1. notleia says:

    because history is so unbending, and the Biblical witness so unimpeachable.

    Or because the history/Bible nerds will chew you over for tweaking it, or especially in the case of the latter, tweaking it in a way that doesn’t line up with their headcanon. Sometimes either of those can be vague enough you have enough play with the specifics and details, which is handy for fiction writers.

    Oh, and tangential thing about Biblical narratives I found interesting: http://isthatinthebible.wordpress.com/2014/08/02/the-men-who-killed-goliath-unraveling-the-layers-of-tradition-behind-a-timeless-tale-of-heroism/

  2. It’s funny, though, how some of that multiplicity of King Arthur stories actually helped me get published … it showed the publisher that fans of the legends are indeed out there … especially the success of the Merlin TV series, which came out after I had already written MERLIN’S BLADE.

    • Robert, you’re absolutely right as you’ll see when you read some of the CSFF blog tour posts. Some readers particularly were drawn to this series because of their love of the legend. I get that. I love the Lone Ranger (and wish a good movie of that legend would be made) and Zorro and Robin Hood. I don’t know if I’d get tired of those.

      With the Arthur stories, I haven’t read a single one I didn’t like, though some more than others. It’s a thing in my psyche, I guess. I’m thinking, well, I know that story, those characters. What could this book say that hasn’t been said? No doubt, the Merlin Spiral stands with the best that re-image the myth and make it fresh.

      Becky

  3. I agree, Rebecca! I put off reading the first 2 books in this series until I finally decided to read the third book. So I got them on my nook this summer and read them last month. I was hooked! The story drew me in and gave me a chance to say “Huh? I never thought about that.” I was intrigued by the story of how Morgana came to be, and the thought of a blind Merlin — ingenious!

    The books are not short, easy reads by any means, but they definitely are worth spending the time reading. I have mixed feelings about the ending of Merlin’s Nightmare, but I’ll save those for my own review on my blog.

    Well done, Mr. Treskillard!

     

     

     

    • Tim Frankovich says:

      Um… not to diminish Mr. Treskillard’s words, but blind Merlin has been done many times before. In all the tellings I’ve read, it’s pretty much canon.

      My favorite Arthurian retelling remains Stephen Lawhead’s Pendragon Cycle. I think, because of my love for it, I do suffer from a form of storm weariness regarding Arthur and Merlin. It’s hard for me to accept another one. I watched the Merlin TV show, but never truly enjoyed it (the utter ridiculous twisting they had to undergo to remove every reference to Christianity made me laugh at the storytellers too much, for one thing).

      • Tim … you’re definitely right about other tellings having Merlin blind, Lawhead’s in particular.  It was for those reasons, as well as the difficulty of writing from the perspective of someone blind, that I wholeheartedly did not want to make my Merlin blind.

        The problem was that my story called for it.  In short, it was the only way to make him immune to the enchantments of the blue flames emanating from the Druid Stone, thus making his greatest weakness his greatest strength.

        Anyway, besides that point, I think you’ll find my story vastly different from Lawhead’s, yet I still stand on his shoulders, so to speak. The cool thing is that I was able to meet Stephen, and in a rare situation that may never happen again, he gave me some feedback on how to improve my novels as well as my writing, so I’m very grateful to him for that.

        -Robert

        • Tim Frankovich says:

          That’s awesome.

          And to be clear, I didn’t think you were being unoriginal. I was merely responding to Carol who appeared to be implying that blind Merlin was a new idea.

          I would love to read your books, but my book budget is very limited these days. It’s on my list to check out eventually.

What do you think?