The Winter King Part IV

[gwalchmai2007.livejournal.com]

I finished The Winter King Part IV this weekend, and I am really engaged in the story now. I have to say that I was a bit worried about the direction it seemed to be taking in the first two parts, where it seemed that the mouthpieces of all things good were pagan (Nimue and Derfel), and Sansum, the Christian bishop, was the representative of all things wrong with Christianity. But after Part III veered off into Ynys Trebes and Derfel got out of the clash of religions, the themes shifted a little to the impracticalities of investing in poets when one needs warriors to defend the city, and the slimy villainy of Lancelot was introduced.

In Part IV, Sansum came to the fore as the villain, but I no longer had the feeling that he represented all Christians. I recall looking up from the book and thinking what a worm Sansum is as he lay prostrate before Arthur, selling himself to anyone who would look as a helpless victim of worldly cruelty as Arthur wrenched hidden wealth Sansum was keeping to himself so that he could pay off the Saxons long enough to deal with the rebel kings.

I am now in the final part of the book, which seems to be a great account of the battle that is going to decide Arthur's place in the political landscape of the next novel, Enemy of God. I expect I'll finish it sometime late next week, and I'll be poised to start reading the next novel.