Rating: 
Summary: mystical, enchanting, spellbinding, no words to describe it!
Review: the entire pendragon cycle is amazing!!!!! i have never read anything like this series!!! i am a huge reader, i read like 3 500 page books a week and i love arthurian legends so you can imagine i have read a lot of them! but i have never in my life read anything as purely wonderful as stephen r. lawhead's pendragon cycle. these 5 books are definately the best 5 books in the world! they are almost completely different from any other arthurian legends ever written, and, although i will never grow tired of those versions, these books a refreshing and new way of telling the tales, instead of just the old guenevere and lancelot love and betrayal stories. i absolutely hate writing, but love reading of course, so i can especially appreciate all the work that must have gone into these books to make them so long (something like 449 pages each) and so completely enthralling. never have i read anything like these and i'm sure i never will again because these are so completely unique to any other versions i have heard. words cannot describe these 5 books so i will stop writing this review. but please, if you like arthurian legends, or just a good couple of books, try these: Taliesin, arthur, merlin, pendragon, and grail. they are magnificent!!!!!!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: If you love the first 3 books DO NOT READ THIS BOOK!
Review: The first 3 books in the Pendragon cycle are among my favorite books (I got the trilogy over 10 years ago and have read them countless times), and the 4th book "Pendragon" was OK...(although not particularly interesting). But "Grail" is absolutely horrible. This book is actually an alternate ending to "Arthur" (book 3). It ignores the last half of that book (and the PERFECT ending) and completely changes everything for the worse. "Grail" is uninteresting and boring, and for it to be called the 5th book in the Pendragon cycle is utterly ridiculous! Avoid this book at all costs!
Rating:
Summary: Exciting!
Review: The most exciting of the Pendragon cycle!
Rating: 
Summary: "First Person" telling of the story = bad idea
Review: The rating applies to the entire series of the "Pendragon Cycle."First - The entire series of Lawhead's "Pendragon Cycle" was outstanding. The first two books ("Taliesin" and "Merlin") in the series were by far the best and I would say that they both deserve a rating of 4 1/2 stars. The third book, "Arthur" was a bit of a dissapointment and I would give it 2 1/2 stars for a rating. I would give Pendragon 4 stars. The last book, "Grail" was in my opinion worth 3 1/2 stars. The biggest problem that I have with the last three books in the "cycle" is the telling of the stories in the first person by various hero's and characters within the stories. This worked quite well with the first two books - but I really feel like Lawhead cut himself short in the telling of Arthur's legacy by writing it in the first person. A lot of the story's elements got left out and what could have been an awesome tale (on par with "Lord of The Rings") was lost in the telling of the story this way. In "Grail," Gwalchavad (Sir Galahad) tells the story (save for a few chapters that open with Morgain's side of the story - never more than a few paragraphs) of how the "holy grail" is stolen and Arthur is betrayed by one of his own, Llenlleawg (Lancelot). Because the story is told solely from Gwalchavad's point of view - the reader is never shown any internal struggle or the mental process of what Llenlleawg was going through when he betrayed Arthur. I felt that this should have been an essential part of the story given the fact that our betrayer was a hero in "Arthur" and "Pendragon." A third person telling of the story could have easily captured that and not left the reader scratching his or her head. That is one example of how the story falls short due to the first person telling of it. Other problems with this lie when Gwalchavad gets seperated from Arthur. There is a big gap as to what happens to Arthur and co. during the seperation - as the story only follows Gwalchavad in the seperation. Although I did love the stories and highly recommend them - I am sorely dissapointed that the "fullness of the tale" got lost because we only hear from the perspective of the character telling it. Technically the writing is very good - and the research that must of gone into writing these books is definately evident and will give the reader a great appreciation of the author's effort. I wish Lawhead would not have made the grail an object of worship - but that is the "Christian" in me coming out. Sorry to say it doesn't work that way - I thought Lawhead knew that. Oh well - still a good story with a shade of truth to it non-the-less.
Rating:
Summary: "First Person" telling of the story = bad idea
Review: The rating applies to the entire series of the "Pendragon Cycle." First - The entire series of Lawhead's "Pendragon Cycle" was outstanding. The first two books ("Taliesin" and "Merlin") in the series were by far the best and I would say that they both deserve a rating of 4 1/2 stars. The third book, "Arthur" was a bit of a dissapointment and I would give it 2 1/2 stars for a rating. I would give Pendragon 4 stars. The last book, "Grail" was in my opinion worth 3 1/2 stars. The biggest problem that I have with the last three books in the "cycle" is the telling of the stories in the first person by various hero's and characters within the stories. This worked quite well with the first two books - but I really feel like Lawhead cut himself short in the telling of Arthur's legacy by writing it in the first person. A lot of the story's elements got left out and what could have been an awesome tale (on par with "Lord of The Rings") was lost in the telling of the story this way. In "Grail," Gwalchavad (Sir Galahad) tells the story (save for a few chapters that open with Morgain's side of the story - never more than a few paragraphs) of how the "holy grail" is stolen and Arthur is betrayed by one of his own, Llenlleawg (Lancelot). Because the story is told solely from Gwalchavad's point of view - the reader is never shown any internal struggle or the mental process of what Llenlleawg was going through when he betrayed Arthur. I felt that this should have been an essential part of the story given the fact that our betrayer was a hero in "Arthur" and "Pendragon." A third person telling of the story could have easily captured that and not left the reader scratching his or her head. That is one example of how the story falls short due to the first person telling of it. Other problems with this lie when Gwalchavad gets seperated from Arthur. There is a big gap as to what happens to Arthur and co. during the seperation - as the story only follows Gwalchavad in the seperation. Although I did love the stories and highly recommend them - I am sorely dissapointed that the "fullness of the tale" got lost because we only hear from the perspective of the character telling it. Technically the writing is very good - and the research that must of gone into writing these books is definately evident and will give the reader a great appreciation of the author's effort. I wish Lawhead would not have made the grail an object of worship - but that is the "Christian" in me coming out. Sorry to say it doesn't work that way - I thought Lawhead knew that. Oh well - still a good story with a shade of truth to it non-the-less.
