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    The Skystone: The Dream of Eagles Vol. 1
    Unavailable
    The Skystone: The Dream of Eagles Vol. 1
    Unavailable
    The Skystone: The Dream of Eagles Vol. 1
    Ebook630 pages12 hours

    The Skystone: The Dream of Eagles Vol. 1

    By Jack Whyte

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    This first novel in Jack Whyte's riveting Arthurian series tells how the story of Camelot may have actually come to be.

    We all know the story—how Arthur pulled the sword from the stone and how Camelot came to be.

    But how did it really happen?

    The Roman citizens of Britain faced a deadly choice: leave to live in a corrupt Roman world, or stay amidst the violence of the warring factions of Picts, Celts, and invading Saxons.

    For Publius Varrus and Caius Britannicus, there is only one answer. They will stay, try to preserve the best of Roman life, and create a new culture from the wreckage.

    In doing so, they will plant the seeds of a legend. For these two men are Arthur's great-grandfathers and their actions will shape a nation...and forge the sword known as Excalibur.

    At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateAug 1, 2004
    ISBN9781466822221
    Unavailable
    The Skystone: The Dream of Eagles Vol. 1
    Author

    Jack Whyte

    Jack Whyte was born and raised in Scotland, and educated in England and France. Whyte is married, with five adult children, and lives in British Columbia, Canada.

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    Reviews for The Skystone

