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Taliesin (The Pendragon Cycle #1)

by Stephen R. Lawhead

3.97 of 5 stars 3.97 · rating details · 7,361 ratings · 287 reviews

It Is Roman Britain.Atlantis has been lost forever, and the reign of Arthur must be dreamed and fought into being.

Paperback, 496 pages

Published January 1st 1990 by Harper Voyager (first published 1987)

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The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley

The Dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper

Best Arthurian Fiction

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The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

The Best Epic Fantasy

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Oct 31, 2012 Marilyn rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. My reaction to this book can be summarised as "I liked it, but..."

When I was reading it, I did want to keep reading because I wanted to know what happened next. On the other hand, there were quite a lot of things that made me frown because they just didn't add up. If this novel were a knitted scarf, there would be quite a lot of holes or torn threads in it.

- The time line feels a bit off (even more so in its sequel 'Merlin'). Shouldn't Charis be quite a bit older than Taliesin? Although I suppos...more My reaction to this book can be summarised as "I liked it, but..."

When I was reading it, I did want to keep reading because I wanted to know what happened next. On the other hand, there were quite a lot of things that made me frown because they just didn't add up. If this novel were a knitted scarf, there would be quite a lot of holes or torn threads in it.

- The time line feels a bit off (even more so in its sequel 'Merlin'). Shouldn't Charis be quite a bit older than Taliesin? Although I suppose that if Atlanteans age more slowly than Britons, it doesn't particularly matter. But still, unclear.

- I like a bit of mystery, but I would've liked to know a bit more about Lile. Charis went from disliking her to trusting her and back (and so on) without there being a plausible reason for it, IMO. I also would've liked to know more about Annubi's motives and those of Morgian. Maybe in one of the sequels?

- As a Wales fan, I rather liked recognising Welsh place names, but I don't get why he would spell e.g. Gwenhwyfar with a V. In modern Welsh, at least, there is no V. One F is pronounced as a V and a double F as our F. Also, why 'Yr Widdfa' and not its current spelling 'Yr Wyddfa'? Maybe these spellings were correct in the time of Arthur, but it still ticks me off.

- At one point Avallach mentions something about 'war being distasteful to his people' and therefore needing people (e.g. Elphin's warband) to fight for him. Er, if they don't like fighting, what exactly were they doing in Atlantis?

- Both Taliesin and Merlin having weird births seemed a bit too much to me. Sure, it's fantasy, but this felt overdone.

I'm sure there's more, but it's late and my own novel is waiting for me to write a few more words. :P

Really liked Taliesin and Charis, by the way. Although I was slightly less fond of Charis-and-Taliesin.

Edit: I knew I forgot something... What bothered me most of all about this book, was the blatant Christian propaganda. Why convert all the druids to Christians? Seriously. In 'The Mists of Avalon' by Marion Bradley Zimmer, Taliesin (a.k.a. the Merlin) does partake in Christian rituals but he is not a Christian - he just realises that in the end all gods are the same. Something I find much more believable than the way it's portrayed in this novel.(less)

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Feb 26, 2009 Krista rated it 5 of 5 stars

Of all of the great books I've read around the King Arthur legend, this is my favorite. It is acutally about Merlin's parents, and involves the lost city of Atlantis and it is a beautiful but sad love story. At least that is what I feel when I remember the book; it has been years since I read it. [time passes:] I just looked it up to see if it is still in print, which it is. And what's more interesting is that the description on Amazon talks of a message and symbolism in the story akin to C.S. L...more

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Aug 04, 2011 Jacob Aitken added it

Begin your Lawhead reading here. In my humble opinion this is Lawhead's best, least cyclical work of the Pendragon series. From reading the other reviews you probably have a plot summary of what's going on. Thus, I won't bore you with them.

THE GOOD ASPECTS OF THE BOOK (and the first few books in the series)
Since no one rightly knows what, if anything, happened to the City of Atlantis, mankind is free to speculate and write fiction about it. The author is to be commended for his retelling of the...more

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Sep 30, 2011 Toby Brennen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended and given to me by a friend, I can't believe it sat on my shelf for almost 20 years before I picked it up to read! Once started, I could hardly put it down. It has been a long time since I have been so enthralled by a story that I could hardly wait until the next opportunity to sit and continue reading. I am starting 'Merlin' today!

