Roman military style to realize his heroic dream – commanding Camulod’s cavalry. But still he is pulled back to the dark land of his birth, the harsh, primitive world of his father’s people, the Pendragon of Cambria, where creature comforts are few and brutal justice is administered swiftly at the end of a sword. At the death of his father, King Uric, a new king must be elected from among the chiefs. Is Uther fit to lead, or has he grown soft during his time in Camulod, forgetting the ways of his people? Where do his true loyalties lie? When the ambitions of the vicious King Lot of Cornwall threaten the peace of Britain, Uther must lead his people into a disastrous and bloody war against a man he has detested since childhood. Even worse, Uther must choose, once and for all, between his love for Merlyn's magnificent Camulod and all that it stands for, and his loyalty to his own people, the Pendragons of Cambria, the land we now call Wales. |
|
 |
The Sky Stone - Jack Whyte - 0140170502 - Penguin Books - 1992 - 624 pages - $10.99 Canadian funds Born of the nightmare chaos of the Dark Ages, the Dream of Eagles produced a King, a country, and an everlasting legend - Camelot. Publius Varrus is a veteran Roman officer and a maker of swords. In the early fifth century, amidst the violent struggles between the people of Britain and the invading Saxons, Picts and Scots, he and his former general, Caius Britannicus, forge the government and military system that will become known as the Round Table, and initiate a chain of events that will lead to the coronation of the High King we know today as Arthur. Rich in historical detail, brimming with drama, intrigue and passion, The Skystone gives new resonance to an enduring and powerful legend. Read an excerpt from THE SKY STONE. |
|
 |
The Singing Sword - Jack Whyte - Penguin Books - 0140170499 - 560 pages - $10.99 Canadian funds. The legions have departed. The last vestiges of Roman authority are gone and a thriving colony that has lasted for more than four hundred years is poised on the brink of destruction. Publius Varrus and Caius Britannicus are two Romans who choose to stay, choose to fight for their adopted land. They will build a hill-top fort that will withstand the onslaughts of the barbarians who seek to plunder Britain's wealth. Out of their struggles a new Britain and a new people will emerge--Britons who are a carefully crafted alloy, a tempered fusion of Roman and Celtic greatness. And one thing more... These two men are great-grandfathers to the man known as Arthur, King of the Britons, and their actions will help shape a nation...and forge the sword known as Excalibur. Read an excerpt from THE SINGING SWORD |
|
 |
The Eagle's Brood - Jack Whyte - 0140170480 - Penguin Books - 1994 - 644 pages - $10.99 Canadian funds Most known him as Merlyn; all call him Commander. Caius Merlyn Britannicus is responsible for the safety of the Colony known as Camulod, and for the welfare of the colonists who look to him for guidance, leadership, justice and salvation. Uther Pendragon, the man who will father the legendary Arthur, is the cousin Merlyn has known and loved since their births - four hours apart on the same day, the year the legions left Britain. As different as they can be, they are inseparable: two faces of the same coin. In a world torn apart by warfare and upheaval, each is the other's certainty - until a vicious crime, one that strikes at the roots of Merlyn's own life, drives a wedge between them. Read an excerpt from THE EAGLE'S BLOOD. |
|
 |
The Saxon Shore - Jack Whyte - 0140170472 - Penguin Books - 1995 - 767 pages - $9.99 Canadian funds The orphaned baby Arthur, heir to the Colony of Camulod and born with both Roman heritage and the royal blood of the Hibernian Scots and the Celtic welsh, has been adopted by his cousin, Caius Merlyn Britannicus. Merlyn is now the sole custodian of the great dream of his ancestors: that of independent survival in Britain amid the ruins of the imperial Roman world. he is also the keeper of Excalibur, the wondrous sword crafted by his great uncle, Publius Varrus. It is up to Merlyn to teach the young Arthur all that he needs to know to unify the diverse clans of Britain under his kingship. And it is Merlyn's laborious responsibility to see that the young Arthur survives the deadly threats to this destiny - threats that arise from the bloody Saxon Shore. - Fourth installment of A Dream of Eagles, the ongoing saga of the birth of the Arthurian legend. Read an excerpt from THE SAXON SHORE. |
|
 |
The Sorcerer Book I - The fort at River's Bend - Jack Whyte - 0140254676 - Penguin Books - 1997 - 535 pages - $9.99 Canadian funds Merlyn Britannicus, Commander of Camulod, must educate his young charge, Arthur Pendragon, future King of Britain. Threats against young Arthur's life have forced Merlyn and the boy to leave Camulod, settling in an abandoned Roman fort, where they are safe from political intrigue. Enlisting help from a close-knit group of friends, Merlyn teaches the young king about warfare, justice, honor and the responsibilities of leadership, in preparation to wield the sword Excalibur. When the tenuous peace of Camulod is threatened by unrest in neighboring regions, Merlyn faces a dilemma. How can he prepare the young Arthur to be a ruler of men when he continues to train him in isolation? Merlyn knows that he must risk the dream of his grandfather Caius Britannicus, if he is ever to fulfill it. - Sequel to The Saxon Shore. Read an excerpt from The Sorcerer Book I. |
|
 |
The Sorcerer Book II - Metamorphosis - Jack Whyte - 0140270264 - Penguin Books - 1997 - 530 pages - $8.99 Canadian funds I n The Sorcerer: Metamorphosis, Merlyn returns to Camulod with his young charge, Arthur. But there is little time to enjoy their homecoming. Peter Ironhair's ambitions are once again threatening the peace in Britain, and soon Merlyn and Arthur must ride into battle to defend their land from both Ironhair and invaders from across the sea. While Arthur is a soldier, he is not yet a leader of men. Merlyn sends him to live for a time among his father's people to gain the wisdom essential to rule them. Spurred on by a hunger for vengeance that will only be satisfied by the death of his enemies, Merlyn begins his metamorphosis into The Sorcerer, enlisting perhaps the only force that can bring down Ironhair and his allies once and for all. Read an excerpt from The Sorcerer Book II |
About the series (information from Jack Whyte official home page)
The first novel in Whyte's series "A Dream of Eagles", The Skystone, was published in Canada, in 1992, by Penguin/Viking books, and since that time, the series has been published and widely distributed internationally, with a total of five novels currently in print in Canada, and the rest of the world hurrying to catch up. The Singing Sword appeared in Canada in 1993, followed by The Eagles' Brood in 1994, The Saxon Shore in 1995, and The Sorcerer (which was published in two 500-page halves) in 1997. All five novels published to date have been critically acclaimed and have achieved Canadian Best-Seller status on the Toronto Globe & Mail's Top Ten Best Seller list.
