Customer Reviews

The Eagles' Brood (A Dream of Eagles, Book 3)

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Eagle's Brood, as part of an imaginative interpretation of the well-known tale, brings pre-Aurthurian Briton to life. Jack Whyte writes with an 'Old English' voice in vivid detail, weaving in real places and historic events in such a way that the reader lives the trials and triumphs of this tumultuos era right along with the characters. Long and satisfying, it's hard to put this book down from start to finish. Warning! It will leave you hungering for more.

I've loved this series for years. My Dad bought me the Skystone for my birthday a few years back and had it signed by Jack Whyte. Been a fan ever since. I've also read the Templar trilogy and will mostly like read the Laird book as well. Keep up the good work Jack!

I am someone very interested in the setting of these books. I'm interested in the roman empire, and it's fall. I'm interested in the dark ages. I'm interested in the Romano British. I'm interested in the ancient Celts of Britain, Hibernia, Wales, and Brittany who come before during and after the Roman conquests. I'm interested in the Saxons and Angles and other Germanic tribes. I'm also interested in the legends of king Arthur as well as historical tie ins to those legends. This series should have been just for me!

I'll throw in that though I'm a fan of these topics, I'm not a historian on these times or peoples. I've never done a history degree, and though I touched on many historical readings of the dark ages, I have never done any thorough or academic research of the period. I don't claim to be an expert. I'll still state my observations and opinions.

There were some things about this book that I liked. I liked learning a few things about roman Britain, where the cities were, and how the military was organized and such. However one thing the author wrote into this story made me doubt the historical accuracy of the rest of the book. There is an important character who comes from the Roman aristocracy, old blue blood of Rome if you will. He's not only born of old respected ancestry but also born into great wealth. He is introduced as a general. At one point in the book he says that his son is joining the Legions as a rank and file soldier, just like he did. Not as an officer, not with special privileges... a common foot soldier. I can not swallow that both he and his son joined the Roman legions as common legionnaires. From what little I know of late Roman society, aristocrats did not join the legions as common soldiers nor did common soldiers get promoted up to being generals. In this story I am asked to believe that this character of very high birth joined as a common foot soldier and worked his way up to commanding a legion through honest hard work and personal excellence. I'm also asked to believe that his son is embarking on the same path. I could be totally wrong but I feel the author is imposing modern western middle class values of hard work into a society where those values do not belong. In my mind it destroyed all credibility that the author possessed.

Aside from making certain characters buy into modern values, and making me question the authenticity of the story, I do have other critical comments. I found the pacing odd. sometimes it glossed over long periods while at other times it was detailed. I suppose this is what happens when you tell a tale that goes over lifetimes and even generations. Personally I like tales of action and high adventure and at times I was disappointed when the narrator would summarize periods of great trial and conflict with very brief descriptions.

This first books can be read as the life story of a man, a Roman veteran. but the focus of the story is more towards the end of his life as he starts to build a new community. This will be important in the later books. Afterwards it follows the stories of others who follow the ground work he helps to set. With the passing of one hero we begin to focus on another. i have not finished the series but I would not be surprised if the second hero who is focused on is eventually overshadowed by a third. But I can not say as I have not read that far.

Overall I enjoyed the beginning, but lost interest as the books progressed until I just stopped reading them. I would not recommend it to anyone whole heartedly. I might reservedly recommend it to those who, like me, are interested in the historical setting that it takes place within. i may eventually pick it up again and continue reading. It wasn't horrible.

Exciting, fast paced action, difficult to put down.

The first book of this series, The Sky Stone, was original, well constructed, with amazingly clear detail on life in 5th century Britian. The main characters were well drawn and each, the heroes and the villans, held my interest. The second book, The Singing Sword, was almost as good but there was a little padding going on. The Eagles Brood, the third of the series is a wonderful 300 page book - padded into a 600 page book.

