Whyte wraps up The Golden Eagle in The Eagle, and I think it’s about time. The style is, as always, easy to read and Whyte does an admirable job of describing the military engagements that Clothar (Lancelot) participates in. Unfortunately, the book falls a little flat in two areas. Unlike the earlier works, the protagonist was kind of boring – he’s not creating a new colony, not leading that colony against invaders, and not creating one of the greatest heros in western legends. He’s just a second-in-command (at best) dispatched to deal with relatively minor events. Second, the book barely touches on the Arthur/Gwennifer/Clothar triangle – less than a tenth of the book has Clothar interacting with either of the other two. In fact, Gwennifer and Mordred don’t even show up until 2/3s of the way through. When I started A Dream of Eagles, I knew we weren’t going to see Arthur after becoming Riothamus, but I kept thinking we’d finally get to the famous triangle in The Golden Eagle, and I was disappointed with how things turned out.
Unless you’re a rabid Jack Whyte fan, I’d recommend stopping after The Sorcerer: Metamorphosis, or maybe Uther.