Uther

Rating:
Summary: Publius, Merlyn, or Uther???
Review: I would like to start by saying that I enjoy this series immensely. The historical aspects of the story fascinate me, and while I enjoy the Arthurian legends from the traditional "fantastical" telling, I find that the story is equally enjoyable with a little "reality" injected.

All that aside, I feel that where Whyte falls short as a story teller is that it is difficult to tell one narrator from the next. One can close one's eyes and imagine Publius, or Merlyn, or Uther having the same thoughts in any given situation presented in the novels. They're all so damn reasonable!!! This was not such a big deal with Publius and Merlyn. They were both products of a civilized Roman or nearly Roman upbringing. However, I was REALLY disappointed in Uther. Whyte would make passing references to Uther's "Dark Rages", but only very rarely does the reader get to view Uther doing anything truly rash or unreasonable.

Even in the traditional legend, the character of Uther is a dark one. Whyte missed the boat in trying so hard to exonerate Uther, and make him more likable.

Rating:
Summary: Publius, Merlyn, or Uther???
Review: I would like to start by saying that I enjoy this series immensely. The historical aspects of the story fascinate me, and while I enjoy the Arthurian legends from the traditional "fantastical" telling, I find that the story is equally enjoyable with a little "reality" injected.

All that aside, I feel that where Whyte falls short as a story teller is that it is difficult to tell one narrator from the next. One can close one's eyes and imagine Publius, or Merlyn, or Uther having the same thoughts in any given situation presented in the novels. They're all so damn reasonable!!! This was not such a big deal with Publius and Merlyn. They were both products of a civilized Roman or nearly Roman upbringing. However, I was REALLY disappointed in Uther. Whyte would make passing references to Uther's "Dark Rages", but only very rarely does the reader get to view Uther doing anything truly rash or unreasonable.

Even in the traditional legend, the character of Uther is a dark one. Whyte missed the boat in trying so hard to exonerate Uther, and make him more likable.

Rating:
Summary: Dashed Hopes
Review: I've had mixed feelings about most books in this series, but found The Sorcerer to be good and so was hoping for Whyte to match that novel. However, I found this book to be the worst of the bunch, not worth finishing, in fact.

Uther is void of drama or tension. Instead, it is 600+ pages of overly explicit, meaningless detail regarding uninteresting happenings, loosely structured around a story told in previous volumes of this series. If a character shifts a stool during a meal, you read about it. You read about the exact motions a character uses to wash his groin area. But the worst is the dialogue and text describing characters' ruminations. Previous novels featured monotonous dialogues in which characters reason to each other, or thought-by-thought descriptions of how they are thinking through their problems. The trouble with Uther is that these scenes comprise the novel, to the point I put it down, which is past mid-book. This pattern is only occasionally broken by brief flurries of combat or other activities.

I think Whyte is a good writer, he can craft sentences and put them together in a meaningful and often pleasing way. However, this book is a poor example of storytelling. There's very little of a story inside the busy heads of these characters.

Rating:
Summary: Strangely Enough
Review: I've read all the books to date, and waited long months while this one took its time to hit the shelf. I find Whyte's writing absorbing, and his depth and detail incredible. The stories, as one work, are a testament to the man's incredible imagination, and the historical backdrop is rich. Uther, long-awaited as it was, lived up to my expectations in most regards. The story of Uther is tragic, and Whyte writes excellent tragedy, a requiem for romance in every line. He fleshed out a real man from the legend, and created terrific balance with the other novels. The disappointment came in only a few places. Some of the retelling of the other stories was not accurate, for example, Uther says of Lot, "He insulted my dead mother!" when Veronica wasn't dead. There were countless places in the book that made me think the galleys weren't read, because of obvious punctuation problems and word choice errors, that were printing errors, publication problems having nothing to do with the author. The story around the death of Deirdre was satisfying, finally getting to hear and believe Uther's side of the story, made all the more tragic when we realize throughout that Uther and Merlyn never got to sort it out and regain their trust and love of each other. The warfare is, as expected, meticulous, and well drawn out through the novel, leading up to the Fall of Uther. Whyte managed to detail the events that in the third novel were only Merlyn's guesses, and the story, for us, is complete. Whyte is to be highly commended for this series, and this novel, for his attention to a larger vision of the Arthurian legend he created. He is not without fault, but in a saga seven books long, one can expect at least a few slips. The books are treasures.