    4/5

    380 ratings17 reviews

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    • 1/5
      I'm a fan of Arthurian stories, so tried to like this book but by page 510, I just couldn't bear it any longer. The dialogue was wooden and juvenile. Hardened Roman soldiers don't simper and giggle. The obsession with physically positioning each character in each scene was tiresome, and the anachronistic monologues on self sufficiency were a poor substitute for story telling. And don't get me started on the romance, pages and pages of Victorian purple prose and excruciating male emotive gushing that's completely out of place in a 4th century fighting man. In summary, this book is a badly written Historical Romance.
    • 5/5
      h
    • 2/5
      Overall, this is adequate entertainment, but the outlook for the series to me, will be problematic. i don't see the depth of late Roman research that would qualify it as such fine-grained an effort as Cornwell and Sharon K. Penman put into their historical novels. But, I do see that there are at least another six books coming, and the possibility of improvement does exist. The serious jarring note is the ability of a fairly successful Roman soldier having the forethought to plan for the end of a state that in the mid to late Three hundreds CE, was still capable of rewarding his class and occupation adequately. Our present society has a great deal of difficulty alerting the relatively propertied classes to take climate change seriously, and I don't think Romans were any smarter than we are. However, Mr. Whyte is laying groundwork for his vision, and does afford an insight into some aspects of conspiracy theory.
    • 5/5
      I can't beleave that I enjoyed a military book, it had just the right amount of people & their life to keep me reading. The resurch that went into such a book had to be huge. What it took to change lives and history , things we take for granted is astounding , what we learn today with out experanceing and take for truth is mind blowing. The fact of writing & reording teaches us & future people , most with out understanding the why & how of everyday life things is so accepted, we are lost without these teachings.
    • 5/5
      Skystone by Jack Whyte, is the first in a series set late 4th to early 5th century in Britain. It is a much grittier and violent version of the Arthur Legends.Caius Britannicus, a Roman Patriarch born in Britain, held the long view that Rome was rotting at the core and would soon be forced to withdraw her troops from outlying posts to defend Rome. Even before retiring from the Legions, he began planning and preparing his lands for the vacuum in power which would follow withdrawal of the Legions from Britain.What I love most about this series is the underlying theme of nation building, laying the very foundations and rules of law upon which Britain would be born. To this was added the wedding of the Celtic royal line with the Roman to create a new people.What I have struggled the most with is the overwhelming thrust of a much harsher and violent time. Whyte makes no excuses for the archaic belief systems and behavior of his characters, good guys and bad guys alike.
    • 5/5
      The work of Arthurian literature that captured my imagination as a teen was Mary Stewart's Crystal Cave about Merlin--it was even assigned to me in high school. My knowledge up to then of King Arthur was that he was pure fantasy. Although there are fantasy elements in Stewart's tale, what fascinated me is that she did root him in the history of the Dark Ages after Rome's fall, much as Mary Renault had done for the Bronze Age Theseus in The King Must Die. Later I'd fall in love with T.H. White's Once and Future King, which bases itself on legend rather than history, with overt fantasy and anachronistic medieval touches. And I loved that book greatly as well. Both works are by first-rate authors, and feature absolutely skillfully woven narrative and beautiful prose.That's not the case with Whyte's Camulod Chronicles. The style is decent enough, and the first person voice of Publius Varrus is engaging enough to propel me through, but there's no doubt in my mind he's not a writer in the same league as Stewart and White. But what I did find so fascinating in this book was that this is at the opposite end of the spectrum from T.H. White. Jack Whyte scrubs away all the fantastical elements of the legend, writing us a story of Camelot that might have been from all we know of history. And seeing the familiar elements of the legend from that perspective is fascinating. The skystone of the title, for instance, is a meteor that makes the raw material for what becomes Excalibur. There's no mention of an Arthur or Merlin or Guinevere here yet--not even of Arthur's parents Uther or Ygraine. The back of the book tells us Publius Varrus and his former commander Caius Britannicus are two great-grandfathers of Arthur. This book covers from 369AD, when there was a major incursion of Scots and Picts over the Hadrian Wall to 388AD, when Maximus, a commander in Britain, tried to become Emperor. So this book ends over a hundred years before the time King Arthur (if he existed) flourished.I also loved the picture of the era, how rich Whyte made his world. So much is brought in to evoke the fading Roman world. Part One works well as a work of military fiction dealing with Publius' and Caius' time as officers in the Roman legions. But the rest of the book deals with Publius' work as a smith and the growing idea of "the Colony" in Western Britain set up as a haven where the best of Roman civilization can survive the coming invasions that Caius foresees. The book takes in economic and political forces, metallurgy, sciences, engineering. Some complain it's infodumpy and takes in a centuries later perspective it wasn't possible for those in the crumbling empire to foresee, but I found it fascinating for how it all tied into Arthurian legend from dragons to the Lady of the Lake into a strictly realistic tale.
    • 5/5
      The first book in an amazing series. I had never read that much on the Arthur Legend or been that interested in it. My dad gave these to me in high school and I blew through them. They are written as historical fiction taking away some of the "magic" of the lore and turning it into a story and the history of a family that may have actually occurred.This novel starts a few generations before Merlin. My only complaint is that they have ruined me for other Arthur books because they so thoroughly convince you that Whytes version of the tale is what actually occured
    • 5/5
      I loved this book, which is the first in a series about the Arthurian legend. This first book takes you back to before Arthur, to the time when Romans were in control of Britain. It is written in the first person by Publius Varrus a Roman soldier who is a very early ancestor of Arthurs, and is a fantastic introduction to the rest of the series. Full of descriptons of Roman military life as well as the ordinary working man which Publius became when injured and had to leave the army. He had a gift for working with Iron and you can see the lead in to excaliber coming into being.It also gives a good account to normal Roman life, the villas, servants and lifestyle, of the time. I can't wait for the 2nd book, as this series, I think is going to be a fantastic journey through early British history.
    • 5/5
      A fantastic book that takes the reader back to the Roman Legions and Britain. Amazing description of a smith work and the Roman army. Can't wait to read the next on the Camulod Series!
    • 5/5
      Billed as historical fiction, in some ways The Skystone is almost fantasy. If I had read the book without reading anything about it beforehand, I would never know it was about Camelot and King Arthur at all. Taking place decades before Arthur's birth, The Skystone follows the adventures of Arthur's ancestor, a Roman officer serving as the Empire dies.
    • 2/5
      I chose this book because it was outside my comfort zone of what I usually read and it didn't work out too well. There was too much fighting, battling and military strategy in it for me - most of it went over my head. I think that someone who likes that sort of thing would probably like this book though.
    • 4/5
      This was an enjoyable story although I didn't think it had a very developed plot. It seemed like the purpose of this book was to set up the story that will follow in the rest of the series. Whyte did a good job setting up the mood of the historical setting and introducing a wide range of characters and I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series.
    • 5/5
      A wonderful retelling of Arthurian mythology from a more realistic and less mythological standpoint. Great read!
    • 5/5
      I was in the appartment on evening complaining that with 5 book cases in the house I had nothing to read when my husband pulled this one off the shelf (on of his). What I loved about this book is that who knows, maybe it really did happen. It tells the tale of Excaliber's maker and gives you the feeling that this is more than fiction...its what really happened.
    • 4/5
      This book did not have a beginning – middle – end like most books. It was more like a series of stories that fit together because they were all part of a man’s life. One might think that this would make for a boring book, but I really enjoyed it. The stories were interesting and original, and they kept my attention really well. The setting of the Roman Empire, and the conception of Arthurian England, was really fascinating as well. The characters were less-than deep, but I really invested in them and enjoyed their quirks.
    • 3/5
      Due to a number of positive reviews from the other inhabitants here on libraything.com and elsewhere, I recently picked up a copy of “The Skystone” by Jack Whyte. I was not impressed. Frankly Mr. Whyte takes a very sordid and chaotic circumstance in history and makes it, unlike his skystone from the novel, rather lackluster. The subject is ripe for exploration, romance and adventure but Mr. Whyte just doesn’t capture the nuances of the time. Maybe it was his writing style, maybe it was the too modern feel of his characters? In any case, unless someone in high standing argues that the next books are one-hundred eighty degree reversals, I don’t see a future for me and Mr. Whyte.
    • 5/5
      This is an historical fiction series about King Arthur, and they are my favorite books of ALL time. Whyte is an amazing author, and his descriptions are amazing. The books tell a realistic story of King Arthur, without all of the magic and sorcery we see in modern myths. These books start off with King Arthur's great great grandfather, and chronicle the family until the death of King Arthur. The charectors are so well developed you feel as if you know them. The other great thing about these books is that they are written in journal-like form. So as different members of the family are "writing" the different books, the writing style and methods change slightly.