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The Eagles' Brood

The Eagles' Brood

List Price: $6.99
Your Price: $6.29
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Diminishing Returns - Sequelitus
Review: I read the second book first, not realizing this was a series, and liked it enough to purchase the others. Reading them one after another, I see a marked dropoff in quality with this installment. Never strong on character, the plotting gets weaker and a lot reads like filler. If I didn't have the remaining volumes already I would not buy them. I recommend the Skystone and Singing Sword and stop there.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Come Merlin; come Uther ... all Camulod awaits
Review: I read this in one sitting!! and reread it slowly and savoured it for another week. How fantastic for me to read a tale that has been so overworked and woefully told but for Stewart and Zimmer-Bradley, now Jack Whyte

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Accurate history and great story
Review: In the back of our minds we all know that the Arthurian legend originated from a 5th century warlord who was attempting to maintain Roman culture in Britain - and this series of novels follows that assumption, mixing aspects of the classic tale with rather interwoven history.

My only problem with the series thus far is the invention by the Camulodians and the Pendragon of such things as the longbow and the stirrup, which didn't appear until the 14th and 8th centuries. This, however, can be explained away that these people die eventually, and with them this knowledge vanishes.

For any lovers of the Arthur legend and Roman history, these books are amazing. For everyone else, they are, to quote critics, a "ripping good yarn"

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Tower to Whyte! Pull up, Jack! Pull up!
Review: Jack Whyte achieves a mildly unsatisfying semi-closure in The Eagle's Brood. In an apparent attempt to tidy up the landscape before Arthur's arrival, he manages to kill off most of the characters from the first three books, including a sexually perverted Uther. At least, I hope Uther is dead. On the positive side, The Eagle's Brood is fast-paced and entertaining, and it promises more of the same in subsequent books. However, Whyte is beginning to demonstrate that he is assuredly not Mary Stewart, Parke Godwin, Stephen Lawhead, or Bernard Cornwell. If he wishes to join such august company, he needs to do a better job with continuity and cut down on the sordid sex and violence. The Arthurian legend is a more than adequate vehicle to propel a good writer like Whyte in to a truly exceptional author. So, Jack, get with it! Let's see a compelling and exciting transition to the life of Arthur. And please, no psychological baggage!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: See Arthur and his world through Roman eyes
Review: Jack Whyte makes a perfect Arthurian legend, for as far as I know the only one which shows his world through the eyes of a Roman. Perfectly storytelling, great plotting. Loved it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A great edition to the Camulod Chronicles
Review: Jack Whyte once again adds a chapter to the already exciting series. The way that he molds so many different plots into one is pure art.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fantasy accounting interspersed with historical information.
Review: Jack Whyte seems to be one of the few myth/fantasy writers who has been able to so comfortably (and successfully)co-mingle the traditional Arthurian legends with historical facts and actual geographic locations. I have been following him since I (quite by accident) purchased "The Singing Sword". I anxiously await his next release. In two words: GOOD READ!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: EQUISITE!
Review: OUTSTANDING!Mr. Whyte makes you feel like you are in the story. It's being there. This is storytelling at its very best. The plot, the characters, the pace, the detail, are all perfect. Can you tell I liked it? I do feel that one should read the series in order to get the full impact of the story. It does, after all, begin with SKYSTONE. This book kept me up late several nights simply because I couldn't leave it alone. The plot is rich with history and details that make you want to read more about the time this occurred. The characters are fully developed and have personalities (seen through the eyes of the storyteller) that are colorful and have a depth that makes them real people: you know them. You care for them and what happens to them. This is a magnificent saga. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys history, historical fiction, or just a real good story.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: The train wreck continues
Review: Reading Whyte's work at this point is like watching a train wreck -- you can't turn your eyes away even when you want to. Continuing in his "one crisis after another" school of writing, nothing makes sense if one sits back and thinks about it for any length of time. The characters are dull and monolithic; the setting forced; the events contrived. His obsession with sex scenes that the characters detest is getting on my nerves. If his characters hate these events so much, why do they keep appearing? There are so many points where logic would demand that his whole colony fall apart due to internal disorder (not to mention woefully inadequate resources and manpower) that the mind fails to comprehend how it could possibly survive. History and historicity are thrown out the window; the basis of the legends is forgotten. Whyte fails in these books on all counts and yet, like the Mack Bolan books, will continue to be popular with those who only want impossible adventure and pointless escapades. Expect to turn your mind off when you read these books -- it will be safer for you.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A realistic marriage of history, legend, and fact.
Review: The Camulod Chronicles are a wonderfully realistic marriage of histroical fact and Anglo-Saxon-Celtic legend. The story is so realistic, in fact, that it may be closer to real history than the current hodge-podge of fact, sorcery, and legend. But the crowning achievement is that it is fun, fun, fun to read. I save very few paper backs. This series is one I am not only saving in paper back, but may even buy the hard covers to make sure they are always in the family library.


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