Synopses & Reviews
We know the legends: Arthur brought justice to a land that had known only cruelty and force; his father, Uther, carved a kingdom out of the chaos of the fallen Roman Empire; the sword Excalibur, drawn from stone by England's greatest king.
But legends do not tell the whole tale. Legends do not tell of the despairing Roman soldiers, abandoned by their empire, faced with the choice of fleeing back to Rome, or struggling to create a last stronghold against the barbarian onslaughts from the north and east. Legends do not tell of Arthur's great-grandfather, Publius Varrus, the warrior who marked the boundaries of a reborn empire with his own shed blood; they do not tell of Publius's wife, Luceiia, British-born and Roman-raised, whose fierce beauty burned pale next to her passion for law and honor.
With The Camulod Chronicles, Jack Whyte tells us what legend has forgotten: the history of blood and violence, passion and steel, out of which was forged a great sword, and a great nation. The Singing Sword continues the gripping epic begun in The Skystone: As the great night of the Dark Ages falls over Roman Britain, a lone man and woman fight to build a last stronghold of law and learning--a crude hill-fort, which one day, long after their deaths, will become a great city . . . known as Camelot.
Review
"This is the second book of The Camulod Chronicles, a six-book series which is being published in the U.S.for the first time. It recounts the Arthurian legend as it may well have happened, from its beginnings in Roman Britain into the bloody chaos of the Roman
Empire's fall. This volume continues the story of the retired Roman legionary and ironsmith Publius Varrus and the creation of a colony in southwestern England that will provide a haven against the onslaughts of barbarians from the north. This is story-telling on a grand scale, full of great characters and exciting tales told with a discriminating eye for detail." Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)
Review
"From the building blocks of history and the mortar of reality, Jack Whyte has built Arthur's world and showed us the bone beneath the flesh of legend."--Diana Gabaldon
"The very best storytellers keep their readers glued to the story with plot, character, and a keen sense of the dramatic . . . . Whyte breathes life into the Arthurian myths by weaving the reality of history into it."--Tony Hillerman
About the Author
Jack Whyte is a Scots-born, award-winning Canadian author whose poem, The Faceless One, was featured at the 1991 New York Film Festival.
The Camulod Chronicles is his greatest work, a stunning retelling of one of our greatest legends: the making of King Arthur's Britain. He lives in British Columbia, Canada.