A masterful integration of history, mythology, and story-telling, Lawhead creates a poignant retelling of a very old tale, creating a new vision of the da...more

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Feb 07, 2011 Joe rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is my first review here so I thought I would start with one that has meant the most to me. I was blown away from the very start. Stephen Lawhead writes with such a passion for his characters in this book frankly I was surprised. He has taken something that is so familiar and, judging by the many other adaptaions of the Arthurian legend, breathed wonderful new life into it. Taliesin is the seldom told story of the Druid singer Taliesin. Forebear of Merlin who later became teacher, advisor a...more

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Jan 26, 2011 Melissa rated it 3 of 5 stars

I really like Arthurian legends. And this one was supposed to be a good one. In some ways it was, and in other ways I did not enjoy the book at all.

This goes way back in the Arthurian legends to tell the tale of Merlin's parents. The beautiful strong Charis of Atlantis. And Taliesin, the enchanting druid bard who is son of a king. The book divides its time between the two and their families, telling of their early years. For Charis, this is the start of a war for her nation, her time spent as a...more I really like Arthurian legends. And this one was supposed to be a good one. In some ways it was, and in other ways I did not enjoy the book at all.

This goes way back in the Arthurian legends to tell the tale of Merlin's parents. The beautiful strong Charis of Atlantis. And Taliesin, the enchanting druid bard who is son of a king. The book divides its time between the two and their families, telling of their early years. For Charis, this is the start of a war for her nation, her time spent as a bull dancer, and the fall of Atlantis. For Taliesin, his tale shows the meeting of his parents, his training as a druid, and how he meets Charis. Charis especially meets with a lot of hardship and her story is the more interesting of the two. Taliesin seems to live a charmed life and is thought of as lucky and fortune favored.

The characters were well written. They had a lot of depth to them and Lawhead took the time to give them a full history. Charis is written as cold but capable. Taliesin is charming. There are many other characters that are all essential to the book. My only complaint about the characters is that Lawhead made the Christians perfect in action and the pagans somewhat evil at times. It was a little disconcerting to find that in what I thought was a fantasy novel rather than a religious work.

Lawhead is very descriptive. He gives an engaging plot and does a wonderful fantasy telling of the earlier parts in the Arthurian legends. He makes his characters mostly believable and especially in Charis' case, you want to know what is going to happen to them and care about them as a character. Nothing is overtly offensive in the wording and there isn't a lot of harsh language.

Let me touch on some criticisms however. As stated before Christianity is considered very good in this book. Lawhead took it to the point where it felt very preachy to me. I don't care that a writer reflects his religion in his works, but please don't announce it as the be all end all of religion because that can be offensive to some readers with different beliefs. In this Arthurian legend especially, where a lot of paganism is involved, it is very disconcerting to read a book that expresses the beliefs this way instead of being a fabulous work of fantasy. Also, for the purists who read this, the timeline seems a bit strange. For most, Atlantis takes place hundreds if not thousands of years before the time of Arthur and even though this is a couple generations back from Arthur, it still seems to be too close. There are some other historical data that doesn't quite sync up with normal Arthurian tales as well. While it is a fantasy tale, there are some genres like the Arthurian legends, where are you taking a risk by deviating well accepted norms within the genre. I think Lawhead dances a very fine dance on the line with these aspects. Overall though, these things brought the book down a bit for me and really were a disappointment.

I have the next book in the series so I will be continuing on. I can only hope they improve and become less preachy and truer to the Arthurian legend.

Taliesin
Copyright 1987
452 pages

Review by M. Reynard 2010 (less)

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Apr 14, 2010 Tim rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is about two characters. I loved one of them. Unfortunately, I didn't have much use for the other.

Lawhead's prose is never brilliant, but sometimes in simplicity he finds a certain elegance nonetheless, particularly when dealing with characters. Call me a sucker for a tough girl, but I adored the character of Charis. I loved her as a child, I loved her even more as an adult. I loved her as a brash, dangerous, wounded person, living on the edge and excelling. It's all very romanticized...more

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Nov 10, 2009 Leila rated it 4 of 5 stars

This five-book series is entitled The Pendragon Cycle, and I will review them all here. I have now taken and taught classes on King Arthur, and this stands as my favorite treatment of the legend. Lawhead is one of my favorite authors anyway, and he does his homework. His writing reflects the oddity of the many Arthurian source texts - Merlin is always problematic, the hugely variable character of Arthur, Guinevere's choices and actions,etc.

