Digital List Price:	$14.99
Kindle Price:	$9.99 Save $5.00 (33%)
Sold by:	Amazon.com Services LLC

Read with our free app

You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.

Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

There was an error. We were unable to process your subscription due to an error. Please refresh and try again.

Follow the author

Diana L. Paxson

+ Follow

More books from this author

The Hallowed Isle: The Book of the Spear Kindle Edition

by Diana L. Paxson (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.2 28 ratings

Book 2 of 4: Book of the Sword/Diana L. Paxson, Bk 1

See all formats and editions

Destiny lies in the clashing of magic steel. The hope of all Britain rests in the hands of the warrior sons.

A Saxon of royal blood, Oesc has fled the drowned, doomed country to which he is heir in order to claim rich lands in Britannia. Though sworn to the spirits of his new home, he truly serves an older god...and a darker sorcery: the power of the Spear. But the Spear's magic is opposed by that of the Sword of Rome, a weapon now wielded by young King Artor, and before him by Artor's father Uthir. In Uthir's hand, the blade slew Oesc's own father, and now vengeance burns fiercely in Oesc's heart--a lust for revenge that could destroy a greatness before it fully flowers.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This addition to the Matter of Britain is an omnibus volume of the first two (of four) novels in Diana L. Paxson's Hallowed Isle series. The first novel begins in the chaos of early fifth century Britain: the Roman legions have left, and the Romano-British aristocracy, along with various Picts and Scotti, and a few assorted Teutonic tribes, are circling the power vacuum like vultures. The heart of the matter is, of course, Arthur (or Artor, as he is known here). Paxson surrounds Artor with all the usual suspects--Cei, Merlin, Betiver and so on--and sends him down the by-now standard path to his destiny. Her Once and Future King is smart and likeable, has equally good sword and people skills, and loves to infuse his followers with his own personal vision of peace, unity, and civility for all. Where Paxson departs from the usual fare is in her consideration of the Saxons (and Angles and Jutes and Frisians, etc.) as people with their own goals and beliefs and lives, rather than as stock barbarians who exist only to destroy what is left of Roman civilization.

The sword and spear of the novel titles are totemic objects of the Romano-Britains (in particular Artor), and the Teutonic Myrgings (in the person of Oesc) respectively: humming with fantasical properties and mystical significance. Paxson uses them to full effect. There are battles (of will, of weapons, of religion), prophecies, and lots of intriguing historical tidbits. The author has obviously done her homework, and equally obviously relishes immersing her characters, and readers, in the dirt and poverty and epic heroism of a still not well-understood age. --Luc Duplessis

From School Library Journal

YA-Part two of a four-part Arthurian saga that focuses on the diverse and conflicting cultural groups occupying fifth-century Britain, this volume tells the story of Oesc, a Saxon warrior whose magical spear opposes Arthur's famous sword. Those who enjoyed the first book will not want to miss this continuation of Paxson's highly original version of the great legend.
Christine C. Menefee, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00BKZGNYG
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper Voyager (April 30, 2013)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 30, 2013
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3934 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 212 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #434,076 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #487 in Arthurian Fantasy (Books)
- #673 in Sea Adventures Fiction (Books)
- #2,035 in Historical Fantasy (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
4.2 28 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Diana L. Paxson

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

I was brought up in southern California, but came north to attend Mills College and never left. I got my M.A. in (medieval) Comparative Literature from the University of California in 1966, the same year I put on the first tournament of what was to become the Society for Creative Anachronism. Since 1971 I've lived at Greyhaven, a hundred-year old house in Berkeley, with successive generations of family, friends, cats and dogs.

It's a literary family, including my husband, Jon DeCles, and the late Marion Zimmer Bradley, who was my mentor as a writer as well as colleague in founding Darkmoon Circle. My first published novel was Mistress of the Jewels, which began the chronicles of Westria. After I had written several historical fantasies, Marion, whose health deteriorated after she wrote Mists of Avalon, asked me to help her with The Forest House, which is how I ended up writing the Avalon series.

