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MY ⭐️ RATING: 5/5
Format: Kindle Whispersync
BOOK DESCRIPTION
In Enemy of God, Cornwell’s magical re-creation continues. Having defeated the last holdouts of civil war in southern Britain, Arthur has secured Mordred’s throne. But he must still face raging conflicts between the old ways and the new, as well as foes more powerful and more dangerous–because they pose as friends.
Brilliantly written and peopled with the familiar faces of legend along with new ones, Enemy of God is an immensely powerful continuation of a modern classic.
MY REVIEW
I have to say, Cornwell is such an incredible writer, and I’m saddened that it took me this long to read his works, but I sure glad I finally am. He just has such an amazing way with words that just flow effortlessly off the page. With how much I loved The Winter King, I was ready to dip back in to old Britannia to see what happened next to Derfel, Arthur, Lancelot, Guinevere and everyone else within this story. To my sheer delight, Cornwell spared nothing and went in like a sharpe end of a sword weaving such a realistic tale that had me reeling from one end of the emotional spectrum to the other, in a story that felt more real than actual history. Reading about this time in history has fascinated me and because of this series, I am going to be reading more interpretations of the stories of King Arthur.
Cornwell’s story telling is absolute perfection, there’s no other way to say it, he just has a way of sucking the reader in, and me as the current reader, was sucked in within moments of the first paragraph. There is a lot to unpack with Enemy of God, this story is mostly about the battle of religions, but it is also about heroism, betrayal, romance and tragedy. A story told by Derfel of him choosing love over Arthur and the ramifications it has on Arthur’s war against the Saxons. Meanwhile, the Christian’s are trying to take over Britain with the new Christian faith and eradicate the paganistic faith of Druidism. Loved the inclusion of the infamous round table of Knights, but my favorite part of this was the inclusion of the story of the tragic star crossed lovers, Tristan and Iseult, Cornwell’s story is a bit different from the tale and the film, it is much much darker and ends horrifically. I knew this story wouldn’t end well, but it was only the beginning of what Cornell was going to do.
“he had the power to obliterate heathenism and did not do it, and that sin made him the Enemy of God.”
What I’m happy about most of all in this novel, was that Cornwell made Merlin more likable and a lot funnier compared to his more dark and mysteriousness in The Winter King. This didn’t change the mysteriousness of him, but the lighter tone of his personality did make his parts a lot more enjoyable. Derfel is still such an awesome character, I really love reading this story from his point of view. To see his relationships with all the characters and his arguments with Igraine on the type of story he is telling makes it so much enjoyable. There is a lot of growth with the characters from The Winter King to now, none grow near as much as Arthur from where he is at the end of Enemy of God, and rightfully so, since Arthur is the main point of the story that Derfel is telling.
The narration of Jonathan Keeble is just a masterclass in execution, this is the type of narration that every narrator should strive to reach. I love how he can bring the emotion of the characters to life, I could feel it all and there’s nothing better than being able to feel the emotion the writer intended the reader to feel than to have a narrator be able to produce that to the listener. There is one instance where I hadn’t expected to cry, but wow, that raw emotion of not only the words, but Keeble’s narration just wrecked me. I felt the anger boil up in me the way Derfel felt it boil in him, that raw emotion pours out on the page and into the ears with such perfection. With that said, the only negative I can really say is that I had the same audio production issues of random spots that stop whispersyncing throughout, that I had in book one, I expect this to continue with the final book as well, thankfully it’s not full pages, but just random paragraphs here and there.
Wolfmantula.com 