I hated this series because I felt Lawhead took all the mystic things out & made them commonplace. The Lady of the Lake is Merlin's mother, so named because she met her husband while swimming in a lake. Excalbur is only a sword she bought for her father. And there is a heavy Christian bent that I don't think fits Merlin at all. But your milage may vary. One of my good friends thinks this is the best seriees ever written.

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Lawhead takes a new view of the Arthurian cycle, beginning with this "prequel" telling the story of Taliesin and Charis, whose child Merlin became Arthur's teacher and mentor. Some interesting images here.

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I wish I had read the reviews before reading this book. This book (and I assume the rest of the series) should be under the genre 'Christian Fantasy'. This is a story of the birth of Merlin and it strays so far from both the legend of King Arthur and the 'true' historical account that it left me wondering why the author didn't just tell a fictional story about his own characters and leave Arthur out of it. The constant religious preaching aside, the author managed to take what is supposed to be a magical story and made it boring.

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I thought the book was definetly a different version of Arthurian era than I'm familar with. I enjoyed the combination of Arthurian and Atlantian characters.

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I love Stephen Lawhead and I was not disappointed by this series: The Pendragon Cycle. Refreshing version of Atlantis and King Arthur!

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Taliesin, book one in The Pendragon Cycle, is Stephen Lawhead's interpretation of the Merlin legend. It tells two simultaneous stories, which join about two-thirds of the way into the book. The first is about the life of the young Princess Charis (pronounced Ka-ris) and the fall of the legendary city, Atlantis. The second is about the life of the bard, Taliesin, who has supernatural powers that allow him to experience events of the Otherworld. Taliesin and Charis marry against the will of Charis' family. They give birth to Merlin. According to legend, Taliesin dies at the hand of Charis' step-sister, Morgian.

The story is also about the emergence of the world into "dark times;" i.e., the coming of the Dark Ages. Christianity wars with beliefs in multiple gods.

I'm not a fan of Christian fiction. While I've seen this book classified as such, I would disagree. Lawhead's retelling is well-done. It's neither preachy nor sappy. 4.5/5 stars

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It's a good book, detailing the early life of Charis, who is later to be known as the Lady of the Lake. However, the storyline has little impact on the remaining books in this series. You could easily skip this book and begin the series with "Merlin" if you are only interested in King Arthur lore.

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A good read but not as well done as some of his other work. The tale of Taliesin reads smoothly and his wife, Charis, is interesting. The sections about Charis were more intriguing. She dealt with her mother's death, her life in the bullring, her love for her family and estrangement from her father, and finally, her life with Taliesin. Lawhead's characterization of this strong, independent woman is so well done. The book ends on a note that leads you directly into the next in the series - Merlin. my next read.

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I've never been much interested in the Arthur legend, other than as in *The Once and Future King* and *Camelot,* but Lawhead captures my imagination with his account of Atlantis, the nature of a bard, the interweaving of Roman and Christian history with that of old England, and satisfying interpretations of old mythological ideas. *Merlin* is also good, as a character study, especially, but *Arthur* is too much battle narrated by minor characters, and as I am reading that now I am coming back to my old distaste for the Arthur legend.

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