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Summary: A little darker, a little better
Review: When I discover that a new Cornwel book is gong to hit the market I do not hesitate to get it right away. In fact, I usually purchase his books from amazon.co.uk months before they come out in the US. I found this book to have all of the qualities I love in Cornwell's other books , with a little darker edge to it. In most Cronwell books you have the good and the evil. In the Archers Tale some of the good people are evil enough to help demonstrate how brutal the world was 650 years ago. If you like Sharpe, and were depressed to think that perhaps his adventures were coming to an end, don;t be too disheartened because Thomas of Hookton is a worthy replacement.
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Summary: History From The Trenches
Review: Bernard Cornwell is best known for his Sharpe's Rifles series, covering Wellington's Peninsula Campaign of the Napoleonic Wars; and expanding to a prequel series about the creation of the British Raj in India. He has also looked into the American Civil War (The Starbuck Chronicles), the American Revolution (Redcoat), Arthurian legend (The Warlord Series), and the dawn of British history (Stonehenge). All are well written, although the American books fall far short of the British ones. Cornwell's latest is British again, and is up to his standards.
Thomas of Hookton is the illegitimate, but acknowledged son of the very unusual village priest in the seaside hamlet of Hookton. Everyone assumes that the priest is of noble birth, and at least a little crazy. He even has books! Which he reads! He intends Thomas for the clergy as well, and Thomas already has one year at Oxford. Thomas's real love, however, is archery. He is a master of that strange, new, and uniquely British weapon, the longbow. French pirates, commanded by a mysterious character who gives his name as "Harlequin, attack Hookton on Easter morning, kill the priest, steal the precious holy relic displayed at the church, and start Thomas off on his adventure.
When the pirates attack, Thomas goes for his longbow, and mounts the only defense of the village; but it is too little, too late. Thomas finds his father dying and learns that "Harlequin" is actually his cousin and that the holy relic in the church is a mystic family heirloom which his father stole from his family when he fell out with them. But his father does not tell him his family name before he dies.
With nothing left in Hookton, Thomas goes to the wars, enlisting as a common bowman. He becomes a soldier in the British army which has invaded France as the Hundred Years War begins. What follows is Cornwell's masterful narration of historical fact set in the thoughts and deeds of his characters. It appears from the ending that this is the first in a new series of Cornwell histories. This reader will certainly look forward to the books that follow.
Rating: 
Summary: Good for Sharpe fans
Review: A good book, nice writing and a focus on warfare that will satisfy Cornwell fans. However, this was not as gripping and deep or even as well-written as the Warlord Chronicles or Stonehenge, in my opinion. I don't think there is anything in print that I've read in the past few years that matches the Warlord Chronicles so meeting that quality might not be expected. But I found the Archer's Tale to be a dry story told in a matter-of-fact fashion. The characters are simple and lightly sketched and they meander through a couple of dead-end, lackluster conflicts and bonds. Only the finale, the battler of Crecy, drew me in as well as did every page of the Warlord Chronicles. So a luke-warm review from me. But it might please Sharpe fans: the style and characters are similar.
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Summary: Cornwell's new hero Thomas of Hookton
Review: Bernard Cornwell uses a similar formula for his heroes like Sharpe and now Thomas of Hookton; typically, the hero is a misfit (Sharpe is a whore's son become an office; Hookton is an orphan of a village raid who becomes a topnotch archer and rival of a nobleman.) There's also a beautiful and bellicose woman (The Blackbird, reminiscent of Teresa in Sharpe's series.) If you longed for something similar to the wildly successful Sharpe series in the historical military vein, you can't go wrong with the Archer's Tale. It's fast-moving, has plenty of military history from the time of the Norman raids on England, and promises to be a great series. Maybe someone will film it in a mini-series--certainly this is a fascinating time in European history.
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Summary: A medieval replacement for Sharpe
Review: With "The Archer's Tale" Bernard Cornwell transports his readers to the mid 13th century and the start of the Hundred Years War. His replacement for Richard Sharpe is Thomas of Hookton, an archer in the army of Edward III. We learn in the prologue that Thomas is the illegitimate son of the Hookton parish priest, an educated man of mysterious noble origins. Thomas learns Latin and French from his father (which is puzzling because we find out later that the priest's native tongue is langue d'Oc) and archery from his maternal grandfather. French pirate overrun Hookton killing everyone except Thomas. They are led by the priest's nephew who wants an important relic his uncle has hidden in the Hookton church. Thomas then joins the King's army in order to find and take revenge on the man who massacred his family and his town. Like Sharpe, Thomas soon comes to the attention of a powerful historical figure, the Earl of Northhampton. He also has Sharpe's knack of making deadly enemies of the venal and the villainous -- in this case a knight who serves in the Earl's command. Two women of noble status play key roles in Thomas' life as he fights his way from Brittany to Normandy and into France. The climax of the book is the battle of Crecy. "The Archer's Tale" is filled with the wealth of historical detail that gave the Sharpe series its air of authenticity. The reader learns the minutae of using the English longbow in battle, about life in a medieval army, and about medieval life in general. Lest I give the wrong impression, the book is stuffed with plenty of exciting, gory, mayhem too. Thomas is an altogether worthy replacement for Sharpe. His intriguing antecedants and his secret quest promise further adventure.
