bibliogramma | Pendragon in perpetuity (Reply)

Since I've started the day on an Arthurian note, I shall continue in that vein. One of my Christmas gift books was the first volume in a series called The Descendants of Merlin by Irene Radford. I have since then acquired and read the entire series - at least as far as it goes to date, I don't know if the author considers the series finished. The five books are:

Guardian of the Balance
Guardian of the Trust
Guardian of the Vision
Guardian of the Promise
Guardian Of The Freedom

The premise of the series is that Merlin sired a daughter as a result of a magical Great Marriage-style rite with his priestess counterpart, and that this daughter, once grown, bore a child sired by Arthur himself. The resulting lineage is that of the true Pendragons of Britain, and they have acted throughout time, either openly or secretly, to preserve the island against threats, both magical and mundane.

The premise of a secret society or lineage that watches over the fate of Britain is not a new one, nor is the notion that Britain has at times required supernatural help of the pagan variety to survive. A case in point would be the lingering belief that Sir Francis Drake sought help in defeating the Spanish Armada from a coven of sea witches who conjured the great storm that scattered the invading fleet. And then there are the traditions concerning the Templars and the Scottish Rite Freemasons, the notion that early Norman kings of England followed some variation on the ritual king-sacrifice, and so on. In particular, the idea of Merlin, Arthur, or both somehow continuing to guard Great Britain is a reasonably common one in Arthurian literature and in fiction dealing with alternative history fantasies of Britain in general. There's a lot of material to play with in the genre, and Radford has certainly drawn of a fair amount of what's available, even going so far as to bring the Illuminati into her final volume, set at the time of the American revolution.

On whole, I must say that while I read and enjoyed the books, I'm not sure that I thought well enough of the entire series to recommend it. The first volume, which is a retelling of the core story of Merlin and Arthur, and hence sets up the means by which the lines of both can continue throughout history, is in my opinion the most interesting book of the series. The next two, set in the England of King John and the early part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, are good - in fact, the second book, with its very memorable protagonist, the powerful sorceress Resmiranda, is possibly the best of the series. The series begins to unravel somewhat in the fourth volume, which deals with the second half of Elizabeth's reign and the religious discord between Catholics and Huguenots in France, and it has become a little tedious in the fifth volume, in which the Pendragon legacy divides and some of Merlin's descendants head off to protect America instead.

There are a number of reasons why the series doesn't quite work well enough for me. Some of it may well be that I've been spoiled by writers such as Judith Tarr and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro in the realm of alternative historical fantasy. Very few authors meet the standards they have set for exhaustive historical research seamlessly blended into the story. Also, it seemed to me that in focusing more and more over time on division and corruption within the Pendragon line itself, the later books became somewhat overly complicated as the author tries to link the factional discords and plots within the Pendragon line to the already complex political intrigues of the Elizabethan and Georgian eras.

While the protagonists are strong in all five volumes (indeed, the protagonist of the fifth and otherwise weakest book has a very strong and enjoyable hero, a young woman named Georgie who spends much of the novel passing as an elite mercenary soldier), the characterizations of the supporting characters are sometimes weak and inconsistent - they are whatever the story needs them to be at the time instead of reacting organically as themselves. Again, this is most obvious in the fifth volume, where Georgie's brother Drake is heroic and weak by turns, without much to justify his changes, while Georgie's niece and the likely future Pendragon Emily is alternately horrified and adoring of her aunt's unconventionality, depending on whether the plot requires her to be susceptible or resistant to the blandishments of one of the villains within the Pendragon clan who seeks to marry her and turn her to the Dark Side.

So, in all, an interesting premise, moderately enjoyable to read, but on the weak side in several rather important areas.