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Feb 26, 2009

Krista rated it:

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...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 04, 2011

Jacob 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...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 30, 2011

Toby rated it:

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 vi More...

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Feb 07, 2011

Joe rated it:

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. More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 26, 2011

Melissa rated it:

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 s More...

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Apr 14, 2010

Tim rated it:

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 More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Nov 10, 2009

Leila rated it:

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 live More...

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Oct 25, 2007

Florence rated it:

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.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 29, 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 - an More...

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Nov 22, 2010

Adman rated it:

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

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Feb 11, 2008

Bridgette rated it:

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.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 29, 2011

Shiloh rated it:

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 More...

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Mar 02, 2009

Rebecca rated it:

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 re More...

1 comment like

Feb 04, 2009

Cecilia rated it:

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

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Apr 16, 2011

Smilingplatypus rated it:

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 More...

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Jan 15, 2009

Angie rated it:

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 w More...

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Feb 05, 2011

Peter rated it:

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/W More...

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Apr 25, 2011

Jeanne rated it:

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 More...

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Jan 06, 2011

Brian rated it:

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 More...

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Feb 25, 2011

Werner rated it:

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 th More...

4 comments like (5 people liked it)

Sep 08, 2008

Ron rated it:

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.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 18, 2007

Jeff rated it:

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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Jun 18, 2011

Catherine rated it:

I don't know what I was expecting when I started this book... maybe something that pertained to the Arthur legend? The idea that Atlantis sank in the 4th century is pure bollocks, since anyone who's read a bit of the Classics knows that Plato wrote about it sinking. Lawhead also doesn't know a great deal about Celtic myth, since he called the Dagda--the father-god of the Celts--a *goddess*. Hmf.

This book could have used a good edit, as well. Redundancies left and right, and don't get m More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 17, 2009

Heather rated it:

This book was hard for me to get into at first. There was a lot of made-up language to get used to. But once I picked up on the terms (or learned what I could ignore and still understand the story), the book got much better. Normally, I would have given up on a book five chapters in if I didn't like it but I was stuck in a sick bed for a couple of days and so kept reading. I'm glad I did. I wound up staying up way past my normal bedtime to finish this book and cried like my own heart got bro More...

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Sep 21, 2011

Lisa rated it:

The first book in Stephen Lawhead's Pendragon series.

I am enjoying this author's writing style. The story flows well and keeps one interested. The author is very knowledgeable in the Celtic culture and I've learned many new things.

Elphin is the bumbling heir to the throne of a Celtic chieftain. His luck mysteriously changes when he finds a baby trapped in his father's salmon nets. Starting with meeting the love of his life and followed by emerging as a true leader o More...

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May 20, 2010

Tori rated it:

Taliesin draws the curtain on Lawhead's history of Arthur. Beginning many years and many miles from Arthur's Camelot, this book sets the stage for the epic cast of characters to come. I must admit that I spent half the book wondering what Atlantis had to do with Roman Britain and when mighty King Arthur would appear, but I did find the story of Taliesin and Charis intriguing, if a bit flat at times. Let's just say that he has developed as a writer over the years, which I suppose is a good thi More...

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Jan 07, 2011

Erika rated it:

Originally posted at: http://jawasreadtoo.wordpress.com/2011/0...

Charis is an Atlantean Princess living in a seaside paradise, but too young to understand that Atlantis is on the brink of war. When her family is betrayed and her mother killed, Avallach takes his daughter and their remaining servants into the safety of their stone walled home. Or at least he tries to. Charis is too overwrought with the guilt he places on her over the loss of her mother and joins a religious band of More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 21, 2011

Lydia rated it:

The combination of the King Arthur legend, Celts, Britons, magic, faith, lore and Atlantis is pretty compelling. If any of those (or all of them) sparks your interest then this is a book to put on your to-read list, and preferably near the top of said list.

I've had my copy of this book for several months now. I kept meaning to pick it up, but then I'd get bogged down in some good, and some not-so-good titles as I tried to keep up with all the new, hot releases. Taliesin is a very More...

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Jan 11, 2010

Lisalit rated it:

"I will weep no more for the lost, asleep in their water graves."

Thus speaks Charis, Atlantean princess and future mother of Merlin the magician of King Arthur myth. Taliesin chronicles the separate lives of Merlin's parents, and the events that brought them together. Charis is a princess of Atlantis who leads her people to safety when the cataclysm strikes and Atlantis is lost forever. Taliesin is a British prince and gifted bard with an innate ability to bring people t More...

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Apr 14, 2010

Paul rated it:

Two stars is a bit harsh for this book, as Lawhead deftly weaves together two separate storylines for much of the book. Charis, our female protagonist in Atlantis, lives some interesting family drama. Meanwhile, Taliesin, our male counterpart, is growing up in Britain as a wunderkind with destiny written all over him. As the cover so coyly tells us, there is a love story coming, and we the readers are left with a surprising amount of tension as we are attempting to figure out how, exactly, th More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)