The Hounds of Avalon

Dark Age #3

by Mark Chadbourn

The Hounds of Avalon are coming...

For these are the twilight days, when eternal winter falls and the gods destroy themselves in civil war...

when an invasion force of ghastly power threatens to eradicate all life. Humanity's last chance lies with two friends, as different as night and day, but bound together by an awesome destiny. Hunter: a warrior, a rake, an assassin; Hal: a lowly records clerk in a Government office. They must pierce a mystery surrounding the myths of King Arthur to find the dreaming hero who will ride out of the mists of legend to save the world. But time is running out, for when the Hounds of Avalon appear, all hope is lost...

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Urban Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy, Adventure, Historical Fiction, British Literature

384 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 21, 2005

About the author

A two-time winner of the prestigious British Fantasy Award, Mark has published his epic, imaginative novels in many countries around the world. He grew up in the mining community of the English Midlands, and was the first person in his family to go to university. After studying Economic History at Leeds, he became a successful journalist, writing for several of the UK's renowned national newspapers as well as contributing to magazines and TV.

When his first short story won Fear magazine's Best New Author award, he was snapped up by an agent and subsequently published his first novel, Underground, a supernatural thriller set in the coalfields of his youth. Quitting journalism to become a full-time author, he has written stories which have transcended genre boundaries, but is perhaps best known in the fantasy field.

Mark has also forged a parallel career as a screenwriter with many hours of produced work for British television. He is a writer for BBC Drama, and is also developing new shows for the UK and US.

An expert on British folklore and mythology, he has held several varied and colourful jobs, including independent record company boss, band manager, production line worker, engineer's 'mate', and media consultant.

Having travelled extensively around the world, he has now settled in a rambling house in the middle of a forest not far from where he was born.

Reviews

[Tim Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like the Dark Age series altogether. However, I was disappointed to find out that Chadbourn had forestalled the ultimate confrontation between Existence and The Void for the next series. There is no single protagonist in this book. Chadbourn performs a balancing act while depicting the stories of five Brothers and Sisters of Dragons, and many sub-characters. As a result, the depth of each character suffers a bit. Still, Chadbourn makes the story move along enough to keep the reader interested. That's more than I can say for a lot of authors. I didn't have to force myself to read any of the Dark Age Novels.

The Dark Age contains deep philosophical and spiritual implications as wekk. Chadbourn attempts to reconcile all religions, as well as science, by depicting a pervasive power, which serves as the base of Existence--like Lao Tzu's Tao or The Force from Star Wars. Through his character Hal's struggle to discover a secret hidden in books, art and Arthurian legend, which could save Existence, Chadbourn alludes to the power and magic of stories to bind an otherwise incomprehensible multi-verse together.

Thankfully, Chadbourn communicates all of this by way of a fast-paced Sci Fi/Fantasy/Adventure/Suspense story that brings ancient gods back to life. Throughout these tales, Chadbourn subtly celebrates "The Fall" of the mundane world of modern mediocrity and the rise of the dangerous but vivacious, magical, mystical, and more satisfying realm embodied in The Land of Eternal Summer.

[Sara]

The road go to dark age
the road full of fog
snake dog many creature
i go with my candel hiden in ma heart
seak to weasdom of love
there was tired winter
crazy rain
snow years
door to all night close
can we survive the attak in our track
wher night of summer went
myth take it all
take it money and power
still we have shawll of love
phill
jasmen
flower
tent of suny dream
thee cant take that breath

[Gav · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are some writers who build whole new worlds and some who raise questions about the world we are already in. Mark Chadbourn has created his own brand of urban fantasy by building a story around the myth and legends surrounding the British Isles and asking what if these old Gods and creatures of myth and legend returned?

The Hounds of Avalon sees a diminished British government coping as best it can when an unstoppable army of mystical creatures attack with intention of eliminating everyone in their tracks as they march towards Oxford, the government’s new home. Their only hope of salvation is the actions of those chosen to be champions of humanity; those known as the Brother and Sisters of Dragons. But the government doesn’t realise how important they really are.

To say more about the plot would end up with me getting in a muddle, giving away spoilers and confusing you. Because, unofficially, this is book six in the series and book three in the second story arc, so a lot has gone on already to get to this point (see here for details).

You can read it as a standalone but some of the significance of the events and characters might pass a new reader by. Though saying all that Chadbourn does a grand job keeping the events self-contained enough so that the story works in its own terms and is accessible enough for new readers and those of us who has left it a while between books.

