About the Author

Stephen R. Lawhead is an internationally acclaimed author of mythic history and imaginative fiction. His works include Byzantium and the series The Pendragon Cycle, The Celtic Crusades, and The Song of Albion. Lawhead makes his home in Austria with his wife.

Reviews

"A rousing postscript to Lawhead's bardic "Pendragon Cycle."..Playing off snappy contemporary derring-do against the powerful shining glimpses of the historical Arthur he created, Lawhead pulls off a genuinely moving parable of good and evil."--"Publishers Weekly""A fine storyteller, he brings the Arthurian characters to life without sacrificing any of the haunting pleasure of the legends."--"Omaha World-Herald""Arguably one of Lawhead's best novels to date...You will be hard pressed to find a better or more original retelling of this Arthurian tale."--"Mythprint"

In this rousing postcript to Lawhead's bardic Pendragon Cycle (Taliesin, Merlin, Arthur, Pendragon, Grail), such a monstrous evil stalks near-future Britain that an ancient Welsh prophecy will be fulfilled: the Thames will reverse its course, Avalon will rise again from the cold gray sea and Arthur will return. A series of Royals so rotten that the Brits can't wait to dump the whole stinking lot enables scheming Prime Minister Waring to creepÄtrick by political dirty trickÄtoward Magna Carta II, the abolition of the monarchy. Far in the Highlands, though, former career officer James Arthur Stuart feels destiny stir within him. He is Arthur, come again to exalt Britain and its grand old valuesÄgoodness, compassion, mercy, charity and justice. Accompanied by his enigmatic adviser Embries, his boon drinking buddy Calum McKay and the lissome Jenny, James struggles to come into his own, proving his mettle against modern monsters: skinheads armed with pit bulls, the fickle hydra of the press and the redheaded "total dish" Moira, Arthur's old witchy nemesis who destroyed Camelot. By the time James ousts Moira's insidiously treacherous buffalo-wing- and pizza-chomping politicos, Lawhead makes even aristocracy-phobes want to stand up at the skirl of the pipes and cheer on the eternal virtues James represents. In revisiting nearly every romantic Arthurian clich‚ and playing off snappy contemporary derring-do against the powerful shining glimpses of the historical Arthur he created, Lawhead pulls off a genuinely moving parable of good and evil. (Sept.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

"A rousing postscript to Lawhead's bardic "Pendragon Cycle."..Playing off snappy contemporary derring-do against the powerful shining glimpses of the historical Arthur he created, Lawhead pulls off a genuinely moving parable of good and evil."--"Publishers Weekly""A fine storyteller, he brings the Arthurian characters to life without sacrificing any of the haunting pleasure of the legends."--"Omaha World-Herald""Arguably one of Lawhead's best novels to date...You will be hard pressed to find a better or more original retelling of this Arthurian tale."--"Mythprint"