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Amazon.co.uk Review
Holdstock's Merlin is near immortal, and as the story opens has already walked the world for millennia, an alienated narrator; an archetype it is difficult to empathise with. Occasionally he does show human warmth:
I looked at her face, so beautiful despite the greed of Time, her hair still like polished copper; into her eyes, so lovely, so clever; her breath like summer fruit; our fingers intertwined briefly. A beauty that had not faded; lost in time; almost untouchable.Long before Arthur, Merlin has become deeply involved with Jason, The Argonauts and the legendary cycle of betrayal and bloodshed between Jason and Medea. Spinning this saga into a surreal epic across centuries, Holdstock adds the quest of the young Celtic King Urtha to avenge his wife and children, and the epic march to the Oracle of Delphi of the greatest army the world has ever seen.
Written with all Holdstock's usual skill, Celtika is a strange, convoluted, intricately plotted book. Weaving so much mythology and history into one fabric results in a distant quality akin to Tolkien's The Silmarillion, producing fantasy of particular subtlety and intelligence. While knowledge of the author's previous books is not required, those who have read them will find extra resonance in exploring these austerely magical adventures from the archetype's point-of-view. --Gary S. Dalkin --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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That being said, the descriptions of the Screaming Lake are possibly some of his finest writing.
My one complaint is that there are rather too many characters in here, many with very similar looking names and I do keep forgetting who is who.
Even though the story is nominally a quest ( as so much bad fantasy is e.g. anything by Eddings ), this is saved by superb writing.
Although this is told from Merlin's point of view this is not another straightforward Arthurian retelling- the Holdstock universe is far too diverse for that. Cleverly entertwining many strands of european mythology with a mixture of sharp imagination and deep research this is less immediate than Mythago Wood or Lavondyss but it finds its way into the back of your mind and won't let go. My only criticism is that it is perhaps a little slow to start with, but it is the first book of a series. With Celtika as a starting point it could turn out to be a very good series indeed.
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