Much of the spiritual experience in my novels comes out of my work in the pagan community. I have now begun to publish that material in a series of non-fiction books, the most recent being Trance-Portation. My most recent novel is Sword of Avalon, set at the end of the Bronze Age, which gave me an opportunity to explore the end of the Homeric Age and the techniques of bronze- and iron-forging.

For more about my work, see:

www.westria.org

www.avalonbooks.net

www.seidh.org

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5

28 global ratings

1 star

0%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Candice Walker

The author is incredible

Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2022

Verified Purchase

Her fiction is well researched and she is an excellent writer.

Helpful

Stuart W. Mirsky

An Historically Intriguing Variant on the Arthurian Cycle

Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 1999

Although the British King Arthur has seen his tale told in very many ways, ranging from the high medieval to the archaic to the straight historic to the mostly fantastic, this one gives us the story as it might have come down to us via the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles themselves. The Anglo-Saxons, of course, are the Germanic folk antecedents of the later English who formed the bulk (if not the totality) of the modern British nation. And real English history begins with them, their exploits and kingships in the dark ages attending the Roman decline in the west. Their Chronicles record their first entry to the Island of Britain as well as the ebbs and flows of their victories as they gradually expanded and came to supplant the Romanized Celts (the Britons) who were their predecesors.

In later time, these Anglo-Saxons, these English came to recount the legends of their Island's past and among these legends was that of a British king who stood against invaders for a time to unite the fractious British in a single, glorious kingdom. Of course, this was the legendary King Arthur and among his foes (though not alone among them) were the Germanic tribes, their ancestors. Arthur's tales were retold and recorded among the Celtic people who remained in western Britain (Wales) as well as among the Celts of Brittany (along the rugged coast of today's France where many exiled Britons fled and settled). And from these two locales these tales entered the medieval lexicon and opus, via the French jongleurs and the Welsh, and later English, clerics.

The tales took many forms and "grew" a variety of characters and episodes, coming in time to incorporate a complex set of legends, sometimes more Welsh folktale, sometimes more naive history, sometimes anachronistic medieval adventures. But what they all had in common was the representation of a man (not clearly known to the historical record) who stood up to the tide of history for a time and established a royal court which later generations would look back on with wonder.

In the modern world, this cycle has spawned many retellings, including those which emphasize the magical elements and those which harp on the historical. But none, to my knowledge, ever focused on how this king and his following would have looked to the Germanic tribesmen who came, in time, to inherit his homeland and his mantle. None, that is, until this book. Diana Paxson's tale, in this volume, is the one of Arthur (Artor, here) as seen not through Roman or British eyes, but as his erstwhile enemies might have perceived him. It is the story from the Saxon point of view. Oesc, the son of Octha the son of Hengest (that historical Saxon mercenary who rebelled, according to the histories, against Arthur's predecessor British rulers and who claimed land in Britain for his own), is the central character here as he grows from frightened boy in the old Saxon lands, awash with the encroaching sea, into a young man, first as part of a new Jutish colony on the British coast and then as war-hostage at Arthur's court.

Oesc finds a soul mate of sorts in the noble young Artor and this tale recounts his growth and coming of age in a time when men's lives were short for the strife and rough living they must endure. It is more Oesc's tale than Artor's, as it should be, and it vividly recaptures the sense of the earliest Saxon inhabitants of the Island of Britain. One can see the Germanic folk of the Old Chronicles sharply here, both as they struggle on the fast eroding shores of their old, inhospitable homeland and as they strive to re-root themselves in the land which was to belong to their descendants. Here in America we sometimes forget that other people also colonized their lands in the past (that's how all nations got founded afterall, and most found others to displace -- a somewhat distasteful remembrance, given the harsh realities attendant on that). Britain, England, is no different in that sense from America. And so Oesc grows up to lead his folk, one of the Saxon tribes, in their ongoing struggle with the indigenous British.

