Rory D Nelson

“The Brotherhood of Merlin” by Rory D Nelson is an Arthurian fantasy novel detailing an epic battle of Merlin and his brotherhood attacking an army of nine thousand Visi-Gauls.

While I typically love stories of Merlin, King Arthur, and the Knights of the Roundtable, this story wasn’t really the type of book I generally gravitate toward. “The Brotherhood of Merlin” begins with a family whose patriarch seems to be one of Michael’s fallen angels. After the family flees from an attack, the story line drastically shifts to the progress of Visi-Gaul King Jason as his army attacks several villages on his quest to take a port town and the kingdom. The shift in the story was abrupt and confusing, and even once the brotherhood’s path crosses with the boy from the beginning, the two narratives were unnecessary and completely disjointed.

There are many gory battle scenes and graphic descriptions of violence surrounding rape and plunder. These scenes were the only times that Nelson really detailed what was happening and even so, the characters were never properly developed in order to understand where all of the aggression might stem from. King Jason in particular was extremely narcissistic and cruel, but it felt like there were a lot of underlying emotions that could’ve explained and helped to define him. While the battles were gory, albeit repetitive, none of the more mundane interactions that could’ve developed the story merited history, explanation, or detail.

Nelson set up the novel with phrases that might have been attributed to the time period of the knights, but was forced and he struggled to maintain it as the language continuously fluctuated and took on more modern expressions. “The Brotherhood of Merlin” began with a lot of potential, but fizzled out as quickly as the language shifted. Overall, the novel was unrealistic and confusing. It’s poised to be a series, which just makes me wonder why this first installment wasn’t broken down a bit further to make it more coherent and palpable.… (mehr)