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The Eagle (The Concluding Volume of The Camulod Chronicles) by Jack Whyte
01/04/2008 . Source: RJ Barker 
pub: TOR/Forge. 574 page hardback. Price: $27.95 (US). ISBN: 978-0-312-87007-8. Buy The Eagle in the USA - or Buy The Eagle in the UK  check out website: www.tor-forge.com and www.camulod.com
This is the tale of Clothar the Frank, a lancer from Gaul and right-hand man to Arthur, high King of the Britons. Arthur now has his heavy Cavalry, which gives him a marked advantage over any other tribe, and a group of loyal and brave men to fight with him. We follow Clothar as he and Arthur put together the order of Knights Companion. Then, as Clothar is sent to assist the Frankish King, Palles, to set up his own cavalry and carry out various diplomatic tasks, events at Camulod move swiftly and treachery see Arthur's forces bogged down around Hadrians Wall and the Arthur seriously injured. Clothar returns with his Frankish Knights and, with the help of a friend made on his journeys, makes a lightning raid to assist Arthur's forces and unmask treachery amongst his allies.
The wounded King Arthur sends Clothar back to Gaul in an attempt to forge much needed alliances. While there, Clothar assists a beleaguered cousin who offers him a place to live should Camulod ever fall. Something Clothar believes will never happen as Arthur seems to be rapidly regaining his strength back in England. Sadly, the Arthur's wounds are far worse than he has told anyone, even his closest Knights Companion. Arthur must save what he loves most and to do so he must ask his closest friend to miss the final battle.
After reading, and thoroughly enjoying 'The Fort At The Rivers Bend', I approached 'The Eagle' with some trepidance. 'The Eagle' is the last of Jack Whyte's ;Camulod Chronicles;. As such it is the one to deal with the Lancelot, Arthur, Guinevere triangle and Arthur's bastard son, Mordred. These have almost been my least favourite parts of the myth. However, Whyte has written the book I always wanted to read. Told by Clothar the Frank, who is to become known as Lancelot, but crucially is not the man we know from myth. Whyte gives knowing nods to the stories of Arthur and even has Clothar laugh at the outlandish tales he hears as an older man. But he is not Guinevere's lover and neither is Mordred the cruel, twisted child who grows into a cruel, twisted man. Mordred is loyal and the Queen is chaste. As Clothar tells us, often the truth is too mundane and people need to make up wild stories.
We see the action through the eyes of Clothar, often he is far from home working on Arthur's behalf and the main action of the Arthurian myths is told by letters or heard as rumours. Handling such things 'off camera' can often be infuriating but Whyte makes Clothar so fascinating that you never feel like you're missing out. Clothar, as the narrator, is the heart of this book and he is a great, strong, caring, dependable heart, he has flaws but his strength is in his willingness to face them. Often, Arthurian books are sunk by one-dimensional characters, Arthur being the one hardest to portray realistically or, more importantly, interestingly. There is little leeway in the upstanding, righteous king of legend. Whyte handles this wonderfully by using Clothar. That a man, a great man without any familial or tribal ties to Arthur should feel such utter loyalty to him leaves you in no doubt about Arthur's worthiness.
The action we do see with Clothar is handled deftly. It's more of an overview of entire battles than the dirty, personal fighting that Bernard Cornwell gives us in his 'Winter King' series. Which works? The equally good Cornwell books are the tale of a foot soldier or Whyte writing the tale of a heavy cavalry officer. As such, Clothar's viewpoint is different, he is seeing it with the tactical eyes of his trade which deals with bodies of men. Rather than the man on man white heat of the shield wall. The only exception to this comes when Clothar fights man to man with five Frankish champions. A scene that had me grinning all the way through and also, in turn about from the cavalry actions, a scene in which no blood is spilled.
It is the relationship between Arthur and Clothar that is the heart of this book, a friendship between two good men that suffers but is never broken by a cause greater than them both. Whyte has a knack for characters, creating a likeable and memorable cast of Knights Companion for Arthur. Often he sketches them in no more than a few sentences, giving personality through quirks of accent or behaviour. It's bravura writing.
Whyte plays knowing tricks with language as well, a knight named Gwinn that the Franks call Gwain as they find it easier to pronounce. He also becomes the Green Knight in a novel way. A similar trick is played with Guinevere. Whyte is showing us the stone from which the mythic sword will be pulled. That is the secret to great Arthurian fiction, not slavishly reproducing the same stories but subtly altering them so the reader can find new meaning within the legend.
At the end of 'The Eagle', I was only left with one criticism of it, although it is a major one and it's that this is the last in the series.
RJ Barker
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