Considering if Arthur existed he likely lived around 400...more

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Oct 18, 2012 Kyle rated it 4 of 5 stars

Taliesin is the first of five books in “The Pendragon Cycle”. I found this retelling of the familiar Arthurian legend interesting because this book focuses entirely on Merlin’s parents and the lost city of Atlantis. The author spent a significant portion of the book focusing on Atlantis to include the cities, buildings, governing system, a civil war, and a touch of religion focusing on the worship of Bel. Unfortunately, all of this was effectively thrown away when the ocean rose up to swallow th...more

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Oct 25, 2007 Florence rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fans of king arthur books or greek and roman mythology

For me, this was a fantasy book that read like historical fiction. Also, it was one of those books that plays out like a movie in your head when you read it. I liked the combination of settings - Atlantis and post-Roman Britain. However, the characters seemed kind of flat and the pacing was not as enjoyable as it could have been. But I still look forward to reading the others in the series. If you're looking for a different twist on Arthurian legend, you should read this book.

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Aug 28, 2012 Vivian Williams rated it 1 of 5 stars

A slow and clunky novel overall, with all its magical potential weighed down by cliched, sentimental tripe. It starts out with some promise, but about two-thirds of the way through it turns into a dumb Christian-propaganda piece. That right there almost made me throw down the book in disgust, once I realized it, but I made myself finish anyway. Even from the beginning, however, the characters are rather trite: a princess longing for adventure, who gets disillusioned with love and then falls in i...more

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Jul 24, 2011 Kiersten added it

After half a dozen different friends raved about this series, I finally got ahold of this, the first book, and was completely hooked. The first few chapters were admittedly a little slow, but that didn't last long. I fell in love with the diverse cast of characters and was enthralled by the story: the beginning of another take on the King Arthur legends, one that is looking to be my favorite yet, ingratiated with a plausible and engrossing tale of Atlantis. The Welsh names were fabulous - and I...more

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Nov 22, 2010 Adman rated it 2 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. this book really captured my attention for the first 50 pages, but then it dawned on me in slow, painstaking, painful, redundant, multitudinously modified and slow-moving and redundant horror that this book is booooring.

parts of lawhead's story are fascinating. having never read atlantean or arthurian legends, i started out enthralled and eager to dive deeper into these myths. however, prose which is both overwritten and often shallowly phrased evaporates the life from the tale. trading off betw...more

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Feb 11, 2008 Bridgette rated it 5 of 5 stars

This fantasy book is so believable I had to remind myself that Atlantis never existed. Lawhead is able to create an entire believable culture with unique religion, art, and entertainment. His descriptions make it come to life. Also, Celtic Britain comes to life in this book. I had never heard much about the Celts and Celtic culture until I read this series by Lawhead. I have come to love and admire this unique culture.

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Dec 29, 2011 Shiloh (SnarkyWriter) rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, medieval, mythology, dissertation

Lawhead's Pendragon cycle gets off to a rocky start with Taliesin. Perhaps it's that I set the bar too high, expecting great things from such a renowned author, or perhaps it's that I'm reading the cycle for my dissertation and hence got overly critical, but either way, the book suffers from poor writing, poor plotting, and a few major historical inaccuracies that ruined it for me.

The writing: passive voice abounds. The dialogue is stilted. The characters are two-dimensional and hardly have any...more Lawhead's Pendragon cycle gets off to a rocky start with Taliesin. Perhaps it's that I set the bar too high, expecting great things from such a renowned author, or perhaps it's that I'm reading the cycle for my dissertation and hence got overly critical, but either way, the book suffers from poor writing, poor plotting, and a few major historical inaccuracies that ruined it for me.

The writing: passive voice abounds. The dialogue is stilted. The characters are two-dimensional and hardly have any development at all. And when the romance gets started, the pathos is stifling.

The plotting: this whole book could have been done in half the space. Not much actually happens, and there is a ton of padding. Even with two concurrent storylines running for the first half of the book, nothing much actually happens. I spend most of the book wondering why any of the stuff Lawhead was telling us about was in any way important.

