Grail (Pendragon Cycle Series #5) Book

The legend of King Arthur has been told many times—but never with the strength and resonance, passion and richness granted it in Stephen R. Lawhead's masterful

Pendragon Cycle

Drought, plague, and war have left the Isle of the Mighty battered and its heart, the beloved Arthur, grievously injured—until a secret relic is brought before the dying KIng; a Holy Grail that heals his wounds and restores his vigor.

But soon evil enters the royal court in the guise of a beautiful maiden; a soulless, malevolent force capable of seducing the King's loyal champion, confounding the sage whom some call Merlin, and carrying the sacred Grail—and Arthur's adored Queen—off into the dark unknown. And now Arthur faces the greatest challenge of his sovererignty: a quest of recovery that must lead the noble liege through realms of magic and the undead, on a trail that winds inexorably toward a grim confrontation with his most foul nemesis . . . and his destiny.

Drought, plague and war have left the Isle of Mighty battered and its heart, the beloved Arthur, grievously injured. But, astonishingly, the High King lives—his wounds healed and vigor restored by a sacred and secret relic: the Holy Grail.At Ynys Avallach, a dying Arthur was miraculously renewed. And now, in this time of rampant disease and death, the great king wants to share the Grail's curative powers with all who require it. A shrine will be built to house the holy treasure—and Arthur's fabled Kingdom of Summer will at long last come to be.But evil has entered the royal court in the guise of a beautiful maiden. Unbeknownst to Arthur, to his devoted warriors, to his adored Gwenhwyvar. . .even to the bard Myrddrin, the sage Emrys whom some have called "Merlin," malevolent forces, soulless and cunning, seduce the King's most loyal champion. And in an unthinkable unguarded moment, the Grail is carried off, vanishing somewhere into the dark unknown.Now Arthur faces the greatest challenge of his sovereig.

Publishers Weekly

Arthurian Britain is invoked with robust verisimilitude in Lawhead's fifth novel in his Pendragon Cycle. The narrator here is Gwalchavad, a member of Arthur's elite guard whose soldierly frankness lends credibility even to fantastic events. Indeed, one of Lawhead's achievements is his integration, true to the medieval mind, of the mundane and the miraculous. Myrddin (Merlin) is engagingly drawn as both a curmudgeon and a sage. Arthur is interesting for his blend of youthful folly and courage. Interspersed with Gwalchavad's accounts are passages voiced by the enchantress Morgian, Myrddin's evil arch-foe, as she schemes to overthrow Arthur and steal the Holy Grail. The central theme is the shadow connection of great evil with great goodness: Arthur's nave haste to establish the prophesied "Summer Kingdom" and to enshrine the Grail leads to horrific trials. Gwalchavad and his "swordbrothers" confront powerful enchantments. Monsters, bogs, mind-numbing spells and zombie soldiers test Arthur, Myrddin and the other heroes. This is, of course, also a spiritual journey, and in the end salvation lies in prayer and the magical virtues of the Grail. Soulful, philosophical sections are well placed at suspenseful points in the action, and the novel's only real flaw is that its happy conclusion is reached not so much through a chain of events determined by character, strength or strategy as by the overarching moral assumption that good must triumph. 35,000 first printing. (July)