Rating:
Summary: Not Whyte's Best
Review: In Uther, Jack Whyte attempts to tie up all the tantalizing threads that he left dangling at the end of The Eagle's Brood. He does his best to explain the enigma of Uther, solve the mystery of Deirdre's brutal murder, and clarify the vague circumstances of Arthur's parentage. He makes a valiant effort, but comes up short.

It isn't a dismal failure. Jack Whyte is, after all, a remarkable writer. But it's difficult to write yourself out of a corner, and he'd boxed himself in pretty tightly at the end of Eagle's Brood. What he gives us here is at least one new character, Nemo, who is almost completely unsympathetic and whose actions are utterly bizarre and incomprehensible despite Whyte's efforts to provide good motivation. As for Uther, Whyte has only limited success at demystifying his erratic personality, mostly because the author is forced to use the third person in order to tell this part of the tale. His previous books, which are first person narratives, are much more immediate and visceral.

There are other disappointments, as well. The love scenes are painful reading, but mercifully short. Whyte's battle scenes, although written with the same painstaking detail as in previous books, are difficult to wade through here. The outcome is a given, and the slow progress of Uther's troops is laborious and layered in dread. This is one time where I would have appreciated a little less detail.

What does the author do right? He immerses us, once again, in a world that is brutal and black and frightening and that strikes me, anyway, as utterly realistic. Against that backdrop he sets human beings who are trying to make sense of it all, trying to create a civilization out of chaos. In this book, as in all the others, he takes myth and roots it firmly in history. It's a worthy effort, just not his best.

Rating:
Summary: Uther: The Camulod Chronicles
Review: It was refreshing to see the world through Uther's eyes. Most of the Arthurian stories have been told with Arthur as the focus or from Merlin's point of view. Occasionally you get the female point of view as well, but never before have I read the tale with uther as the focus. The entire is series is a must read. The only thing I might suggest is to read this book along with the Eagles Brood, instead of reading it in the series order.

Rating:
Summary: Not Whyte's Best
Review: Jack Whyte has over the past several years written some masterpieces (I loved Eagles Brood and Sorceror) but Uther did not live up to his other works. The book didn't really give me any more insights into Uther's fascinating character. I do not really know him any better than when I read Eagles Brood. Further, Ygraine's character was shallow and undeveloped. I realize that the other books were all written first person as if we were reading their memoirs which Uther would not have the patience to write, but I wish I would have had more insight into his character. Go more into the conflict within him about his feelings of envy for Camulod, his insecurity about the fear he inspires. This book was just a series of events practically unconnected. I expected it to follow the storyline of Eagle's Brood closer as well. I would have loved to hear what Uther thought of things and tell what happened when Merlyn would show up at a hostelry and save Uther who was already embroiled in a fight. Whyte should have had the two books more dependant on one another. Just my opinion.

Rating:
Summary: Not enough juice!
Review: Jack Whyte's books are my second favourite series of all time (which is saying a lot), and I was very excited for the opportunity to really know the other "Prince of Camulod," Uther. The realistic interpretation of the Arthurian legend and its ingenious development I find much more satisfying than the endless and widely varied fantastical interpretations, but maybe that's just the historian in me. Also being female, I always felt that the "juiciest" parts of the series were the powerful and romantic male characters and their relationships with one another, especially Merlyn (Cay) and Uther who are aptly described as "different sides of the same coin." One was the Romanized heir to Camulod; one the darker (in every sense of the word) Celtic prince. In the series, Merlyn's life and person is explored thoroughly and satisfyingly, and I was glad it was Uther's turn to live through the grand and tragic events of his very different life. In the previous books he was always a brooding and enigmatic counterbalance to Merlyn's clean nobility, and Uther's story was obviously fertile ground for more of Whyte's beautiful character developments. I expected Uther would have twice the personality of Merlyn, and that his famous rages and conflicts would be delved into in much more detail, especially in the area of his friendship with Cay and his feelings towards his parents, both of which are hinted at but only touched upon in this book. If Cay were his bosom companion, and his parents a Celtic king and a Roman lady, I would think that Uther would have much more to dwell upon than the fact that Camulod was a nicer place to live. We should have seen the mirror image of Cay's relationship with Uther, which would also give more insight into Cay for the benefit of the rest of the series, and a contrasting gritty feel for the inner life of a native Celt. The latter was explored a little but not enough. However for those who deplore the casual references to sex, well, that would be part and parcel of such a life, and a welcome change from the demure mystical romance of other Arthurian tales. Whyte has never pulled his punches to satisfy our post-Victorian sensibilities, and I'm glad he didn't start here.

