Excalibur is the conclusion to Bernard Cornwell's Arthurian trilogy, and is the best of the series. In Excalibur Cornwell masterfully brings to a conclusion plot points he's been weaving for hundreds of pages, and never once misses a step. Every character is given a satisfying - if bittersweet - ending, every plot point wrapped up satisfactorily.

Where this book really excels is in the battles. The other two entries had battles and warfare, but Excalibur brings it to a head here. I've maybe never read such gritty battle scenes before, and Cornwell does a great job contrasting the chaos and density of the shield wall with the tense personal nature of the duel. The battles are a definite high point in a series with very few low points.

I do wish there was perhaps an epilogue where a few of the more secondary and tertiary characters were explored a bit more and given a tiny bit more screen time - but this is Arthur's story, after all, and it's only right that the spotlight be given mostly to Arthur.

I admit post-Roman pre-Saxon Britain is not an area I've ever truly been interested in. Sure, I think everyone, especially boys, are on some level fascinated with Arthur and Guinevere and Lancelot and all the rest. Who wouldn't be? War, magic, the Round Table and the height of chivalry. Armored cavalry has a certain raw beauty and appeal, and Cornwell is well aware of this fact and uses it to great effect. That said, if we move past the legend and myth of Arthur, there really isn't much to love about this era of Britain at first glance. The might of Rome is broken and half-forgotten, we know little to nothing about the Druids, and we're still a long way off from Alfred's great glory. 

This trilogy has changed that for me, a bit. This small era of Britain's history is almost entirely lost, and that makes it terribly interesting to me. Who were these people, really, with their strange gods and forts of earth, clinging to the remnants of Rome and their own scattered and half-remembered customs? We may never truly know, but Cornwell has written here a masterful work showing what might have been, if there really was a man named Arthur who was not a king and more than a king.