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Author: Bernard Cornwell
ISBN : B000OYEWME
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Format: PDF, EPUB
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From internationally bestselling author Bernard Cornwell comes the eagerly anticipated sequel in his acclaimed Grail Quest series, in which a young archer sets out to avenge his family's honor on the battlefields of the Hundred Years' War and winds up on a quest for the Holy Grail.
1347: a year of war and unrest. England's army is fighting in France, and its absence encourages the Scots to invade the old enemy. Thomas of Hookton, sent back to England to follow an ancient trail that suggests his family once owned the Holy Grail, instead becomes embroiled in the savage fight when the Scots come to Durham. Out of the horror he finds a new companion for the quest but also discovers a new and sinister enemy in a Dominican Inquisitor.
All Europe wants the grail. Many may doubt it even exists, but no one would willingly allow an enemy to find Christendom's most precious relic, and Thomas finds himself in a murderous race with the Inquisitor and with Guy de Vexille, the mysterious black rider who murdered Thomas's father (in The Archer's Tale).
Thomas appears to have an advantage in the race. His father bequeathed him a mysterious notebook that confirms the grail's existence and offers clues to where the relic might be hidden. But his rivals, inspired by a fanatical religious fervor, have their own advantage—the torture chamber of the Inquisition. Thomas, seeking help to decipher the book's cryptic pages, is delivered instead to his worst enemies.
He finds refuge in Brittany, with Jeanette, the Countess of Armorica, but fate will not let him rest. He is thrust into one of the bloodiest and most desperate fights of the Hundred Years' War, the Battle of la Roche-Derrien, and amid the flames, arrows, and butchery of that night, he faces his enemies again.
Books with free ebook downloads available Epub Vagabond (The Grail Quest, Book 2) [Kindle Edition]
- File Size: 593 KB
- Print Length: 692 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0060517433
- Publisher: HarperCollins e-books (October 13, 2009)
- Sold by: HarperCollins Publishers
- Language: English
- ASIN: B000OYEWME
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,550 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #96
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure > War & Military
- #96
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure > War & Military
Epub Vagabond
Vagabond is the second book in the Thomas of Hookton saga (now called the "Grail Quest Series") by Bernard Cornwell. It confirms what I said in reviewing The Archer's Tale: that Thomas is an engaging picaresque hero and a worthy successor to Richard Sharpe, central character of Cornwell's earlier series on the Napoleonic Wars. Thomas is an English archer through whose eyes we witness numerous battles early in the Hundred Years' War. He is also the illegimate son of the Hookton priest who was, strangely enough, a member of the French nobility and the keeper of a mysterious relic. We left Thomas in The Archer's Tale, shortly after the battle of Crecy, still seeking his cousin Guy de Vexille, Count of Astarac, who years earlier had murdered his father and destroyed the village of Hookton.
In Vagabond, Thomas has returned to Britain on a mission for Edward III to discover the whereabouts of his father's relic and to determine whether it is truly the Holy Grail of legend. The book begins in 1347 at the battle of Neville's Cross, a triumph of English bowmen over a superior force of Scots who invaded Britain on behalf of their French allies. It ends back in Brittany after the siege of La Roche-Derrien. In the course of the story Thomas runs afoul of a vicious English knight nicknamed Scarecrow, the Inquistion ( which is also on the Grail's trail), not to mention his cousin and several enemy armies. Along the way his wife-to-be and several friends are killed. Thomas, like Sharpe, seems to lead a charmed life, but those around him are not so lucky.
Vagabond is first-rate historical fiction, chock-a-block full of gory medieval warfare set in vividly-described English and Breton landscapes.
If we were taught history the way Bernard Cornwell writes it, we'd all be historians. "Vagabond", the middle of Cornwell's superb "Grail Quest" series, is as raucous, brutal and riveting as the best contemporary thrillers, yet manages to stay close to the historical record, slashing and burning life and meaning into the early days of what would later be called "The Hundred Year's War". I was mesmerized by the prequel, "The Archers Tale", finding it the most illuminating and insightful primer of Medieval England found between pages. But after reading "Vagabond", I'm convinced that only a time machine could deliver a more vivid description of love, war, politics, and religion in those turbulent, treacherous times.
Back from "Archer" is Thomas of Hookton, the English archer whose black-yew bow makes widows of enemies while he is half-heartedly seeking the Holy Grail, part of his family's history that Thomas would prefer didn't exist. Instead, he continues on a more personal quest, hunting down his murderous cousin Guy Vexille who torched Thomas' village and murdered his father while seeking the Grail for himself.
In "Vagabond", it is 1347 and Cornwell resumes his tale in northern England. King Edward III, still in France holding down his conquests in Normandy and Brittany, has apparently left his northern flank exposed, inviting the Scots, with some prodding from their French allies, to stream into a vulnerable England. Cornwell's description of the very real Battle of Neville's Cross between the Scots and an outmanned English army is a literary classic, from the strategy and tactics to the stink and gore of war fought helmet-to-helmet and shield-to-shield in violence and carnage simply unimaginable in today's gentler times.