What’s impressive is the amount of action, information, and emotion that Chadbourn builds into each page. His skill is how he weaves the exploration of what it is to be human with a story of what could be the last moments of the human race. He shows how we all deal with situations differently; some of us hide away, some of stand and fight, but in the end we all have a role and we can’t always see the role we play or how vital it is.

Chadbourn’s other strength is that he sets a lot of different threads in motion, some placed books ago, as he recalls to the roster characters who had fulfilled their jobs in previous books and it seemed that they had no further role to play.

As a storyteller he keeps the reader moving along a roller coaster that could come off the tracks any second and the characters could fail in their missions and the world could end before they have chance to fight back. One thing he does show is that there is always hope. Oh, and the end really isn’t the end.

Personally I’d say read all the previous books as Chadbourn is a master storyteller and all the other books in the series are tell different parts of the tale but stand in their own right as masterpieces of fantasy.

An excellent end to The Dark Age sequence and sets us up for the next one with The King of Serpents and the first book, Jack of Ravens.

[Nancy]

Goodreads recommends because it is like the Assassin's Blade.

[Katie Adee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rated 2.5 stars because the more I think about the ending, the angrier I become. Chadbourn spends 320 in this book alone building up to the fact that all 5 Brothers and Sisters of Dragons must be together in order for them to stand a chance at defeating the Void. So they trapise through the Otherworld looking for help, seek out the three survivors of the previous 5 who fought in the Fall, and hack away at immense odds, only so that in the last 3 pages the Shadow Mage can save the day.

But does he really?

As the end approached, I kept thinking back to the first trilogy where Jack Churchill meets up with the government guys who try to convince him that the return of the Celtic gods is a hallucination. By the end of that trilogy, we learn that those government guys, standing for money and power, do exist and tried to sway the world, and failed. I kept thinking that somehow they would come back into play, perhaps having gotten the necessary toe hold and that is what the Void represented. But I was wrong.

As Hal kept looking at the image from the Wish Stone, I repeatedly thought that Jack Churchill--the King representation--would be brought back and complete the 5 Brothers and Sisters of Dragons. Hal even got to realizing it and I was desperately hoping to see Jack return, him and Ruth be reunited, and the Void properly defeated. Chadbourn had other ideas.

Chadbourn decided to play the biggest god from the machine possible, and it left me disappointed. Hal meets up with Dian Chet, the Caretaker, and the Fabulous Beast/Jenny hybrid, receives the Wayfinder, and lets his essence get spread through all time and Existence to place the clues that he will eventually find that will, what?, lead him right back to this point where he's standing at the stone in the lab getting ready to spread his essence through all of time and Existence to place the clues that he will eventually find that will... Well, you get the idea.

I didn't feel like the story was resolved. I didn't feel like it set anything up for a possible next book. And that's just the ending.

I was disappointed with a lot of the wanderings Mallory, Sophie, and, to a lesser degree, Hunter did in order to get to the point. My attention kept drifting off and I kept thinking, "Okay, get on with it already!" Part of this comes from the fact that we read a very similar story in World's End with Jack and Ruth trying to find the remaining Brothers and Sisters of Dragons, only they had an amusing cryptic guide with Tom and the storyline was fresh.

The best part of the book for me was when Hunter doesn't actually die when the Lord of Insects tries to rip him apart. I cheered because he was the most agreeable character in this chapter of the Fallen World.

I would like to quote Chadbourn's afterword, now:

This sprawling story would eventually be told across nine books--a trilogy of trilogies that could, just about, be consumed in any order, complete in and of themselves. But read together, the three trilogies would reveal an even greater story. The Dark Age is one of those trilogies, and, as I mentioned at the start, part of a puzzle. As you move from The Devil in Green to The Queen of Sinister, it is not immediately obvious how this story hangs together, but the clues are there. All is revealed in the final book, The Hounds of Avalon, but you may enjoy trying to work it out for yourself as you go along.

My gripe is simple: a trilogy is a set of three books that tell a complete story. Can you read them without reading THE AGE OF MISRULE and understand what's going on? I believe so. Can you read them without reading the next three books and enjoy them? I believe not. They can't be considered a trilogy because all the loose ends were not tied up, and somehow I suspect the next three books, because of what happened in THE DARK AGE, won't do particularly well as a stand-alone trilogy. I'll never find out, because I hear they are out of print and because I'm too upset at the author to continue following the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons.

