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Title: Vagabond by Bernard Cornwell ISBN: 0-06-621080-1 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 26 November, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (14 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Thomas of Hookton's Quest Continues
Comment: Vagabond is the second book in the Thomas of Hookton saga (now called the "Grail Quest Series") by Bernard Cornwell. It confirms what I said in reviewing The Archer's Tale: that Thomas is an engaging picaresque hero and a worthy successor to Richard Sharpe, central character of Cornwell's earlier series on the Napoleonic Wars.
Thomas is an English archer through whose eyes we witness numerous battles early in the Hundred Years' War. He is also the illegimate son of the Hookton priest who was, strangely enough, a member of the French nobility and the keeper of a mysterious relic. We left Thomas in The Archer's Tale, shortly after the battle of Crecy, still seeking his cousin Guy de Vexille, Count of Astarac, who years earlier had murdered his father and destroyed the village of Hookton.
In Vagabond, Thomas has returned to Britain on a mission for Edward III to discover the whereabouts of his father's relic and to determine whether it is truly the Holy Grail of legend. The book begins in 1347 at the battle of Neville's Cross, a triumph of English bowmen over a superior force of Scots who invaded Britain on behalf of their French allies. It ends back in Brittany after the siege of La Roche-Derrien. In the course of the story Thomas runs afoul of a vicious English knight nicknamed Scarecrow, the Inquistion ( which is also on the Grail's trail), not to mention his cousin and several enemy armies. Along the way his wife-to-be and several friends are killed. Thomas, like Sharpe, seems to lead a charmed life, but those around him are not so lucky.
Vagabond is first-rate historical fiction, chock-a-block full of gory medieval warfare set in vividly-described English and Breton landscapes. Everyone rightly praises Cornwell's mastery of historical minutia, but I think his strongest storytelling gift is his ability to make his readers see, and feel, and smell a scene. At the book's end Thomas has learned more about his heritage and vanquished many enemies, but the quest for the Grail and his father's muderer will be continued.
Rating: 4
Summary: First-rate historical fiction!
Comment: This is the sequel to _The Archer's Tale,_ the second novel of the adventures of Thomas of Hookton, English archer in the wars with France during the 1340s, and of his involvement in a quest for the Grail. The author is masterful in his descriptions of medieval warfare, and also in his delineations of character, whether of Thomas and his friend, Robbie Douglas, or of their implacably vicious enemy, Father Bernard Taillebourg, or of minor figures like the deeply wounded Will Skeat and the impressively ambitious Cardinal Bessieres. The story begins with the Battle of Neville's Cross, just outside Durham, and ends with the startling defeat of Charles, Duke of Blois. Startling, because Charles was intelligent and did everything right, and ought to have won -- but no battle plan, as they say, ever survives contact with the enemy. Perhaps what I like best about this series is that Cornwell gives as much attention to the minutiae of everyday existence in the 14th century as to the great battles, and that even with the Grail figuring importantly in the plot, there's no hint of mysticism or the supernatural on the part of the omniscient narrator. I'm waiting for the third volume!
Rating: 3
Summary: Not Mr. Cornwell's best
Comment: I tried to like this book. I really enjoy the early Sharpe work that Mr. Cornwell has written and his King Arthur trilogy is one of the most stirring accomplishments of the last 50 years. BUT Thomas of Hookton is no Richard Sharpe and the Grail is no Excalibur. 'Vagabond' is uneven in places with no real sense of 'quest' about it. For all the roaming around our hero does, he seems to be jogging in place. The killing of two characters from the earlier book is pointless and does nothing to further the story except clear the way for Thomas' former lover to return. By the way, how many sieges must we read about? This book has one at the beginning and one at the end. Most redundant, considering we have already experienced a siege in 'The Archers Tale'. Wait till the paperback comes out.
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Title: The Archer's Tale by Bernard Cornwell ISBN: 0060505257 Publisher: HarperTorch Pub. Date: September, 2002 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Sharpe's Havoc : Richard Sharpe and the Campaign in Northern Portugal, Spring 1809 by Bernard Cornwell ISBN: 0060530464 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 01 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Heretic by Bernard Cornwell ISBN: 0060530499 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 07 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Gallows Thief by Bernard Cornwell ISBN: 0060082739 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 30 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Sharpe's Skirmish by Bernard Cornwell ISBN: 0972222006 Publisher: The Sharpe Appreciation Society Pub. Date: 03 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $6.00 |
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