I understand that the subject of Camulod itself need not be rehashed, but I was dissapointed that we really DIDN'T get to know, in the grand tradition of this series, how Uther really felt and how these important people affected his life as an adult. The elaborate opening chapter dealing with Veronica was almost wasted. As well, it was never really explained how, since Cay spent half his childhood with his Pendragon relations, they later considered him a suspicious stranger. Or how a Pendragon king would allow his only son to spend most of his life away from the people he would one day lead. Although I enjoyed the book, like a lot of people I wished there was less anthropological detail and more exploration of Uther's volatile personality and love life - this book could have been exploding with Uther's charm and danger. I thought Nemo a fascinating character, but found it odd that she never batted an eye over being punished by her beloved Uther, or that Uther never used her devotion, therefore creating tragic (on her part) conflicts.
If Uther portrayed in earlier books as "mad, bad, and dangerous to know," we never get to fully realize why, or how tied into Cay's life he was. So in conclusion, this was a good and much appreciated book, but it lacked the romance and depth of its predecessors, when it should have been the most tragic and romantic of them all. Uther was supposed to have been a blazing star falling towards a sad destiny, but this book only lets us catch a few glimmerings of his descent.

Rating:
Summary: Too much Anthropology, not enough History
Review: Note that I read this book completely unaware that it was part of a series. (indeed, nowhere on the cover does it say "Book 7 of the *** Series" or whatever). So this review will judge "Uther" as a standalone novel and some of my comments may therefore be off the mark, had I read the preceeding six titles.

I am a great fan of historical fiction, especially of the classical and Roman eras. So a novel that treats Arthurian Britain within its historically correct context of the immediatelly post-Roman times held great promise for me. What I expected was 'realistic fiction', that would interprete the popular story in more pragmatic terms. In some ways, "Uther" does this quite admirably; in others it fails - quite unecessarily also.

For some reason, the author seems to prefer anthropology to history. He will spend pages upon pages describing in exhaustive detail how a lone cavalry scout sets up camp for the night, cataloguing their equipment and methods of manufacture, their reasons for selecting a particular site, their procedures for starting a fire or storing their weapons overnight, the weave of their cloak, the hobling of their horse, the sounds of the rain on the leaves.. And then, two pages later he will summarise a couple of major battles, a fatal injury to one of the most important characters and a political decision that will shape the future of Britain for centuries, all quite literally within the span of two-three paragraphs. By the end of the book I was smiling and thinking "Jack Whyte, father of Anthropological Fiction, a whole new genre of litterature".

This complete disregard for historical considerations spans the length of the book. The "macro"-view is constantly sacrificed for micro-detailing. The story suffers for it too. Because when the time comes to advance the story-arc, the reader (along with the author) totally lacks any social/economical background that would explain the protagonists' actions or the political developments. So mr Whyte has to continuously pull proverbial rabbits out of his hat.

For example, when failing to present a believable scenario on how an advanced culture, with the benefit of Roman administration, technology and military organisation (Camulod + Cambria) could possibly be threatened by anyone within primitive non-Roman Britain (yet in need of strife for the purposes of his story), he magically produces a whole series of invading mercenary armies from Scotland, Ireland, Germany and beyond, all of which are supposedly, somehow being financed, fed and organised by a backwater ruler of an infertile little peninsula (Cornwall).

The book's ending is similarly unimaginative and equally disappointing. Jack Whyte simply has all significant active characters killed. Some of them even manage to kill each other, even though they were leagues apart and avoiding contact just a few pages before!

Mind you, I kept reading, all the way to the end. Because even as I was failing to accept the story, the backdrop itself was trully wonderful, detailed and well researched and it kept me immersed. So, inspite my misgivings, É would probably still recommend reading it.

Think of it this way: if "Uther" were a movie, Jack Whyte would have been an amazing set designer or perhaps the creative assistant; but he would definatelly not have been the writer or the director. Reading this novel you will not learn why Britain evolved the way it did, but you will definatelly learn what it looked like 1,700 years ago.

Rating:
Summary: OK for waiting in an airport, but...
Review: The good: Whyte does a good job of taking out the mystical in the Arthur legend and giving it a historical basis.
The bad: The book is longer than it needs to be, almost to the point of boring the reader, too much space is spent describing events that have no relevance to the story.
The ugly: Whyte's many descriptions on how his characters "rut" or "bed" with each other. These scenes have no relevance to the story and are inappropriate. I found myself skipping over these scenes.
The bottom line: Taking the time to dig through the irrelevant details and sex scenes isn't worth it. This is the last Whyte book I'll ever read.