Something doesn't add up

"Öjevind Lång" <bredband.net.RemoveThis@ojevind.lang> wrote in message <6aibsjF378mekU1.RemoveThis@mid.individual.net>

[snip]

> Another somewhat different book is Rosemary Sutcliff's "The Lantern
> Bearers", which received the Carnegie Medal in 1959. I think one can find
> reprints on Amazon. It's about a young Roman officer who deserts from the
> legions when Britain is abandoned by Rome because Britain in his home, and
> his tribulations following that. Finally, he takes service with Aurelius
> Ambrosius, who in Sutcliff's version is the uncle of young Artos (Arthur).
> It is primarily an attempt to depict Roman Britain after it was left on its
> own and doesn't feature any Arthurian material apart from young Artos, who
> in the book has just started out.
> There is a much inferior (and much later) sequel where Artos is at the
> centre, and where one also encounters Guinevere, but I did not care much for
> that one.
>
Do you mean "Sword at Sunset" (1963)? It's not a children's book like
"The Lantern Bearers", but I certainly wouldn't describe it as much
inferior; to my mind it's the more powerful novel of the two.

Alternatively (from the 'much later' description!) you may well have in
mind "The Road to Camlann" (1982), which covers basically the same
material in the form of the standard legend rather than as an attempt at
Romano-British history; King Arthur rather than Artos. Light-weight
compared to "Sword at Sunset", and much more distant and courtly than
"The Lantern Bearers", but as lively as you'd expect from Rosemary
Sutcliff, if you don't mind knights in armour and fair ladies and all
the other Malorian stuff...
--
Igenlode Wordsmith Lurker Extraordinaire

Igenlode's erratic blog:
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=257221781

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> "Öjevind Lång" <bredband.net.RemoveThis@ojevind.lang> wrote in message
> <6aibsjF378mekU1.RemoveThis@mid.individual.net>

[snip]

>> There is a much inferior (and much later) sequel where Artos is at the
>> centre, and where one also encounters Guinevere, but I did not care much
>> for
>> that one.
>>
> Do you mean "Sword at Sunset" (1963)? It's not a children's book like
> "The Lantern Bearers", but I certainly wouldn't describe it as much
> inferior; to my mind it's the more powerful novel of the two.

There we differ. If "Sword at Sunset" is the book in which Aquila and his
old guard all fall in battle, I think the book is much inferior to "The
Lantern Bearers", though not because of Aquila's death.

Öjevind