#pendragon cycle

This book served as a prelude to the classic Arthurian legend, and it places itself in the British Isles (Wales, to be more specific). Lawhead takes a pretty creative approach to bringing the Arthurian legend from strictly/mostly fantasy to being grounded in the real world. Obviously the fantastical elements are still there, but most of them seem to be attributed to Christian spiritual journeys instead of the classic Druidism, like that shown in BBC's Merlin for example.

I went into this recognizing the Pendragon name and was very thrown off to not be entering into the traditional beginning of this legend. That said, the Atlantean plotline was a lot of fun. Charis is a determined young woman, but the whole backing plot of her evil younger sister (Morgana, spelled differently) was lost on me. It's much less sympathetic to women than I was hoping.

Similarly, Taliesin was an engaging character, but it takes over a hundred pages before we really meet him as a young man. It just feels like this book started a little earlier than was prudent. We get lost in the weeds of court politics and village disputes before the story has a chance to really start.