I'm a huge fan of historical fiction and history in general, but I have to admit that beyond the broad strokes, I'm pretty unfamiliar with the legend of Arthur. Everyone knows about the Sword in the Stone, the Round Table, and Merlin, but I've never read the "source material" myself. So when I stumbled upon this trilogy that promised a realistic portrayal of Arthur I was definitely interested.

In the Warlord trilogy, Cornwell makes Arthur into a man. A great man, certainly, but a flawed man, not some larger than life figure out of legend, or as a Roman general as some media portrays him. Arthur here is a bastard prince of Dumnonia, determined to unit Britain and defend her from the very real Saxon threat in late fifth and early sixth century Britain. Not a ton is known for sure about murky era of Britain, sandwiched between the departure of Rome and the rise of Wessex and the later Kings of England. Britain is caught between worlds - the old pagan Gods still hold sway while Christianity is starting to take hold.

It's definitely a less popular era - most British history media focuses either on the Viking or the Victorian, if not even more modern. But that doesn't mean it isn't interesting. Cornwell weaves a dark and gritty tale here. The magic of the Druids is based in superstition and trickery, Arthur's power comes from his continental armor and his armored heavy horse, and Britain is definitely not a very nice place to live.

Cornwell writes simply and well. Our narrator is Derfel, born a slave, a companion of Arthur. Derfel is an old man, a Christian monk, and the story is told as a series of flashbacks as he chronicles his past for his Queen, who wants to hear the true story of Arthur. It works well enough - though we're often treated to some very on the nose foreshadowing like "I would not know until later that X happened" or "It wasn't until later that I found out that actually...", which always seems to me rather lazy. It works well enough here though, and I found that I actually wasn't bothered by it, maybe because the story of Arthur is already broadly known and it doesn't seem so spoilery.

If you're interested in King Arthur, especially in a more realistic take on him, or just in Dark Age Britain in general, you can't go wrong with The Winter King.