Book Review

[kenjari]

The Lantern Bearers
by Rosemary Sutcliff

This was a good historical novel about Britain in the period just after Rome pulled out, when the remnants of the Romanized population was trying to band together with the Celtic peoples to keep the invading Saxons out. The main character, Aquila, does not leave with the last Roman legions, because he realizes that despite his Roman identity, Britain is his land. Unfortunately, he and his family fall prey to marauding Saxons. He is taken as a thrall but eventually makes his way back to Britain and escapes the Saxons, and fromthere goes to join Ambrosius, the Romanized leader trying to hold back the Saxons and forge a united Britain in the process. Aquila also slowly heals the emotional wounds left from his earlier sufferings at the hands of the Saxons. It is a long, slow journey, and Sutcliff handles it beautifully. In fact, Sutcliff handles many aspects of the story, setting, and characters beautifully. She's quite good at rendering the period in a natural way that makes it feel familiar to the reader.
Incidentally, this is the very period believed to contain the historical origins of the King Arthur legend, and Sutcliff doesn't ignore this. Her working in of Arthur is well done - appropriate and completely free of cheesiness. Also, this book is often classified as young adult literature, but I think that The Lantern Bearers proves that that is often a somewhat arbitrary division.

Comments

[holmes-iv.livejournal.com]

Such a good book! I stole my mom's copy a couple years ago, then loaned it to emilymorgan, who has yet to return it, come to think of it... but in case you're unaware, she does more than just work the legend in: there's a very large-scale (very not YA) sequel where she does the whole Arthur story, in the same Anglo-Roman setting, called Sword at Sunset. Well worth a read if you find a copy, though it's a much longer piece than Lantern Bearers.

[kenjari.livejournal.com]

The vast Boston Public Library (my primary source for reading material) does have a copy of Sword at Sunset. It must get read alot, because I've only seen it on the shelf a couple of times.