And the historical inaccuracies: unless some sort of time-travel occurs that I missed, Lawhead has Atlantis sink in the 400s AD, right around the time the Romans are withdrawing from Britain. Considering that the legendary Atlantis sank closer to 9600 BC, this completely ruined a huge chunk of the book for me. The British people believe that the Atlanteans are faery folk, and if that had turned out to somehow be the case--if they'd hung out for a few thousand years before the British ran across them--that would have been different. But they're mortal, and the legendary sinking is stuck right in the middle of recorded history. Also, Taliesin takes to Christianity entirely too quickly and with too much verve. Yes, the British people were Christian before the Anglo-Saxons came in, but in the space of a conversation with God (!!) during a spirit-walk (which, tellingly, Taliesin swears never to do again after converting), Taliesin is a full-blown Christian who refers to the pagans around him as heretics, blasphemers, and unlearned people--as if he wasn't a pagan twelve minutes before.

Overall, this book was a huge disappointment. Considering all the hype around Lawhead (I've heard he's right up there with Marion Zimmer Bradley for authoritativeness in modern Arthurian fantasy), I expected much more.(less)

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Mar 02, 2009 Rebecca rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The first book in the Pendragon cycle, Taliesin starts on the island of Atlantis and continues until just after the death of Merlin. I'm a little shaky on the Arthurian legends that cover the period before the formation of the Table, so I'm not sure how closely Lawhead followed the older legends and how much he came up with on his own.

I liked this well enough, and I'm curious enough that I will read at least the second book in the cycle, but I didn't love it. I can't give any good reason why, wh...more

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May 14, 2012 Miguel rated it 5 of 5 stars

I read it and I absolutely loved it! I recommend it to anyone and everyone! I am a mythology nerd and I love Arthurian legends. This book blew me away,not because it is based on a theme I enjoy, but also because it gives us a keen understanding of who Merlin's parents were. If you read the book, and you have some background knowledge on King Arthur, you will see that many of the traits in Taliesin are also present in Merlin and later on in Arthur. I loved how it describes Taliesin's desire for a...more

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Feb 04, 2009 Cecilia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, faery-tales

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Apr 16, 2011 Smilingplatypus rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, myth-or-folklore

I wanted to love this book. Truly, I did. It's supposed to be a re-imagining of the Arthurian saga, and since I'm a King Arthur geek, I was excited about starting Taliesin. But I just couldn't get into it. I didn't care about the characters, the plot didn't really accomplish much, and the first half of the book seemed to have almost nothing to do with the second half.

I'm not going to lie, though -- I got a bit of a kick out of fact that the sections were copied directly from the Mabinogion. And...more

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Mar 20, 2012 Cinnamingirl rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people interested in Celtic/Arthurian/Atlantean legend

Shelves: historical-fiction, fantasy, 2012, celtic-legend

I really loved the descriptions of Atlantis, especially the bull dancers, though I can't really relate to Charis - but then I have never experienced that sort of trauma either. She definitely became more likable towards the end of the book, but I really couldn't ever identify with her, and despite the title, she's really the main character. It seemed to me that she had a lot of potential to be something that she never really lived up to, except to be Taliesin's wife. And even then... I guess I'm...more

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Sep 18, 2012 Nimue Brown rated it 2 of 5 stars

The Fisher King coming from Atlantis, and the early Welsh cooking potatoes. It's a mixed bag. If it was a straight fantasy novel, no history, no depending on mythology, I'd probably have enjoyed it a lot more. As rip roaring adventure with a dash of romance, it's a very engaging read. But there's some clunkers in the historical angle, and things like the naming of Merlin, and watching the painfully obvious lead up to this.... just not good. The bull dancing sequences were exquisite. The bits abo...more

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Jan 12, 2013 Troy Oldert rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

I had some difficulty getting into this book, and struggled for the first third of the book. The chapters alternate between two separate storylines until the last third, and this can be a little disorienting. For me, jumping between storylines made it harder to connect with the characters. For a time I had to turn back a chapter to reacquaint myself with what had happened previously. Normally I would have set aside a book like this, but I kept reading because it came highly recommended. I am gla...more

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Jan 15, 2009 Angie rated it 3 of 5 stars

