Arthur
core novel 1989 Pendragon Cycle
Record
| First published | 1989 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.02 (10,306 ratings, collected 2026-08-30) |
| Page count | 496 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780891074755 |
| Internal chronology | 3 |
Synopsis
Told through multiple narrators including Pelleas, Bedwyr, and Aneirin, this third book of the Pendragon Cycle follows Arthur as he draws his father's sword from the stone and rises to become Duke and Battlechief of a fractured Britain. Building on the foundations laid by Taliesin and Merlin before him, Arthur must work to unite Britain's divided peoples while repelling invading Saxons and other barbarian forces threatening the land's fragile stability. As his authority grows, Arthur begins pursuing his vision of a prosperous and just realm that he calls the Kingdom of Summer, a goal that requires both military success and the harder work of binding rival factions together under his rule. The book follows this early, formative stage of Arthur's reign as he lays the groundwork for the kingdom he hopes to build.
Where it sits
- Universe: Pendragon Cycle
- Series: Pendragon Cycle core; position 3 of 5 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Stephen R. Lawhead
Notes
- From the series record (Pendragon Cycle): A large-scale Arthurian retelling spanning Atlantean prehistory through the fall of Camelot, published across five novels 1987-1997.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series Pendragon Cycle: position 3 of 5: previous Merlin (1988) · next Pendragon (1994)
- Internal chronology, within Pendragon Cycle: position 3 of 7: previous Merlin (1988) · next Pendragon (1994)
Sources
- Wikipedia: The Pendragon Cycle
- Stephen Lawhead official site: The Pendragon Cycle
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pendragon_Cycle
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