In Arthur's time the Saxons were successful to the extent that they secured a permanent foothold on the British lands (though you can't always tell this from the tone and content of the old British tales) but Arthur, if he indeed lived, or his more historical compatriots, contained the Saxons through a number of historically remembered victories. But the Saxon tide in the land was inexorable and the Germanic folk gradually shoved their way across the island, squeezing the British into their mountain fastnesses or into the peninsula of Cornwall, or north into Scotland, or overseas to Ireland or Britanny. They took their tales with them, these exiled Celts, hence the Arthurian cycle, reclaimed in later days by the latter day English.

But Paxson goes the medieval English one better, turning the tale into a part of the Anglo-Saxon expansion as recorded in the Chronicles which remember the early Germanic heroes and war-leaders who gave way, in time, to the English kings, who were themselves finally overthrown by their Danish and Norse kinsmen -- and, still later, and with more finality, by the Norman French (who were themselves of Norse, therefore, Germanic, descent). If I have a quibble or two with Paxson it's that her tale seems too brief with not much in the way of plot structure or depth of characterization, especially of the British. Artor seems as he always does, bigger than life, noble and heroic, but barely there, while his companions seem to be little more than names. This, of course, is the tale of Oesc and his kind who are more vividly drawn and here the Germanic flavor is fully realized. Yet I'd have preferred to see more of the strains between the two sides, more pushing and pulling if you will. But the end is deeply moving as we see the hero fulfill a destiny which only those close to their roots and the seemingly spiritual forces of their heritage can embrace without deep regret. And yet we regret the loss, the waste which this forces upon our consciousness although it is plain that this path is the one we all trod, wasteful or not, in the end. -- Stuart W. Mirsky The King of Vinland's Saga

44 people found this helpful

Helpful

K. Freeman

Fun reading, but adds nothing new

Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2000

If you've read the works of Rosemary Sutcliff and Gillian Bradshaw, as well as perhaps Bradley's The Mists of Avalon, you've read this book only better done. The only element which Paxson adds to the Arthurian story is her greater understanding of Saxon culture and magic. She does a good job of basing her reconstruction on near-contemporary texts, and is an engaging, though not "literary", writer. I'd recommend her other books, but this one is only for Arthur fans who can stand to hear the same thing yet again.

22 people found this helpful

Helpful

David Filipello

This beginning of another Arthurian tale is excellent!

Reviewed in the United States on October 29, 1999

I loved it! Character development was great. Unlike other tales this one gives an angle to the story from a fresh new perspective. I could not put it down and cannot wait for the sequels to follow. Very exciting and adventurous.

8 people found this helpful

Helpful

Linda Yoder

Wonderful

Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2020

Verified Purchase

I will continue the series with affection for its author. Marvelous retelling of the Arthurian legend. A perspective quite different from some tales, but highly satisfying.

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

ms

hard read

Reviewed in Germany on October 7, 2013

Verified Purchase

This book is collecting dust in my book shelf for almost 12 years now. I bought it back then because I loved Marion Zimmer Bradley's work and Diana L. Paxson allegedly continued her work (and as far as I remember co-authored her last books).
Over the years I started to read it several times but never managed to go further than a couple of pages. First I thought it was my lacking english skills, but over the years I think I improved that pretty well....
So I think that Ms. Paxson's style of writing just didn't suit me, I fought to finish every sentence and had to reread it over and over because once I finished I already forgot the beginning.
Maybe I'll give it another shot in a couple of years...

Buy for others

Buying and sending eBooks to others

Follow the author

Image Unavailable

The Hallowed Isle: The Book of the Spear Kindle Edition

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

From School Library Journal

Review

From the Back Cover

About the Author

Product details

Videos

About the author

Diana L. Paxson

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries