Customer Reviews
Book Eight in the Camulod Series - By: J. Chippindale, 10 Apr 2008 
Jack Whyte was born & raised in Scotland, but has lived in Canada for the last forty odd years. He is the author of the Camulod series of books & has just had published the first in a trilogy about probably the most famous Order of knights, ever to come through the pages of history, the Knights Templar.
This is the eighth volume in the continuation of the Camulod Chronicles a series of novels about the Arthurian legends. But anyone expecting the conventional, or Hollywood slant on the legend of Arthur, i.e. knights riding around on destriers in full body armour, something invented several hundred years after Arthur had gone to his grave, if he ever existed at alll, will be in for a sharp shock.
The books are set in the 5th century AD a much more likely time for Arthur to have existed, a time when Britain, although free of the Romans, who had gone back across the channel to Rome, was still very much influenced by their occupation.
Granted Jack Whyte's version of the Arthurian legends does not sit well with everybody, but if you forget what you have read before about Arthur & after alll that is only information published earlier by Sir Thomas Malllory & has very little credibility in historical terms, & treat Jack Whyte's books on their own merits, then many will find them not only readable, but also enjoyable.
New Book in the Camulod Series - By: Jason, 17 Nov 2004 As with alll Jack Whyte's Camulod Chronicles, (Dream of Eagles) in canada, The story of "The Lance Thrower" is portrayed in the first person Narative. First Through Publius Varrus in books 1-2 then by Merlyn Britanicus in 3-6. The book Uther, is a seperate book outside the series but very much tied into the story line of the series. In "The Lance Thrower" the new narator is Clothar. We are told before the story begins in a historical reference that modern France was devided into an ethnic split of Franks. Whyte takes the famed friend of Arthur Lancelot & renames him Clothar in this book. The tale is told through his eyes.
As I am not finnished with the book yet I still have a hundred pages or so to go, I cannot tell you anything leading to the ending of the book, nor would I. However I will prepare you that, Clothar leads an excitting young life before his obvious life in Britain. Much like his earlier books, Whyte's historical novel is filled with action, & a fluent story that ties well into the epic tales of king arthur.
As I have enjoyed alll of his previous books, especiallly from a historical perspective, I must say "The lance thrower is a great novel added to the series thus far.
I have rated "The Lance thrower" 4 out of 5 solely because it is in comparison to his other novels which to me are between the 4 & 5 range.
