Book : Vagabond by Bernard Cornwell
Krishna
This is the second book in the Holy Grail Series of Bernard Cornwell. We reviewed the first one, Harlequin, earlier here.
Thomas continues his quest for the grail. He hates it and wishes it would be over so that he can go back to the English army and be an archer in it, as he always wanted to. His consort Eleanor faithfully follows him.
They are confronted by an evil Englishman who has designs on Eleanor. The knight is the famous and evil scarecrow. At the last minute, he is saved by the army commander and he goes in search of the treasure.
Against Eleanor’s wishes, Thomas wants to fight with the British against a vastly numerically superior French army. And defeat them through strategy. However, what he thought was safe haven turns out horribly wrong. Both the priest and Eleanor get killed. Then he goes back to France since Eleanor’s father needs his help, being besieged by his own allies. They go to his help and the attempt of Thomas to provide an illusion of ‘evil magic’ is interesting. He gets the message across and then helps his father in law when he escapes. He goes and meets his old flame Jeanette (of the first book) who enlists his help in rescuing her son held hostage by the French king but when he tries to ride to the castle where the son is kept, Thomas is betrayed and captured by a mercenary who posed as one of his troops but actually in the employ of his enemy.
He is tortured within an inch of his life but ransomed for an important book with the details tampered with. Nice twists like this in the simplistic story is what makes this interesting, but I feel this lacks the little something that is present in the Saxon series of books by the same author or the Arthurian Trilogy by him.
Not that it is bad anyway. After being nursed to health, he recovers and is confronted by a huge army of Charles Douglas and Charles cleverly separates his men into four camps to defeat a hopelessly outnumbered enemy in the fort. He also makes sure that the pathetic army that comes to rescue them walks right into the trap set for them.
How it ends is beautifully told, with more twists and side turns than you would expect. Brilliant ending.
So it is not a bad book to read overall. Say 7/10
– – Krishna