Pendragon: The Arthur Chronicles: 1

by Mike Weatherley

“Some really decisive historical arguments.” Prof. John Colarusso (Anthropology, Linguistics, Languages; McMaster University)

Ambrosius Aurelianus is a historically attested fifth century A.D. Christian
Romano-British soldier. His regiment is one of few defending his Celtic
homeland against pagan Anglo-Saxon pirates. In the year 485, Anglo-Saxons
murder his wife and parents, while raiding local farms. Ambrosius then goes
on a quest, galvanising the remaining British troops to hunt down all Anglo-
Saxon tribes threatening his fellow Britons. He is accompanied by his younger
brother, Victor (Uther in Celtic), who worries Ambrosius has a death wish to
rejoin his wife in the next world. However, Ambrosius finds love again with
Geneva, a woman serving in another cavalry regiment. Descended from the
original 5,500 Sarmatians brought to Britain 300 years earlier, they retain the
tradition of women fighting alongside men, like their ‘Amazonian’ ancestors.
This regiment’s founding commander in Britain was: Lucius Artorius Castus!

Mike Weatherley grew up in the county of Kent (whose Latin name was Cantium), which
was the first part of Roman Britain conquered by invading Anglo-Saxons in the late-fifth
century A.D. Born in the Chinese year of the dragon, he always felt an affinity with those
mythical creatures, as well as being fascinated with the legends of the mysterious ‘Arthur’, the
British hero who fought those first Anglo-Saxons. Despite a career as a scientist, Mike always
harboured the dream of writing a definitive version of Arthur’s story. How appropriate that
his fifteen years of research on the subject reveal just how closely intertwined the worlds of
the historical Arthur and dragons actually were. Having reached his solution to this mystery,
Mike hopes his novel has given back to the British people their greatest cultural icon, who was
previously stolen from history by writers of medieval fiction and Norman propaganda.

Genres: Medieval

260 pages, Paperback

Published September 21, 2017

Reviews

[Tegels · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a Kindle review copy from Netgalley. As a previous reviewer says, this is a very wordy book. It could have done with a very thorough edit, which would have cut the word count down considerably but said the same thing. The author needs to step away from the italics for emphasis; trust the reader to understand what you are trying to get across. People who like their history will appreciate the very thorough Author's Note and Historical Note that top and tail the book. However this left me wondering why the author chose to write a novel rather than writing a non-fiction book or blog article.

[Melissa · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book was very slow and overly wordy. Everything in the book description was in the first 30% of the book.

Update March 2018: Publisher keeps emailing me asking me to change my reviews. This is very unprofessional.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about a ‘decurion’ in the roman army whose family home is ravaged and destroyed by Saxon raiders. He additionally loses both his parents and his beloved wife in the raid. He and his brother {also a decurion} obtain 10 days leave to ‘recover’ from their loss.

During that time they ride North to the ‘wall’ and join up with the battalions there. Although the battalions are known as ‘dragons’ due to their standards. Ambrosius is keen to follow through on a plan that he has been working on since his devastation of his loss. His brother is supporting him and riding alongside him, despite not knowing ‘the plan’. So even Victor is surprised at Ambrosius’ actions during the battalions multi-faith ceremony.

And from there, it is history, of sorts (in other words, you will have to read it for yourself).

There was a short explanatory section at the front giving the background and details of the story, in such a manner as to not spoil the book for anyone. At the end of the book was a further explanatory along with references.

The language of the book was modern British English, though the explanatory had already given details of roman equivalents to give the reader a ‘setting’.

I liked that the author took the time to give a background to the story at the beginning, as I like to know how to pronounce names etc in my head as I’m reading. I did also like having the map of roman places to get my bearings in the story.

The longer explanatory at the end along with the references support the factual elements of the story and substantiate the ‘arthurian’ and ‘amazonian’ aspects.

The book is quite a short story (and having subsequently had communication with the author about this, I understand that this is due to a word limit imposed by the publisher), so I was disappointed when the story came to an end. I do look forward to the rest of the trilogy in due course, to see how the relationship between Ambrosius & Geneva (an amazon) continues.

This book will probably suit those who like books with historical reference. I have in mind the style of Ken Follett, when he wrote his historically based “pillars of the earth”.

"... he necessarily shucked-off his erstwhile hunched demeanour of a grieving widower, now standing straight and tall, once more, like the military man he was..."

[Rebecca Hill · Rating 3 out of 5]

The legend of Arthur is one that has lived through history. Mike Weatherley brings the legend back to life in the form of a military officer who lost his entire family. While wishing for death, he remembers the stories that his father told him when he was younger. As he heads off in search of the raiders who killed his family, he hopes for death wishing to get back to his wife.
As he works through the countryside, he comes to another military unit, one that bears his family name. He and his brother do some quick talking, and Ambrose manages to pull the ancient sword from its sheath on the alter. Everyone is silent, as they stare at the man who has become their new Arthur.
Leading the troops through the countryside, they come to the rescue of the countryside who have been harried by the Anglo-Saxon pirates. Ambrose is after just one though, the one who left a silver horse in his wife's hand. He found it on her body as he prepared her for burial.

While Weatherley is a little wordy, the book was really good. There were a few places that were slightly historically inaccurate, but the book in itself does a great job in setting up the legend of Arthur to take off on another spin. Get ready for another dive into folklore. I cant wait to see what follows this one!

[Megan Tee · Rating 1 out of 5]

And this is where I say I don’t even know why this exists. The story is all over the place and well, nothing is interesting at all.

I want to know more about Arthur or whatever the Arthur in this book is supposed to be. All they talked about was about Saxons, but not doing anything at all.

And well, I thought the Arthurian legends had a lot of fights among them. Or even travels, while here is something that I don’t even know about.

Well, the main problem is the lack of plot which makes me wholly uninterested in two guys who seem to be doing nothing. And nothing that marks the main character as similar to Arthur at all.

In other words, this was quite the waste of time on my side. And well, when nothing happens for over half a book I’m dropping it.