Review: Merlin's Blade by Robert Treskillard

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

A strange meteorite. 

A deadly enchantment. 

And only Merlin can destroy it. 

A meteorite brings a mysterious black stone whose sinister power ensnares everyone except Merlin, the blind son of a swordsmith. Soon, all of Britain will be under its power, and he must destroy the stone—or die trying. (Released April 16th)

 

Now something you might not know about me is that I love Arthurian legend. I have read heaps of different books and watched plenty of movies and tv shows that are centred on Arthurian legend, so I went into this book with high expectations and I was not disappointed.

This book is the first in the series and I felt that it was the perfect balance of setting up the world and leading to greater events, and probably the more well-known part of the myths. In this book, Merlin is only 18 years old, Arthur is around one year of age and Uther is still the High King of Briton. Although this book was used for setting up the world and the greater events, it was still action packed and well written.

I loved how Merlin was a half-blind, son of a blacksmith. He wasn’t anyone well known to the world, and even someone who was looked down on by the people in his village. I felt that this was a different take to the story. I also found it different that Merlin was a Christian instead of being a warlock and maybe aligning himself to the Druids. I felt that it was original and I liked how it added something new.

I really liked the amount that religion played in the storyline. Simply put, and without giving too much away, it was Christianity versus the pagan religion of the Druids. I found the spiritual battle between the two to be very intriguing. Again, I felt it added something different to the legend.

I loved how well written the characters in this story were. The good characters were easy to relate to and sympathise with, and yet I often found myself at least feeling sorry for some of the bad characters, because I understood the reasoning behind their decisions. I loved how some characters redeemed themselves. I also loved watching the characters grow throughout their different trials, particularly Merlin as he came to terms to what was going on in his village.

I felt that the plot was interesting and surprising. There were a few times throughout the book where I would just have to put it down in shock at what was revealed, particularly with the revelations of Owain’s (Merlin’s father) past. I also felt that the ending was really well timed. It wasn’t rushed and tidy and yet it wasn’t drawn out and too complex either. I thought that the story was really well paced.

If I had to say anything bad about this book, it would be that some of the dialogue was written for the accent and so at times it was a little hard to understand what some of the characters were saying. However, that was just a small annoyance of mine.

Finally, on a quick note, I just want to say how great this cover is. It has so many aspects that relate to the story and I really like it.

I felt that this was a good set-up to the series, and yet also a fast-paced and action packed book. I am looking forward to the release of the sequel, Merlin’s Shadow, in September. I give this book 5/5 stars.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair review.

Mel.

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