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Summary: Bernard Cornwell brings history to life
Review: I read this book under the English title "Harlequin", book one of The Grail Quest. I am constantly amazed how such a prolific writer can produce books of such quality. Thomas of Hookton is a hero very much in the Richard Sharpe mould. He is a person that you can relate to, honest and down to earth. I was griped from the first page and ended up writing this review whilst trying to find if book two of the Grail Quest was on the shelves. If you enjoy historical novels packed with action and adventure, you will love this book. If only history had been this good at school!
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Summary: Violent Tale of Violent Era; Birth of Intriguing Series
Review: Bernard Cornwell (the Richard Sharpe series, the Starbuck series) is a master of historical fiction, and "The Archer's Tale" is his first foray into the early years of the Hundred Years War between England and France. "The Archer's Tale" opens with a horrifyingly brutish assault by the French on the small village of Hookton, which protects a mighty relic through its tiny size and complete lack of importance. The relic, the black lance used by St. George to slay the Dragon, is seized by the Harlequin, and the town razed. The Harlequin also kills his uncle, an old priest with a murky past. Cornwell's description of the destruction and rape of Hookton is masterful in its economy and its clarity -- this book quickly establishes that it is not for the squeamish! Thomas, the archer, escapes the sack of Hookton through his mastery of the bow, which is the dominant military weapon of the era (the late 1300's). Contrary to common perception, archers were not the small wimps who hung out in the rear while the mighty swordsmen and cavalry fought the battles. An archer was fantastically strong owing to years of stringing their mighty bows, and Thomas is an archer's archer. He vows revenge on the man who has brought destruction to Hookton. Possessing more lives than a cat, Thomas journeys to France and plays a crucial role in the sack of a French village. Earning the respect, love, or hatred of those whom he encounters (he inspires strong feelings, does our Thomas), Thomas uses his wits, his skill with a bow, a good head for warfare, and just plain blind luck to journey from battle to battle, from siege to siege. Cornwell brings the Middle Ages alive with his vivid descriptions of life in small villages as well as his depiction of the mighty French city of Caen. We get a good sense of the world Thomas inhabits, from the critical role of religion to the importance of allegience to a lord to the harsh realities of losing a battle. Cornwell does not shy away from the consequences to the elderly, to women, and to children if their defenders lose to the foe, whose army is more likely to be made up of murderers and rapists than heirs of the Knights of the Round Table. Life on the losing end was nasty, brutish, and inevitably short. Of course, life isn't much better for the men, who throw themselves into battles worthy of "Braveheart" in their horrors. While he never gets heavy-handed, Cornwell shows the terrors of war, from the disembowelments, beheadings, boilings, and other gruesome deaths, to the terrible cost in horses and the thankless role of the mercenary. Through it all, Thomas pursues his oath of vengeance, although not with the singlemindedness that would make him boring. Hounded from time to time by a friendly cleric and fatherly commander, Thomas often seeks the solace of a quiet life with an attractive woman (he meets more than a few) in the midst of the carnage of war, and it rarely works out. While not as titanic as Colleen McCullough's "Masters of Rome" series or as detailed, "The Archer's Tale" is a riveting story set in a harsh era. Short on intrigue, long on battles, "The Archer's Tale" is an entertaining read that seems much shorter than its 380-odd pages.
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Summary: Page turner
Review: I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading the next two offerings in this series. The Archer's Tale gives us a grim look at the beginning of the Hundred Year War the brutality of the times. The action sequence were outstanding and not romanticized. The juxtaposition of cruel brutatality for loot and the dying chivalry of the times showed the sharp contrasts existing within each character.
I found the cast of characters intriguing, but the main two characters, Thomas and Jeanette, seemed to fall just short of being fully realized. Their actions went unexplained at some points and their emotional development unexplored.
Those points aside, I think this book has made me a fan of Mr. Cornwell and I look forward to reading his many other novels.
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Summary: Harlequin - In the Days of Olde
Review: "Harlequin" is the name of this book published in the UK; "The Archer's Tale" is the same book with a different title, published in the USA. Harlequin/Archers Tale is the 1st book in the 3-book medieval Grail Quest series. It is about a young English man whose father is the supposed holder of the Grail and The Lance of St. George. Thomas becomes an archer when a French war band travels deep into Britain to retrieve the Lance of St. George. Thomas travels across Britain to retrieve the lance. During his journeys he finds many friends and finds the lance. Bernard Cornwell's writing is exhilarating and keeps you riveted to the book. Cornwell has the talent to create epic historic battle scenes: Lots of thrilling, heart-pounding fighting among archers, knights, and men-in-arms. Harlequin and the other books in the Grail Quest series are all equally good. I recommend this book and the Grail Quest series whole heartedly. For anyone who likes traveling history via battles and romances, this book will be perfect for you.
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Summary: Found lacking
Review: The Archer's Tale didn't live up to its back cover copy. While the battle scenes are detailed, one ran into another, and another, and another... How interesting can several hundred descriptions of people getting gored/shot/stabbed/beheaded/trampled/impaled, etc. be? As Thomas, the main character, observed, war is gray, and much of this novel fell into a dull, gray zone for me, most likely because Thomas was a dull character. While his physical description was interesting, the internal man had the personality of pudding. Why did he maintain a different look? Where were his emotions other than, as another reviewer noted, "shrug"? The Blackbird had great promise as a character, but halfway through, the relationship between her and Thomas is summed up in cursory narrative, and she's whisked off the main stage with no explanation other than that she was 'a hard woman.' Some of the best characters in fiction were hard women, but Jeanette's depths are not plumbed here. Thomas appears to have no depth. He's merely an eyepiece through which we observe one battle after another. I recommend Cecelia Holland's excellent historicals instead.
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