Rating:
Summary: "First Person" telling of the story = bad idea
Review: The rating applies to the entire series of the "Pendragon Cycle." First - The entire series of Lawhead's "Pendragon Cycle" was outstanding. The first two books ("Taliesin" and "Merlin") in the series were by far the best and I would say that they both deserve a rating of 4 1/2 stars. The third book, "Arthur" was a bit of a dissapointment and I would give it 2 1/2 stars for a rating. I would give Pendragon 4 stars. The last book, "Grail" was in my opinion worth 3 1/2 stars. The biggest problem that I have with the last three books in the "cycle" is the telling of the stories in the first person by various hero's and characters within the stories. This worked quite well with the first two books - but I really feel like Lawhead cut himself short in the telling of Arthur's legacy by writing it in the first person. A lot of the story's elements got left out and what could have been an awesome tale (on par with "Lord of The Rings") was lost in the telling of the story this way. In "Grail," Gwalchavad (Sir Galahad) tells the story (save for a few chapters that open with Morgain's side of the story - never more than a few paragraphs) of how the "holy grail" is stolen and Arthur is betrayed by one of his own, Llenlleawg (Lancelot). Because the story is told solely from Gwalchavad's point of view - the reader is never shown any internal struggle or the mental process of what Llenlleawg was going through when he betrayed Arthur. I felt that this should have been an essential part of the story given the fact that our betrayer was a hero in "Arthur" and "Pendragon." A third person telling of the story could have easily captured that and not left the reader scratching his or her head. That is one example of how the story falls short due to the first person telling of it. Other problems with this lie when Gwalchavad gets seperated from Arthur. There is a big gap as to what happens to Arthur and co. during the seperation - as the story only follows Gwalchavad in the seperation. Although I did love the stories and highly recommend them - I am sorely dissapointed that the "fullness of the tale" got lost because we only hear from the perspective of the character telling it. Technically the writing is very good - and the research that must of gone into writing these books is definately evident and will give the reader a great appreciation of the author's effort. I wish Lawhead would not have made the grail an object of worship - but that is the "Christian" in me coming out. Sorry to say it doesn't work that way - I thought Lawhead knew that. Oh well - still a good story with a shade of truth to it non-the-less.
Rating: 
Summary: For only the most solid of fans.
Review: There were PARTS of Grail that, while reading it, seemed very good. But on the whole, I think Lawhead was much less inspired by the myths that make up the Grail legend. Although I've not heard all of the myths, I have heard enough to realize taht he tried to gather as many as he could and work them all together in one final book. As a result, the characters suffer. More importantly, there's a lot of downtime because in order to work all the tales together, he needs so much more set-up. Literally half the book (250 pages) was set-up. This makes for a very long read. When the action happens, it goes quickly and with no real arch to the storyline. There's no grand finale, and each of the events, separate myths, that lead up to the ending seem disjointed. That said, I'm a big Lawhead fan, so I would have settled for nothing less than reading the whole book. In fact, I've just re-read all the Pendragon cycle in true chronological order. But in all, there's no real reason, other than being a huge fan of the previous stories, to read "Grail."
Rating:
Summary: Proclaim the Power of the Cup of Christ
Review: This book is faster paced then the others. It has also more action. It also has magic in it the other books lacked it. Lawhead's style has always been heavy on sword and light on sorcery. Which is quite refreshing. Also his heros always use sword (Merlin was a prophet and miracle-worker) and his villians sorcery. This book has his characters battling the undead (which alot of his books has). Only that it is three men against a legion of undead.
Rating:
Summary: If you like the Authurian legends you'll love this.
Review: This book takes you through the infamous search for the Holy Grail. Its vivid imagery and wonderful storytelling takes you back to the time of Authur and the Round Table.
Rating:
Summary: A fantasic faith builder-Power over is evil is found in God!
Review: This is a great story, wonderfully told. I especially enjoyed the section that exemplified the power of God over evil: speaking the word of God rather than relying on mere human strength or devices. It reminds me of the Bible scripture, " Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord." It was very inspirational!
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