I bought this series way back in high school, but I only just now got around to starting to read it. I don't know why I didn't get around to it sooner; I quite enjoyed this first installment. The style is engaging. The characters aren't wonderful, but they're good enough to carry the story. Interesting set up to what's coming. I'm hoping to fall in love with Lawhead's depictions of Arthur, Merlin, etc. more than I did with the leads in Taliesin (who are Merlin's parents). Certainly not a waste o...more

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Feb 05, 2011 Peter Walton-Jones rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

When I picked this book up from a bookshelf it was because it was the only one that looked remotely interesting. Having read it I am very pleased to have found it. I have read and enjoyed a couple of other of Lawhead's novels in the past, particularly the reworking of the Robin Hood legend in "Hood". Taliesin is the first part of the "Pendragon Cycle" and at its conclusion the character Merlin has emerged. In the meantime the story has been a gradual interweaving of British/Welsh/Celtic history...more

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Apr 15, 2011 Jeanne rated it 3 of 5 stars

Spoilers throughout the review, read at own discretion

I was rather stuck on what to do with this book when I was finished with it. It took me a long time to get through, which is strange. Usually if I like a book enough, I can get through it pretty quickly. However, with this, it just wasn't happening.

I enjoyed the beginning where it told of Charis and Taliesin's young lives. They both had interesting pasts, and reading about Atlantis was very interesting. There's a point in the story where ever...more

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Jan 06, 2011 Brian rated it 3 of 5 stars

I continued my Arthurian travails with The Pendragon Cycle series. This is a modern sci-fi / fantasy take on the Arthurian legends. The first book started off as an interesting fantasy take on Arthur with some Atlantis thrown in. I thought it was pretty original and easy reading at first. However, the characters were pretty weak and didn't keep me totally engaged. As the series progressed, it dragged more and became a lot more preachy and the characters were just too shallow. The prose was overl...more

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Feb 25, 2011 Werner rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Fans of Arthurian fantasy; Lawhead fans or fantasy fans in general

Recommended to Werner by: It was a common read in one of my groups

Shelves: fantasy

While the above Goodreads description of this book reads like it was a publisher's book-jacket blurb (and it probably was!), the basic description of the premise of this series opener is correct --and aside from its overwrought language, the implied assessment isn't far off the mark, either, as my rating shows. (If I could give half stars, I'd probably have added one.)

That isn't to say that there aren't eye-rolling flaws here. Atlantis, according to Plato (who apparently created the legend out o...more While the above Goodreads description of this book reads like it was a publisher's book-jacket blurb (and it probably was!), the basic description of the premise of this series opener is correct --and aside from its overwrought language, the implied assessment isn't far off the mark, either, as my rating shows. (If I could give half stars, I'd probably have added one.)

That isn't to say that there aren't eye-rolling flaws here. Atlantis, according to Plato (who apparently created the legend out of whole cloth), was destroyed "9,000 years before Solon," or ca. 9600 B.C. In this book, Atlantis was real, but was destroyed in the late 300s A.D. (the mention of the Roman emperor Theodosius near the end of the novel anchors that date). This has something of the same effect produced in the various episodes of the old Xena, Warrior Princess TV series, in which Xena could encounter everybody from the biblical Abraham to Julius Caesar. (And anybody in between --Trojan War? David and Goliath? Sure; easy as pie!) In itself, that strains credibility like a rubber band, and it creates serious problems of internal consistency. The kind of cataclysm that destroyed Atlantis, for instance, would certainly have caused tidal waves in western Europe on the scale of the Asian ones of several years ago, but they don't happen here. And while Atlantis has trading relations with places in the Roman Empire like Phrygia, King Avallach apparently has heard of the "Roman tribe" only vaguely; and though Atlantean seers know about Mithraism and the cult of Isis, they haven't heard of Christianity. To put it bluntly, that's not believable. (It's also not realistic to portray Christianity as relatively new and unknown in Western Britain at this time; Theodosius had made it Rome's state religion in, I think, 380, but it had been widespread long before that, even in western Britain; St. Patrick came from there, in this era, and was already a third-generation Christian. And Isis was not the "female aspect" of Mithras; the two religions were completely unrelated, the one being Egyptian, the other Anatolian.) Atlantean culture, as the author depicts it, is a sort of grab-bag of elements from Greece, Crete (where he gets the "bull dancing" that plays such a large role) and the Semitic East, from which he gets the worship of Bel --though Bel or Baal was actually a sky/rain god, not a sun god as he is here. Lawhead also takes chronological liberties with his title character, who was a real person attested in actual Welsh sources, but really born around 530 A.D. While I'm nit-picking, I also don't think an infant could be wrapped in a water-tight bundle, as Taliesin was here, without suffocating!

