Paladins - Joel Rosenberg

[Diamond]

A new fantasy/AH from the guy that wrote the 'Guardians of the Flame' series. Paladins is set in a world where Mordred defeated Arthur and founded a Kingdom that is still standing in the 17th century and controls a vast empire.

I just bought it, haven't started it yet, but it looks verrry interesting... And a sequel is due in hardcover next week.

 

[Michael B]

A new fantasy/AH from the guy that wrote the 'Guardians of the Flame' series. Paladins is set in a world where Mordred defeated Arthur

The earliest record of the Battle of Camlann in which Arthur and Mordred fell does not say which side they were on so they could have conceivably been fighting side by side!!

It is only some centuries later that he is portrayed as a villain and upurser of the crown. The trouble with this picture of him is if he were such a rogue why did Arthur leave the realm in his control when he went on his French expedition?

 

[Diamond]

From what I can gather, in this TL, Arthur was a baby-eating Villain, and Mordred was the Good Guy who overthrew him. Like I said, I haven't read it yet, but hell, at least it's something different from run-of-the-mill AH.

 

[Merrick]

Read, liked it, but it's more Fantasy-with-a-twist than true AH - the AH material is more flavour than anything else and not gone into in any great depth. In particular, the Arthur/Mordred backstory is (almost) irrelevant to the main plot.

 

[Count Dearborn]

Well, according to the stories of King Arthur, when he found out about Mordred, the king pulled a "Slaughter of the Innocents" to get rid of Mordred.

 

[iopgod]

Well, according to the stories of King Arthur, when he found out about Mordred, the king pulled a "Slaughter of the Innocents" to get rid of Mordred.

I think rosenburg is giving us a bit of "the victors write the history"... in the Paladins ATL Mordred beats Arthur, so Mordred is remebered as "the Great" instead of "Arthur's treacherous bastard" and Arthur "the Tyrant and BabyKiller" as opposed to a brief bright shining moment.

Paladins isnt really ATL, except in the same way as the Lord Darcy stories are... and I agree that the Arthur/Mordred backstory is basically irrelevent to the plot.

 

[Michael B]

Well, according to the stories of King Arthur, when he found out about Mordred, the king pulled a "Slaughter of the Innocents" to get rid of Mordred.

According to Mary Stewart in "The Wicked Day", it is King Lot who is the baby killer, but Arthur still gets tarred with it.