Full disclosure: Author Robert Treskillard is an internet friend of mine, and I got my review copy free.
You’d think it would be hard to do a fresh take on Merlin and the Arthur saga, but Robert Treskillard delivers a story that’s quite original in Merlin’s Blade, throwing out parts of the traditional tale, altering others, but hewing close enough to the main points to satisfy most enthusiasts, I think.
My review has to be mixed. I found the story creative and compelling, and the characters – mostly – well developed and interesting. The execution of the narrative, however showed a number of weaknesses.
We meet Treskillard’s Merlin as a young man, the son of a village blacksmith, nearly blinded in a wolf attack (wolves keep trying to kill him, for reasons only hinted at), but able to get around fairly well in his familiar environs. A strange rectangular stone, originally a meteor, is brought forth by a group of Druids, bent on reviving the old religion among the Christian Britons. Merlin finds himself, along with his friends from a nearby monastery, drawn into a political conflict, not only between Christians and heathens, but between various chieftains carrying old grudges. He falls in love with the local magistrate’s daughter and joins the high king’s court as an apprentice bard, but old secrets threaten his life, his family, and his faith itself.
I enjoyed the story – indeed, I was reading compulsively by the end – but the writing got in the way too often. Author Treskillard hasn’t mastered his wordsmithing. He blends modern slang and antique diction, to sometimes jarring effect (he also doesn’t know how to use the “-eth” suffix, on the one occasion he attempts it). People do and say things now and then that don’t feel in character, but seem forced for the sake of a plot point or exposition. There are also movie tropes present which bother me, but probably won’t bother others – swords always scrape on metal when drawn (they don’t usually do that. Most sheaths were leather, and metal furniture was on the outside). Swords are worn on the back (generally impractical and anachronistic).
The best historical detail in the book involves a description of swordsmithing, something the author knows from experience and dramatizes with authority.
I think less critical readers (this book is aimed at young adults) will not pick as many nits with Merlin’s Blade as I did. Generally recommended. Very little objectionable content.
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