A Dream of Eagles series - Jack Whyte

[Pizoi]

I started reading this series about a year ago, but put it down for the new Potter book, and never really got back to it. Finally picked it back up a couple weeks ago and have been burning through it. Anyone who enjoys reading Historical Fictions will love this series.

The books are all about how Camelot came to be around 490ish AD, how the Excalibur was made, the story of King Arthur, and so on. The story starts around 60 years before Arthur was born, before they even formed the Colony that becomes Camelot (referred to as Camulod way back then), and is very entertaining. I've read the first 3 books now (The Skystone, The Singing Sword, and The Eagles Brood), and am waiting to borrow my friends copy of the 4th, The Saxon Shores. Meanwhile, I'm reading Uther, which is a parallel to The Eagles Brood by the same author. It's also a very good read, and satisfying to see how things played out from the co-heroin's perspective. There's a total of 9 books in the series if you count Uther.

I highly recommend these books to anyone who hasn't read them yet, especially if you enjoy the whole Knights of the Round Table/Camelot/Excalibur stuff.

Edit: Figured I'd throw this in. Jack Whyte - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Khorum]

I love this series. I was floored when I heard about Bruckheimer's 'King Arthur' trying to be a historical breto-roman depiction like Whyte's books, but that turned out to be worst kind of filmmaking imaginable.

But a curious thing about 'A Dream of Eagles' (or the Camulod Chronicles) is that it was released in 91 (92 in the US) and it is one of the earliest examples of 'Gritty fantasy' of which George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire and Erikson's Malazan are now famous for.

I'd recommend the 'Dream of Eagles' series for anyone with an interest in Roman History (it's very very well researched for everything from Roman military ranks, tactics and even legion histories), early dark age history and Celtic/Celtiberian history (ALSO very well researched) and a realistic portrayal of Arthurian legend.

The series is a sweeping multi-generational arc starting with Merlin's grandfather who served during the time of Constantine, to the twilight of the Western Empire, to the abandonment of Brittania to the barbarians... really gritty, MERCILESS storytelling about what the dark age really meant.

[Stonepaw]

I was just about to make a topic about this(Well, more for his other book) This is an amazing book series that I think should get more attention.

I just picked up Jack Whytes new series starter(Knights of the Black and White, Book One of the Templar trilogy). I didnt even realize it had been out for half a year. A shame they didnt have the Eagle in Store either.

It has the same Jack Whyte writing style. It takes place in the late 11th/early 12th century for most of what Ive read up to. Dealing with the start of the crusades/retaking Jureusalem.

I just appreciate Jack Whyte because he doesnt hold anything back. Violence, gore, Rape, Sex. he isnt afraid of any subject.

Too bad they had to dumb down the series name in America(Camulod Chronicles? The fuck. How how about renaming Clothar the Frank to the Lance Thrower. Whyyy)

<./end Shill>

[Khorum]

Originally Posted by Stonepaw

Too bad they had to dumb down the series name in America(Camulod Chronicles? The fuck. How how about renaming Clothar the Frank to the Lance Thrower. Whyyy)

I dunno why they renamed Clothar the Frank but the switch to Camulod Chronicles was to avoid some confusion with a bunch of other series that were named 'of Eagles' in the Historical Fiction genre ("A Clash of Eagles").

It's a great series that has to find more traction. The last book of the series The Eagle came out almost 2 years ago, but you'd still have to fish it out of amazon I think. Could be out in the US now, actually, but I had to get it off amazon.

[Cedil]

This series is my favourite I've read to date. I highly reccomend it for all: I have personally introduced it to 5 of my friends and they all absolutely devoured it.

As a person extremely drawn to movies, I often think of how cool it would be to see such an awesome series go to the big screen. Unfortunately, it's simply WAY too much to fit into one movie. However the other day I was thinking about the possibility of a TV-series on the books. With 9 books total, you could certainly easily make multiple seasons of the series. And because of the nature of a lot of the writings, it probably be best if a station like HBO picked it up

Tell your friends in the movie biz!

[Rune]

The greatest disappointment in my life was taking a course on medieval chivalric Arthurian literature. Taught by a woman.

However as it turns out, Old French poetry is hilarious misogynistic.

Class is still balls though.

[Khorum]

Oddly enough the other more contemporary historical-fiction rendition of the Arthurian legends was written by a woman: The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart. Also a great series, though it's a ton more metaphysical and 'fantasy' than a Dream of Eagles, it's pretty well acclaimed as literate and inspired historical fiction (it was published in the early 70's).

Whyte's series though reads more like crisp military history, but it's this grand spanning history of late Imperial roman military doctrines, to dark age welsh longbowmen, to Saxon heavy infantry all the way to early frankish cavalry. It's spectacularly researched and Whyte manages not to bog the narrative down laying down minutiae like how the cultural pressures that compelled the Franks to become the greatest horsemen in europe, or how the saxons lifted the Roman testudo for their shiltron formation.