Dark North

Malory's Knights of Albion #3

by Paul Finch

When King Arthur faces a challenge for his crown from the reinvigorated Roman Empire, he must call his supporters from every corner of the British Isles. One of these,Sir Lucan – the Black Wolf of the North – has more reason than most to join the coming campaign. Lucan’s beautiful wife, Trelawna, hoping to lead a new, better life in Italy, absconded with a young Roman officer. Lucan, already a fierce warrior but now with tainted blood due to his battle with the Penharrow Worm, thus turns the mission into a bitter personal vendetta. His former squire, Alaric, soon comes to fear for his overlord’s soul, but is more afraid still for the safety of Lady Trelawna, whom he always loved from a distance. Meanwhile, the Roman family Trelawna has fallen in with are the influential Malconi clan, and their matriarchal head is the sorceress Zenobia. She sees it as her motherly duty to stop Lucan with any demonic force she can summon…

Genres: Fantasy, Arthurian

384 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2012

About the author

Paul Finch is a former cop and journalist, now full-time writer. Having originally written for the television series THE BILL plus children's animation and DOCTOR WHO audio dramas, he went on to write horror, but is now best known for his crime / thriller fiction.

He won the British Fantasy Award twice and the International Horror Guild Award, but since then has written two parallel series of hard-hitting crime novels, the Heck and the Lucy Clayburn novels, of which three titles have become best-sellers.

Paul lives in Wigan, Lancashire, UK with his wife and children.

Reviews

[Gavin Gates · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stark and deep and always bordering on tragedy from the first page onwards, as with the previous titles in this series the use of appendix and notes to describe what would have been the norm at the time adds brilliantly to the solid descriptive backbone that the story of Sir Lucan's legend is built on, very much a return to the traditional style of sword and sorcery, full of interesting battle and dark sorcery that had me hooked on the genre from a youngster.
Lucan himself is a very interesting character, a trusted knight of King Arthur who has held the 'dark north' in name of the kingdom has led a tortured existence, from childhood weighed down by his Fathers brutal legacy and watching his poor mother work herself to death to see her children alright, to his never ending attempt to prove his honour and hopefully not turn from the victim child into the adult monster he is expected to be. The whole cast of characters, both on the side of New Rome and the subjects of Camelot's great kingdom. His wife, again via tragic circumstance brought on through war, his squire Alaric who is in love with Lucan's wife, her true love leading her into betrayal and every single event throughout leading to an amazing finish worthy of a full follow on novel in itself.
I was concerned that after the last book in 'Malory's Knights of Albion' nothing would be able to follow on, this one did not keep the same easy pace but never the less demanded my attention just as much all the way through.

[Razi · Rating 4 out of 5]

The action and adventure of Arthurian lore with compelling character drama.

Dark, gritty, and bloody.

[David Marshall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although it starts quite slowly, this has a well-described set-piece mediaeval battle and a genuinely exciting final third when a small group sets off from the battlefield on a quest. On the way to the final confrontation, they meet a number of supernatural enemies. The last fight settles questions about the relationship between a son and the dominant parent. Taken as a whole, this is an impressive alternate history, Arthurian dark fantasy.

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[Sonny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would have probably rated five stars if he had left out the supernatural aspect. Still a good read.

[June Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book more for a man.