All of that said, Lawhead's storytelling ability here draws you in and enthralls you early on, so that you leave those concerns lurking in the background (or, at least, I did!). :-) The two alternating strands of narrative, Charis' and Taliesin's, which will finally intertwine, are eventful and attention-grabbing; the characterization is sharp (Charis was initially hard for me to relate to because her age in the first part of the book wasn't specified --I eventually deduced it to be 12 or 13-- but she grows into a splendid heroine); the Atlantean and Celtic worlds are vividly evoked, and some key scenes are drawn with great power. There's human drama here that grows out of believable human interrelationships (the magical element is muted; it takes a back seat to the natural events, or sometimes blends with the idea of spiritual reality); we have chaste romances that would warm any heart, violence and treachery, love and loss --and the powerful lesson that what we need for psychological wholeness is the guts to love in the face of loss, here in a world that's not perfect yet by a long shot. Some characteristic features of Lawhead's work are easily discernible: his strong female (and male) characters; his fascination with things Celtic; concepts like the Otherworld, the "time between times," the genuine creative power of music, and Druid mysticism in general. His evangelical faith shines through clearly as well (he reconciles it with the pre-Christian Celtic background in a way that C. S. Lewis, who was clearly one of his literary influences, would doubtless have approved!). Blended with the latter is a view of the coming Dark Ages, and Arthur's coming role in withstanding the darkness, that invests these with a cosmic spiritual significance. No spoilers here, but the ending of this novel is one that I did not see coming; and the quality of the writing in the last pages reaches a level that, so far in my reading life (and I'm 58) I've seen equaled, but not bettered.

To conclude, I picked this book up only because it was a common read in a group, but it proved to be well worth the time. And if I don't rush to add the sequel to my to-read shelf, it's only because there are too many books there already; eventually, I would like to follow up on this series.(less)

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Sep 08, 2008 Ron rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, historical-fiction, arthuriana

Okay, a series on King Arthur opens in Atlantis? Atlantis! It's kind of downhill from there.

It was well done, and a fun read, but I expected better from Lawhead.

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Jan 19, 2013 Wanda Panda Hartzenberg rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

What an astoundingly good epic read.

As a prospective writer I found this book amazing for resting and relaxing as well as a how to guide of how to write time lapses, logically and coherently in about 50 different ways.

The characters show real growth and in such an epic read it is a continual growth process not a onetime thing.

This is really one of the best ever epic fantasy books I have read in a very long list of books in this genre, I will most assuredly recommend this to all fantasy genre...more

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Sep 18, 2007 Jeff rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone who eats cake and likes beer

1. The Celts were pretty sweet
2. Mead was drunk often by drunken Celts
3. Celts are always fighting
4. Celtic words are hard to pronounce.

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About Stephen R. Lawhead

Stephen R. Lawhead is an internationally acclaimed author of mythic history and imaginative fiction. His works include Byzantium, Patrick, and the series The Pendragon Cycle, The Celtic Crusades, and The Song of Albion.

Also see his fanpage at Myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/stephenlawhead...

Stephen was born in 1950, in Nebraska in the USA. Most of his early life was spent in America where he earned...more

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Books by Stephen R. Lawhead

The Paradise War (The Song of Albion, #1)

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Quotes from Taliesin

“...tell me the word that will win you, and I will speak it. I will speak the stars of heaven into a crown for your head; I will speak the flowers of the field into a cloak; I will speak the racing stream into a melody for your ears and the voices of a thousand larks to sing it; I will speak the softness of night for your bed and the warmth of summer for your coverlet; I will speak the brightness of flame to light your way and the luster of gold to shine in your smile; I will speak until the hardness in you melts away and your heart is free...” — 48 people liked it

“They are young and life has no limits. Nothing is impossible, nothing beyond doing or knowing. The world is theirs and everything in it.” — 10 people liked it

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/73906.Taliesin?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1271729423l/73906.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/73906.Taliesin?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Taliesin by Stephen R. Lawhead[/url]

Taliesin (The Pendragon Cycle #1)

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