In 1995, Whyte sold the US Rights to the series to Forge/Tor Books, a subsidiary of St. Martin's Press of New York, and the Marketing Division at Forge/Tor decided to change the title of the series from "A Dream of Eagles" to "The Camulod Chronicles." The first American edition of The Skystone appeared in hardcover in the USA on February 1, 1996, and won a "starred" review in the January 19th issue of the high-profile Publishers Weekly.(known in the trade as PW.) The second novel in the series, The Singing Sword, was released in October, 1996, earning a similar, "starred" review from the same influential publication, as well as gaining fourth place in the US Library Journal's Top-Twenty Pre-Publication Best-Seller list, predicated upon advance orders for upcoming new books from libraries all across America. In 1997, the third novel, The Eagles’ Brood earned a starred, boxed review in Booklist, and a glowing review in Publishers Weekly, while The Saxon Shore, released in 1998, continued to earn the same kind of critical acclaim. Verbatim Transcriptions of all of the above-mentioned reviews are reproduced in the "Critics" section of this Site.
The American series will continue in hardcover with the publication of The Sorcerer — again in two volumes due to the sheer bulk of the novel — by Forge Books in the spring and summer of 1999.Tor Books will continue to publish the mass market paperback editions of each book as the latest hardcover is released, and since Forge/Tor has recently expanded their English language rights to cover the whole world with the sole exception of Canada, the books will soon be available in English throughout the world.
In the meantime, The Skystone has appeared in several other languages: De Hemel Steen, the Dutch language version, is published by Uitgeverij Kanteel of Utrecht; La Piedra y la espada, the Spanish version translated by César Aira, is published by Emecé of Barcelona; La Pietra del Cielo, the Italian version, translated by Susanna Bini, is published by Piemme, and the German version, title currently unknown, is due to be released by Schertz Verlag of Munich in the spring of 1999.
One note that might be of interest to readers of the American series concerns the cover art of the hardcover books. Four books had been published in the series by 1998, and each of them featured a design that was radically different from any of its precursors. Forge/Tor Books was searching for exactly the correct cover style for Jack Whyte’s books, and each ensuing edition was radically different because the correct recipe had not yet been achieved. Then, with the cover of Book Four, The Saxon Shore, the correct formula was in place—a lush cover design, romantic, rich and panoramic in full, natural colour. From that point on, a retrospective redesign was launched. The Eagles’ Brood, ready for mass-market production, was postponed until a new cover design could be incorporated, compatible with The Saxon Shore format. Now, as each of the earlier books, The Skystone and The Singing Sword, is issued in paperback, it will be repackaged to conform to the new "Jack Whyte" look.
With the concluding scenes of the fifth novel in the series, The Sorcerer: Metamorphosis, the original story, as Whyte had conceived it, came to an end. The Dream of the original Eagles, Caius Britannicus and Publius Varrus, had become a reality with the crowning of the young King whose beliefs and example would shape the future destiny of the people of the island of Britain, and a legend had been born. But of course, the story—the legend—of King Arthur was just beginning at that point. Whyte, originally, had no great interest in retelling that story, since it had been told so many times before, but as his own tale progressed through successive generations, a new reality came into being… An entire generation of readers who demanded to know the full resolution of the classic story, as seen through the eyes of the characters who had enacted the Dream of Eagles. In consequence, and in acknowledgment of the demands of his readers, Jack Whyte has now contracted with Forge/Tor USA, for three more books in the series, bringing the total number of stories in the saga to eight. The sixth of these, on which Jack is currently working, is Uther, the story of Uther Pendragon, King Arthur’s father, and of the love affair between him and Ygraine, the wife of Uther’s arch enemy, Gulrhys Lot, King of Cornwall. Uther will be followed by a two-book miniseries called "The Golden Eagle", relating the story of King Arthur and his reign as seen through the eyes of Arthur’s dearest friend and admirer, Lancelot du Lac, Sir Lancelot of the Lake…lover, adulterer, deceiver and very perfect, gentle knight…
Links - Ordering Information - Nebula - Home