[Stefan · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Hounds of Avalon is the third book in Mark Chadbourn’s DARK AGE trilogy, which continues the story of England after the Fall described in the author’s earlier AGE OF MISRULE trilogy. A noticeable difference between the two trilogies is that the AGE OF MISRULE follows the same group of five main characters, the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons, throughout all three books. The DARK AGE trilogy introduces one set of characters in book 1, The Devil in Green, and then surprisingly introduces all new characters in book 2, The Queen of Sinister. The Hounds of Avalon, somewhat annoyingly, initially starts off with yet another batch of new characters in the first pages of its opening chapter (my first major source of annoyance with this novel) but then gradually brings all the story lines together.

In the end, The Hounds of Avalon isn’t any worse or better than the previous books in the trilogy. It’s just more — frankly too much more — of the same. The new characters that are introduced are immediately recognizable, and their interactions follow by now predictable patterns. It’s all too familiar. As a result, I had a hard time staying interested in the novel, because it felt like the series is moving in circles rather than moving forward.

One aspect of these books that should be highlighted is the set of gorgeous cover illustrations by John Picacio. They’re thematically appropriate and instantly recognizable, connecting all the books effectively. You just can’t help but notice them on the shelves. The cover illustration for The Hounds of Avalon is one of the stronger ones of the series, on a par with the memorable and terrifying cover of the opening book of the first trilogy, World’s End, which was rightfully nominated for a Chesley award.

If you absolutely loved the previous books in the AGE OF MISRULE and DARK AGE trilogies and are dying to find out how the story continues, The Hounds of Avalon will probably be right up your alley. If, like me, you weren’t falling over yourself to get to this book, especially after the comparative let-down of The Queen of Sinister, you’ll probably be even more disappointed in The Hounds of Avalon.

It takes quite a lot for me to give up on a novel, especially after already having read five books in the series, but while I could recognize The Hounds of Avalon’s qualities and see why some readers might gobble this one up, I finally realized that I just didn’t have any interest in finding out where the story was going. After having read about a third of the novel, I pronounced the Eight Deadly Words and decided to move on to something else.

[Joel Flank · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Hounds of Avalon wraps up the Dark Age series set after the Fall of modern civilization and the return of supernatural beings, gods, faeries, and monster. This book ties the previous ones in the series together, the five Brothers and Sisters of Dragons need to be united to stop an existence destroying Void of anti-life from ripping apart the universe. Big stakes, especially since the good guys aren't even a team yet, and the remnants of the British government, hinted at earlier in the series, are throwing their full resources at maintaining their power base, therefore trying to capture or destroy other powers, including the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons.

Into this mix, an administrative researcher for the government, Hal, starts to see some of the larger patterns connecting the current state of the world, and his friend Hunter, a top spy and assassin is sent to capture some of the known Brothers and Sisters of Dragons. That mission goes horribly awry when one of his men shoots Sophie, a practitioner of magic, and while they manager to capture Mallory, he is immediately untrusting of them, after they gun down his girlfriend.

Events conspire to throw Hal and Hunter separately into betraying their government, as they discover what is at stake, with visits to the Otherworld, to save the embattled gods who want to help humanity, as well as rescue the rest of the Brothers and Sisters. They are desperate enough to track down the remaining members of the previous set of 5 Brothers and Sister, which ties things back to the Age of Unreason series. The final climax proves a doozy of a twist, setting up a final trilogy to end the series.

As with the rest of the books in the series, Chadbourn provides a strong view that modern society has restricted humanity's access to the spiritual side of the universe, and the entire point of his heroes is to open humanity up to the larger mysteries of life and joys of living rather than getting by. It provides a very different conflict than most fantasy which is focused on good vs. evil, and informs almost every part of the book which new views on classic tropes and cliches of fantasy.

[Clay Kallam · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the things that annoys me about narratives based on a painful and bloody struggle against terrific odds and powerful opponents is that after several hundred pages, or even a thousand, of grim, back-against-the-wall situations, the authors wind everything up in three pages of happy ending. So after hours of reading about pain and suffering, readers are given only two or three minutes of pleasure as a reward, which hardly seems fair.

Mark Chadbourn, however, has sunk to new depths in his series The Dark Age. The three books (“The Devil in Green,” “The Queen of Sinister” and “The Hounds of Avalon”, all published by Pyr and all $16) chronicle an Earth in collapse, as suddenly all the demons and devils of myth and magic have come to life, destroying the world as we know it.

The various heroes battle their way through plenty of blood and trauma, with minor characters sacrificing themselves left and right to save humanity, and the protagonists going through torture and despair. Chadbourn does toss in a few pages of respite here and there, but for the most part, it’s the overpowering forces of evil crushing tiny sparks of good for three straight books.