The story line follows the previous books, but it is too much of a good thing. The details of life during that time were well and exhustingly explained in the first two books. We don't need the detail all over again. The book is over populated with insidental characters that are presented as major figures who then are quickly killed off or just left out of the ensueing narrative. Minor characters, with important messages, just seem to pop up here and there in order to pull the stoey line back on track and help move it along. Frankly, towards the end of this book I was just waiting for it to end. Enough is enough!

I forget how I came upon this series of books but I can tell you that once you start you will not be able to put the books down. This Canadian author must have travelled back in time to be able to write so discriptively and knowledgeably. The series begins just shortly after the Romans leave Great Britain and continues on through the life of Merlin and on through the early years of young Arthur. I cannot begin to tell you how enjoyable this series of books are....a must read.

This is the third volume of a superb series about the life and times of King Arthur from a historical perspective.

Whyte's narration and writing style continue to be excellent. Was this the way things really happened? Did Merlyn (using Whyte's spelling) and Uther actually exist, and really live their lives as Whyte describes? We'll probably never know for sure, but Whyte certainly made me believe they could have. All of his characters are three-dimensional, flesh-and-blood people - and though I know how the story had to turn out (this is, after all, the story of Arthur), there were quite a few moments in this volume that took my breath away. At some points I honestly believed that Whyte was going to play some kind of dirty trick on me and veer off into an alternate universe.

Along the way Whyte gives us several lessons in history and the religion of the time. I'm not enough of a scholar to know whether or not a debate such as the one he describes actually took place, but I certainly believed in his description of it. And he presents both sides of several religious arguments in a way such that any layman could understand them, without his (Whyte's) obviously taking one side or the other.

My only complaint with this particular entry in the series is that Whyte doesn't really dig into the life, history, or personality of Lot of Cornwall. What little description he does give makes Lot out to be evil personified, but I really would have liked to learn more about what made this man tick.

Unlike the first two, there is a little bit of "magic" in this volume, if you can call dreams magic. It seems that Whyte's Merlyn has a bit of precognition - his dreams accurately predict several events in the story. But there is no overt magic - nobody turns into a newt or anything else.

I'm eagerly looking forward to volume four.

I enjoyed the third book in the Camulod series slightly less than the previous two.I felt that the author got bogged down with detail in both the battle scenes and the theological discussions.Merlyn comes through as very human rather than the complete mystic that he's been portrayed in other stories,being brought out of his rather pompous attitude towards right and wrong by his cousin,Uther. If you are planning to read the entire series,this is an important bridge between the earlier times of the Roman occupation and the first emergence of Arthur,as a baby.Now for number four-The Saxon Shore.

This is the third in the series of novels called the Camulod Chronicles. If this is your introduction to the series, you will benefit from taking them in order, beginning with 'The Skystone,' although the books will stand alone.

This book introduces us to a young Caius Merlyn Britannicus and the adventures he has growing up. The plot is complex, one adventure leading to another. The characterization is excellent, and the book held me enthralled. In the end, of course, since this is the story of Merlyn and Arthur, he meets his ward.

Jack Whyte, like Mary Stewart and Bernard Cornwell, has done his research well--such research as is available. Each wrote a fascinating series, and each approached their subjects from a different viewpoint, of course. It is, after all, fiction. John Steinbeck also wrote a book on the subject: The 'Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights,' deriving his material from one of the earliest sources, Thomas Mallory.

All are worthy and entertaining. My advice would be to read and enjoy all of them, which I have.

Joseph Pierre,
Author of THE ROAD TO DAMASCUS: Our Journey Through Eternity

In the back of our minds we all know that the Arthurian legend originated from a 5th century warlord who was attempting to maintain Roman culture in Britain - and this series of novels follows that assumption, mixing aspects of the classic tale with rather interwoven history.

My only problem with the series thus far is the invention by the Camulodians and the Pendragon of such things as the longbow and the stirrup, which didn't appear until the 14th and 8th centuries. This, however, can be explained away that these people die eventually, and with them this knowledge vanishes.

For any lovers of the Arthur legend and Roman history, these books are amazing. For everyone else, they are, to quote critics, a "ripping good yarn"