[QuickTidal]

So the final templar book is coming in October (to Canada at least), and will be called "Order In Chaos" as opposed to the previous title of the Fall Of Baphomet. Great news. I DO hope it is better than the second book which was not great.....which bothered me cause I enjoyed the first one alot.

At any rate, he has signed a deal to make a new trilogy as well! Here's the quote from his official blog:

"I’ve signed a contract with Penguin Group Canada for yet another trilogy, this one set in 14th-century Scotland, with the working title of “The Guardians�. Each book will deal with one of the three greatest heroes Scotland ever produced, all of whom were contemporaries and knew one another. They were William Wallace, Robert The Bruce, and Sir James “The Black� Douglas. This will be my first venture into Scottish history, despite the fact that I’ve been steeped in it for most of my life, but the preliminary research I’ve been doing has shown me very quickly that I’ve been away from the native hearth for a long time, and so I’m heading for Scotland this year, to spend a couple of months in the late summer and early autumn trudging the sites and the locations of the various actions with which I’ll be dealing for the next few years." ~Jack Whyte

Very cool news, and a brilliant idea for him to write about! Loves it!

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 30 March 2017 - 03:51 PM

[Coco with marshmallows]

greatest heroes- arguable

most famous - certainly

still, I'm quite a fan of his work, so I look forward to it with interest.

[acesn8s]

I haven't read his Templar books . . . I did enjoy his Arthurian series though.

[QuickTidal]

acesn8s;296429 said:

I haven't read his Templar books . . . I did enjoy his Arthurian series though.

The first Templar book is really good, but the second one is a slog, and hard as hell to get through.....I have high hopes for the 3rd.

[QuickTidal]

Threadsurrection! (nearly a decade later...jeezus I'm old)

Why you ask?

Well Jack has gone back to his Camulod series for the next book (which he's been working on for a few years already).

It will be a prequel to The SKYSTONE, and will concern Publius Varrus' grandfather Quintus and how he ended up in Britain, and how the first Skystone dagger (the one Varrus finds in the book) got made.

Being that this is one of my all-time favourite series, I'm both pumped and concerned about this. His Templar series was decent to start but finished weakly....and the Scottish Independence series was one I could not finish after the first book didn't impress me. So I HOPE that this will be a return to form for him. Aside from all else, this is a familial tale that I think was exceedingly well executed....so I hope that a prequel would bring some of that good stuff back. Even if it's just one book, I'll be happy.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 30 March 2017 - 03:56 PM

[Tiste Simeon]

I've only read the Templar series and it was terrible. Had put me off completely.

[QuickTidal]

Tiste Simeon, on 30 March 2017 - 10:32 PM, said:

I've only read the Templar series and it was terrible. Had put me off completely.

His Arthur series is about 1000x better than his Templar series.

[Tiste Simeon]

I mostly trust your reccos so I may check them out at some point!

[Tsundoku]

The Camulod series was one of my absolute favourites until the last few because he developed a tendency to turn them into one opinionated info dump after another disguised as long uninteresting conversations or ruminations by the narrator (Merlyn or Clothar/Lancelot). He also had an irritating habit of going on and on about celibacy.

You can easily avoid The Lance Thrower and The Eagle which are the last 2 and told from Clothar/Lancelot's POV.

Spoiler

When most of the interesting stuff of Arthurian legend happens off camera because you've blown hundreds of pages on turning info dumps about the developing Catholic Church into thinly-veiled opinion pieces, you've destroyed the pacing and the point of the books. I realise his series was more about the (real) story leading UP TO - and being the kernel of "fact" at the heart of the legend. But when the whole "Fall of Camulod" happens off camera and is only semi-referred to - and not even definitively at that - in one page near the end of the last book, you've fucked it up.

I don't know whether his love of info dumps or his own opinion finally defeated his editors, or he pulled a Robert Jordan and didn't even have any over the last 3 books, but it shows. The pacing is simply dreadful. Too much TALK, not enough SHOW. Maybe he just lost interest or maybe Clothar/Lancelot was just a very, very boring POV.

The First Templar book was interesting but I couldn't finish the second as these tendencies had come to dominate his writing.

I've avoided him ever since which was sad as The Skystone, The Singing Sword, The Saxon Shore, The Eagle's Brood and Uther (the events of The Eagle's Brood told from Uther's perspective as the main arc is told from Merlyn's) are just brilliant.

I'll wait until opinion here confirms whether or not the prequel series is more like his earlier stuff than his later stuff.

This post has been edited by Captain Needa: 31 March 2017 - 10:10 AM

[QuickTidal]

Yeah, CLOTHAR THE FRANK (LANCE THROWER), and THE EAGLE can be avoided. Agreed. In fact he never intended to write those two. He always intended to end the series with METAMORPHOSES...but the fans wanted him to continue the Arthur story, so he wrote those two.

I think Clothar was a terribly boring POV after the wonderfully crafted Merlyn.

[Tsundoku]

QuickTidal, on 31 March 2017 - 10:09 AM, said:

Yeah, CLOTHAR THE FRANK (LANCE THROWER), and THE EAGLE can be avoided. Agreed. In fact he never intended to write those two. He always intended to end the series with METAMORPHOSES...but the fans wanted him to continue the Arthur story, so he wrote those two.

Huh, well there you go. Did not know that, but now it all makes sense.

Quote

I think Clothar was a terribly boring POV after the wonderfully crafted Merlyn.

Which was sad but makes sense when something is just a cash grab/fan service. A lot of authors fall into that trap. Movie series too. You can only milk it so much before the cupboard of ideas is bare and the interest is long gone, and it shows.

[QuickTidal]

Captain Needa, on 31 March 2017 - 10:16 AM, said:

QuickTidal, on 31 March 2017 - 10:09 AM, said:

Yeah, CLOTHAR THE FRANK (LANCE THROWER), and THE EAGLE can be avoided. Agreed. In fact he never intended to write those two. He always intended to end the series with METAMORPHOSES...but the fans wanted him to continue the Arthur story, so he wrote those two.

Huh, well there you go. Did not know that, but now it all makes sense.

Quote

I think Clothar was a terribly boring POV after the wonderfully crafted Merlyn.

Which was sad but makes sense when something is just a cash grab/fan service. A lot of authors fall into that trap. Movie series too. You can only milk it so much before the cupboard of ideas is bare and the interest is long gone, and it shows.

I also think that his problem with the subsequent two series (Templar, and Scottish Guardians) is that they were each only trilogies...which covers multiple generations. Camulod covered the lives of 3 generations, over what? 90-ish years. And he took 6 books (plus UTHER, which ran sidelong to EAGLES BROOD, so really 7 books) to do that. And it worked. Meanwhile in the Templar books he tried to cover over 200 years of history in 3 books...and it REALLY didn't work. Same is true of his Scottish books...but to an even worse degree since his protagonists in those books are not at all famous...but people who KNEW the famous person.

Camulod (the first 7 books anyways) may be his only good work....but I have slightly better hopes for the prequel since it might be a one-off.