Eagles' Brood (The Camulod Chronicles) Mass Market Paperback – 16 July 1998

Excellent sequel to the Skystone and The Singing Sword. Enjoying this series immensely.

Great book have read the whole series

I was first introduced to the tales of King Arthur, whose realm is made magical by the intriguing wizard Merlin at six or seven. And in my teens I was very much impressed by the 1981 John Boorman movie Excalibur starring Helen Mirren, Nigel Terry and Nicol Williamson, starring a rather sinister and hard to like Merlin. Later I saw the more sympathetic Merlin in the highly engaging 1998 TV series Merlin starring Sam Neil. Have read Queen of Camelot by Nancy McKenzie which I loved and its sequels. The mediocre Pendragon cycle by Stephen Lawhead, the intriguing if drawn out Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley, the Bernard Cornwell Arthur trilogy and the somewhat disappointing Guenevere, Queen of the Summer Country by Rosalind Miles. Mary Stewart's Arthurian Saga is an absolute epic as good as Tolkien, together with Nancy McKenzie's works they are my very favourite historical fantasy series.I had not read any of the previous books in the Camulod Chronicles but Eagle's Brood is a great stand alone novel.This retelling is rich on history, dispels with actual magic in the sense of sorcery but does include some premonitions and telepathic knowledge through dreams, something intelligent people know to exist.Merlyn as Caius Merlynus Britannicus grows up with his cousin Uther Pendragon in the self contained colony of Camulod in Britain, a former Roman town, soon after the Romans have left Britain. Britain is threatened by SAxons, Angles, Jutes and Danes from the continent in the East, Picts from Caledonia the North and Irish and Scots from Hibernia to the West . Uther and Merlyn are of Roman patrilineage and Celtic matrilineage. Merlyn is the narrator of the story speaking in first person. As the story begins Merlyn;s father is the general and procurator of the colony which is still heavily Romanized and run and lived according to Roman ways.Merlyn grows up with Uther who is the same age They are adventurous and in their teens meet Lot, Prince of Cornwall who becomes their eternal and mortal enemy.They are trained from little to become soldiers and are commanders by their twenties. Arthur meets and falls in love with a beautiful mute girl who they call Cassandra, later revealed to be an Scots Irish princess. A hideous and evil crime puts strain between Merlyn and Uther and several mysteries and twists and turns and adventures provide the meat of the book.A Scots Prince, at first a captive becomes Merlyn's loyal follower and lieutenantIt takes us up to a great war between Uther and Lot who has become KIng of Cornwall and Arthur's procurement of the baby Arthur.My quibbles with the book are also a few. It is good, even gripping but didn't entrance me like Nancy Mckenzie' s Queen of Camelot books or Mary Stewart's Arthurian Partly because I prefer more of a Celtic feel to my Arthurian literature than a Roman one (and this one is Roman to the core)Whyte also in part rambles on a little but most of the book is exciting

Jack Whyte was born and raised in Scotland, but has lived in Canada for the last forty odd years. He is the author of the Camulod series of books and has just had published the first in a trilogy about probably the most famous Order of knights, ever to come through the pages of history, the Knights Templar.This is the third volume in the continuation of the Camulod Chronicles a series of novels about the Arthurian legends. But anyone expecting the conventional,or Hollywood slant on the legend of Arthur, i.e. knights riding around on destriers in full body armour, something invented several hundred years after Arthur had gone to his grave, if he ever existed at all, will be in for a sharp shock.The books are set in the 5th century AD a much more likely time for Arthur to have existed, a time when Britain, although free of the Romans, who had gone back across the channel to Rome, was still very much influenced by the occupation. Caius Merlyn Britannicus is now leader of the colony, responsible not only for law and order but also the safety of all within its confines. Uther Pendragon is a warrior attached to the colony. Both men are on friendly terms, that is until there is an event that drives a wedge between the two men . . .If you have read the first two books, you cannot help but want to read this one. If you have not read or cannot get the first two books, this books is a fine novel on its own merits.

Whoever said history was boring, has never read these books. The Eagles Brood is book three in the Camulod chronicles. A set of books which drag you in from the first book, and does'nt let up. They let you into what is a believable explanation of Roman Britain in the Fifth century, So much so you can almost smell the homefires burning.I would highly recommend these to any one who thinks they know the Arthurian legends. They lead you off with a good twist to the old tale.