But then, as we finally wind down in the last great battle, with the icy winter of the last days combining with millions of undead intent on destroying all human beings, Chadbourn shows us the door to redemption – but never walks through it. That’s right, after three full books, there is not a single moment of triumph. There is the promise of some (and it’s conceivable Chadbourn will write about it in another trilogy), but it’s never delivered. So readers, after suffering along with the several heroes (some left over from the previous trilogy, The Age of Misrule), get nothing for their efforts but a doorway full of light – and that’s not close to being enough reward for me.

[Lel · Rating 4 out of 5]

For me this book should have been a five star book, if only it wasn't for the end. I hate it when a book is part of a set amount of books, like a trilogy, and it ends on a cliff hanger! Its sooooo rude, frustrating, annoying and makes me stamp my feet in anger cause I just want to know what happens without having to wait for more!

Rant over.

The Hounds of Avalon carries on the theme of the end of the world is nigh and the only hope lies with the 5 brothers and sisters of dragons. This book carries on with all the suspense, drama, highs and lows that the first two books have made you come to expect. This book doesn't disappoint in that respects. Mark Chadbourn can certainly make you feel like the rest of your life will wait while you just read one more chapter, followed by another, and another until half the day as gone and you find that you haven't gotten out of bed yet!

The Five are all having to deal with their own personal demons and problems all the while stumbling toward a collision with the powers that causing all the problems for the entire world. The monsters are getting scarier, the hero's more wearier and the betrayals deeper. Some characters for the original 'Age of Misrule' trilogy make a welcome appearance.

Overall this book, and the entire series ticked almost all the boxes for me in terms of building an amazing world with characters that are believable and a story line that takes over my thoughts for the duration of the time that I am reading. But as you can guess the end was a problem for me. But I guess only in the fact I now need to read more books before I find out the ultimate end to the quest to save the world.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone that loves fantasy. But with the caution of having the next set of books ready to go at the end.

[Tristan · Rating 3 out of 5]

well, this was really, really good.
Better than the second book. Better than the first? I don't know, I was just glad to see Mallorey back in action, and Hunter was pretty neat too.

I can't say too much about it, it was simply really enjoyable.
and the ending, or actually the chapter before the ending was really fun. Mark you had me almost tearing my hair and screaming my lungs out. I thought it was simply cruel. and I was this close to throwing the book away and giving it one star but than... It turned out a bit of a cruel joke... and an effective one at that. very, very mean Mr. Chadbourn!
the ending itsself was satisfactory. Pretty much how I liked it to end. not bad, but not good either. it was, as far as fantasy goes, believable. It all went to hell, but not without a little light at the end of the tunnel.

very nice! :) thank you Chadbourn, that was a fun ride!

[Elvet · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had thought that The Dark Age was just set in the same world as the Age of Misrule. It's not. It's part of a complex and epic story that combines elements of Faerie, King Arthur and Stonehenge and continues where Always Forever left off. There are themes of spirituality, religion and technology that somehow make sense, rather than being pitted against each other. Stereotypes make their appearence, but there's always a twist or turn to keep you thinking.
My biggest complaint is that now I have to find the Kingdom of the Serpent trilogy (apparently out of print) to get the end of the story.

[Noel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant - wont say too much as i have on the others in the series, but its more of the same effectively.

I actually read the latest book first (The Burning Man) and then went back to Jack of Ravens. Not the best start but they really got my attentiona nd have now read the whole lot so undrestand the background and the reasons for Vietch's behaviour etc... but i'll stop there.

Sheer brilliance and deserves any accolades they get.

[Cat Tobin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book 6 in an unexpectedly long trilogy (Age of Misrule) disguises itself as Book 3 in a second trilogy (Dark Age). I'd kinda hoped this would be the end of it, but it turns out, no; there's another trilogy (allegedly also separate) that continues this one. Next step, Book 7...

(Still, Chadbourn works much better within Celtic mythology than he does in the Christianity The Devil in Green, making Hounds of Avalon a welcome return to form in places).

[Espen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The final book in the Dark Age series, and as is Mark Chadbourn's style, even in the final book of a trilogy, the story isn't concluded. Rather, the open ending leaves you wanting for more, leaving just a thin sliver of hope that everything might turn out alright after all. But you need to buy the next book to find out...

[bluetyson]

isbn,original

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Series.

[Dan Smyth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Horrible. Horrible writing. Horrible story-telling. Horribly confusing. Just horrible. Horrible.

My full review at: http://elitistbookreviews.blogspot.co...

[Ian Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved the ending

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full review here:

http://jamesgenrebooks.blogspot.com/2...

Very dark material, but also very fascinating.