Excalibur

By: Bernard Cornwell

Narrated by: Tim Pigott-Smith

Length: 6 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

With Excalibur, Bernard Cornwell draws his Arthurian trilogy to an exciting close that will have listeners gripping their headphones.

If Arthur existed (and Cornwell is quite certain he did) then he was probably the great British war leader who won the battle of Mount Badon. No one knows where it was fought, or how it was fought, but we do know that the battle took place and it was the one great defeat inflicted on the English invaders of Britain.

In Excalibur we follow Arthur and Derfel to that enormous struggle and incredible victory. It not only throws the Saxons back, but reunites Arthur and Guinevere. He might hope now to be left alone, to have a time of peace after gaining a great victory, but new enemies arise to destroy all he has achieved. First is Mordred himself, the crippled king who owes everything to Arthur and now tries to kill his benefactor. Mordred’s ally is Nimue, who has come to hate her mentor, Merlin. And so the story ends as it has always ended, at Camlann…”and so my lord was gone. And no one has seen him since.”

©1997 Bernard Cornwell (P)1996 Penguin Books Ltd

The best of the trilogy, makes up for the rest

I want to start off by making sure all potential readers know the trilogy itself is a great, unique way of looking at the Arthurian (is that a word?) world & what happened, especially how he decides Lancelot makes such a name for himself, which is so true in history.

Its historians that recall history & just play the 'phone game' to see how telling one person how X person slept with 5 people turns to 15 people very shortly, perhaps its human nature to want to contribute something even if they were not present.

Anyways, the last book wraps everything up into a 'bow' per say & there is battle that we all love the Cornwell way & he also deals with all the mythology revolving around the knights & happened to them, kinda. But overall it was a much better read than the other 2 books, u could probably read just this one book & get the overall jist of the other books & save urself some time, but if u like Cornwells writing as much as I do u will read all 3, just don't compare it to the Grail books, or 1356 (which is a partial extension of Grail series) because it doesn't compare in my opinion

A wonderful new take or twist on the tale of King.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

This story of Arthur is probably the most realistic story on this subject I have ever read, and believe me, I have read A LOT of novels and history on this subject and these characters.
The characters came alive.

What other book might you compare Excalibur to and why?

Better than Mary Stewarts series.

Have you listened to any of Tim Pigott-Smith’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Pigott- Smith is an actor not just a narrator. His characterizations are not contrived or overdone. Just enough inflection and tone and accent to make them distinguishable. He was great.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The death of the little girl.

Any additional comments?

Glad I did not discover the series as it was being written. We listened to the entire series in a week and did not have to wait for the next book.

Excellent version

I have read the trilogy and now listened to Pigot-Smith’s reading. All were exceptional and I would recommend this story to anyone.

The Arthur Chronicles

Would you listen to Excalibur again? Why?

Yes. Excellent story and well read

What did you like best about this story?

The blend between history and fiction

Have you listened to any of Tim Pigott-Smith’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Yes.... The Winter King (The first of this trilogy) it was excellent as well

Who was the most memorable character of Excalibur and why?

Dervill - He was the person telling the story as he lived it

Any additional comments?

No