THE EAGLE

SIGNED BY JACK WHYTE

By Jack Whyte

Published by Viking Canada, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

2005 True First Canadian Edition with printing number line 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10

This thick book is a HARDCOVER in Fine condition with 691 pages and a Dust Jacket in near fine condition.

SIGNED BY AUTHOR 

Overview

Beginning with The Skystone, the first in his riveting Camulod Chronicles, Jack Whyte has embarked on an ambitious and remarkable re-telling of the Arthurian cycle,

 giving us a fresh and compelling take on a story that has been beloved for centuries.

The Eagle brings us at last to the heart of the tale, the creation of fabled Camelot and the love story that enshrined its glory.

Whyte takes us into the minds and lives of Arthur, Guinevere, and Lancelot, three astonishing but fallible people who were bound together by honor, loyalty, and love.

 Three who created the glory that was Britain's shining dream…and, some say, caused its downfall.

The Gaulish nobleman Clothar known in our time as Lancelot is drawn to the young High King's court by tales of honor and nobility, where he meets a man whose love of law matches his own. More, he finds in Arthur a life-long friend whose dream of uniting the people of Britain in peace Clothar embraces.

And Clothar meets Arthur's queen, a wondrous beauty whose passion and ideals match those of her husband. Together they work to bring Arthur's dream to life.

But dark forces rise in opposition to Arthur's plans for creating this noble island nation and it is hard to tell friend from foe in the swirling chaos that ensues.

Many tales have been told of the dream that shined and died. This one will astonish even the most jaded.

REVIEWS  == “The ninth and final installment in Whyte's Camulod (Camelot) series offers an imaginative if rambling account of the end of the Arthurian era.

Narrated by Clothar of Benwick (Lancelot), King Arthur's best friend and loyal companion, the novel is grounded in the author's "interpretation of Lancelot" as "an archetypal hero." Faced with fractious local rulers and Saxon invaders, Arthur hopes to unite Britain to fend off the invasion.

But two regional kings--the treacherous Symmachus and the ambitious Connlyn--unite to frustrate, and ultimately destroy, Arthur's dream.

The basic plot, however, is overburdened with a stew of subplots and backstories: Clothar's affair with a betrothed woman adds heft but not substance, and the detailed recounting of the paternity of Arthur's son, Mordred, the fruit of an unwitting incestuous affair with his half-sister, is distracting.

The author also sends Clothar off on a seven-year detour to Gaul where he trains a cavalry force and saves his cousin's kingdom from the Huns.

Clothar returns to Britain to find that events have taken a dangerous turn and a final showdown looms with Camulod's enemies.

Fans of Whyte's exhaustive retelling of the Camelot legend will welcome this final chapter.

REVIEWS  == “As a deep friendship grows between Arthur and the Frankish warrior Clothar (otherwise known as Lancelot), so does the need for a visible symbol of a Britain united under a high king. Thus King Arthur creates his knights from his best warriors, and the legend of Camulod is born.

Told through the voice of Clothar, the final volume in Whyte's multivolume reworking of the Arthurian legend casts a different light on Arthur's marriage to Gwinnifer and to his relationship to his son Mordred.

Exacting period detail and inventive uses of traditional parts of the Arthurian legend make this story, along with its predecessors, a welcome addition to the many retellings of a classic tale. A good choice for most libraries, with particular appeal to fans of historical fantasy and the Arthur cycle.

MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR == Jack Whyte  ===  (Johnstone, Renfrewshire, Scotland, 1939) is an author and writer born and raised in Scotland, but living in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada since 1967.

Whyte's major work to date is the A Dream of Eagles series (as it is titled in Canada, but known as The Camulod Chronicles in the United States and elsewhere).

This series of historical novels presents the tale of King Arthur set against the backdrop of Roman Britain.

This retelling of the popular legend eschews the use of magic (as in T. H. White’s The Sword in the Stone) to explain Arthur’s ascent to power and instead relies on the historical condition (with some artistic license) of post-Roman Britain to support the theory that Arthur was meant to counter the anarchy left by the Roman departure from Britain in 410 AD and the subsequent colonization and invasion of Britain by various peoples from Northwestern Europe, including the Saxons, Jutes, Franks, and Angles).

Whyte incorporates both traditional Arthurian names, places and events (albeit in gaelic or latin form) as well as the names of various historical figures that have been suggested as being the possible basis for the original King Arthur legend.

The tacit implication is that Whyte's version of history is the true story that has become distorted over time to become the legend and stories of magic that we know today.  Jack Whyte served as the official bard of The Calgary Highlanders and performed several tracks of poetry and song on the 1990 album Eighty Years of Glory: The Regimental Pipes, Drums and Bard of The Calgary Highlanders.

SOME OF THE AUTHORS BOOKS

A Dream of Eagles (Camulod Chronicles or Legends of Camelot)

1. The Skystone (published in Great Britain as War of the Celts)

2. The Singing Sword (published in Great Britain as The Round Table)

3. The Eagles' Brood (published in Great Britain as Merlyn)

4. The Saxon Shore (published in Great Britain as Excalibur)

5. The Sorcerer Part 1: The Fort at River's Bend (published in Great Britain as The Boy King)

6. The Sorcerer Part 2: Metamorphosis (published in Great Britain as The Sorcerer)

The two volumes The Sorcerer: The Fort at River’s Bend and The Sorcerer: Metamorphosis were written as a single volume entitled The Sorcerer but were split for publication.

Golden Eagle (companion mini-series)

Clothar the Frank (published as The Lance Thrower in the United States of America, and as Lancelot in Great Britain)

The Eagle (published as The Last Stand in Great Britain)

Other

Uther (published as Pendragon in Great Britain) is a stand-alone novel about the life of Uther Pendragon from infancy up until the end of events in The Eagles' Brood. It serves to answer questions left open by The Eagles' Brood that result from the fact that the latter is told exclusively from the perspective of Merlyn Britannicus and as such is not able to explain actions and events of which Merlyn is unaware. Uther is also a companion novel to The Eagles' Brood as it follows the title character and others as they grow up and wage war on Uther's main enemy, Guhlrys Lot, King of Cornwall.

British Editions

When the series was first published in Great Britain in 2013 and 2014, the books were retitled as indicated above, placed in a different order, and organized into several sub-series. The Saxon Shore and the two parts of The Sorcerer became the first sub-series, Arthur the Hero; Clothar the Frank and The Eagle became the second sub-series, Arthur the King; The Eagles' Brood and Uther became the third sub-series, Arthur the Son; and The Skystone and The Singing Sword became the fourth and final sub-series, Arthur the Dynast. The British editions thus came close to reversing the internal chronological and publication orders of the series.

The Templar Trilogy

Knights of the Black and White (released August 1, 2006 in Canada)

Standard of Honor (released August 28, 2007 in Canada)

Order in Chaos (released in August 2009)

The Guardians of Scotland

The Forest Laird (2010)

The Renegade (2012)