Fabulous

Finishing this book has left a hole that I'm not sure how to fill. I will miss the characters and this is a new experience!

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An extraordinary and beautiful story

It's a truly wonderful book. The narration is just fabulous and I cant imagine reading Giles Kristian without Philip Stevens. Like its predecessor, Lancelot, I found myself unable to put it down. Read it!

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Another great listen from Kristian

One thing that Galahad is frequently told and thinks within his own head is that 'you are not your father'. Much in the same way that, 'Camelot' is in no way the first book 'Lancelot'. I felt bad for thinking that, almost like it was an insult of sorts to the author and the hard work he has put in for such a wonderful book (and it is wonderful). But then you hit the author's note at the back and he says how this is not a true sequel to Lancelot and is more of a companion of sorts. I breathed a sigh of relief that I would have loved to have breathed much sooner.

In Lancelot we had a lot of build up to the main story. It started with Lancelot as a child and worked all the way up to him as an adult and one of the most famous warriors, and infamous lovers, that Britain has ever known. In Camelot, we don't have much of the build up with Galahad. He starts out training to be a monk and that's pretty much all the growing up with him we do. I'd have liked more just so I could get a deeper connection with him that I felt I had, but I don't think it was either possible due to the time and events going on, nor did it detract too much from my enjoyment of the book. After all, that experience in 'Lancelot' gave me one of my favourite connections to a character (Lancelot's sparhawk) and one of my all-time most hated antagonists (Melwas).

In Camelot, Giles Kristian is getting the band back together (with a new front man this time). Lancelot ended with our hero leaving his son on a windy hilltop to go off and fight the saxons. This book features that self same boy and his destiny to carry on the fight in reuniting Britain against the saxon hoard.

Characters that were more of a main focus are either entirely absent (for reasons in the prior book) or take a much lesser role in this one. It feels almost like the old guard standing to one side and allowing the new to inherit the earth. 

As with Lancelot, events in this book deviate from pretty much any Arthurian retelling you have heard or seen before. And thank god for that. Who wants to sit through two hefty tomes of a rehashed story when, what we have been given instead is a fresh, new and far more unknown version of events. With Camelot, and the story that preceded it, Kristian has created a brilliant story and used the characters in such wonderful and interesting ways. There are, as you will notice (and as you will read in the author's note if you don't notice) nods of the head to the traditional events from retellings of old, just with a new twist.

If I had one complaint to go along with the 'I'd have liked the same in-depth childhood build up with Galahad that we had with his father', it would be how fast Galahad turns into a warrior. He spends so very long living the life of an aspiring monk and yet, in so short a time, he is fighting and killing men who have been fighting and killing for the best part of their entire lives.  I know he was the son of the greatest warrior to walk the land, but fighting isn't a genetic trait. In all fairness, he isn't the greatest warrior himself. Much of his skill is talked up by Merlin and the other knights in order to make him more feared by the saxons. So it could have just been my needling too hard for criticism. 

One high point, after such a minor lowpoint, is that Kristian has a real knack for building up to a fight and giving you that 'big fight feel'. If ever he gets tired of writing great books, he could easily become a booker for wrestling, or a boxing promoter.

I hope there is more to come in this series as I am very much interested in what happens next with Galahad's band of warriors.

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2 people found this helpful

Wow! Spellbinding!

I could find nothing whatsoever to dislike; I absolutely loved it all!
I was kept hooked from the start.
A beautifully woven story,
Wonderfully descriptive, fantastically narrated.
I look forward to more stories by Giles Kristian and to them being brought to life by Phillip Stevens.

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Camelot...As never before.

What a story! This one had me hanging on virtually every word. The prose painting pictures in my mind such that, at one stage, I could see the shield wall pushing forward away from me. Also at other stages, heart rending, and so emotional. I found myself chuckling at times but emersed all the time. Another great book, Giles.
Narrator, Phillip Stevens is getting better and better with each story; as he was at a very high level already, this is quite a feat. This particular programme, I believe, is his best so far and the best of all the narrators I have, so far, come across.

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4 people found this helpful

She Wolf from the reeds

Once again Giles Kristian brings you a adventure of warriors,magic,lovers , friendship and legends that transports you back through time into the Dark Ages where Britons are hundred by the Saxon invaders. The main difference for me from Giles Arthurian tale of Lancelot was that Camelot read for me like his excellent Raven books, that is not being critical of Lancelot which was excellent in its own style, it embraced you more in the myth of the Arthurian legend, where in Camelot I felt I was back into the courage and bloody crush of the shield wall of Raven and the Wolfpack and then of course out of the reeds came a She Wolf to stand in bloody battle with Galahad , Gawain and the rest of Bear Shields. Giles has produced a beautiful sequel to Lancelot , a page turner of the highest order, from a master storyteller.

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Amazing book

I have the previous book. This story. Is the most awesome I have listened to after the previous one. It took me though a range of emotions. I actually cried when it finished. I felt the loss of friends. Please write another to carry on. The narrator is absolutely fantastic. The words by Giles were brought to life by the narrator Phillip Stevens. Buy the book but listen to it as all you will not regret it. Thank you Giles Kristen

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Lovers of historical fiction rejoice!

Just as Galahad stepped out of Lancelot's shadow, the author himself emerges from Bernard Cornwell's. This fabulous book, flawlessly narrated, could only be faulted for its title; 'Galahad' might have better suited its focus than 'Camelot'. Thank you Giles Kristian and Phillip Stevens!

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Fabulous....

Never expected a follow up to ‘Lancelot’, which was truly magnificent. This is a worthy companion novel....full of the same beautiful, brutal, heartbreaking prose of the earlier novel. Great narration by Phillip Stevens. I hope Giles Kristian revisits this world again.

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1 person found this helpful

More to come?

This is an overall good story, but it was not as good as Lancelot

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