The Grail Quest: Vagabond - Bernard Cornwell

This equally impressive follow-up to HARLEQUIN, now also published in it's latest copy as AN ARCHER'S TALE, is the second installment of the three-part Grail Quest trilogy set around the time of the Hundred Years War. Once again we follow the feet of English Archer, Thomas of Hookton this time fighting against the Scots- who have been persuaded by the French that with many of her armies fighting the French armies overseas, England will be a sitting duck just ready to fall to the wild Scottish hoardes. Unfortunately, the King of England has forseen this happening and so the battle is not the whitewash that the Scots have been promised with many of their ...  Read the complete review

The second in Bernard Cornwell's Grail Trilogy, Vagabond, follows the continuing adventures of Thomas of Hookton, an archer in the English army and his supposed quest for the Holy Grail. I say supposed because, at times, the quest for the Grail seems the furthest thing away from Cornwell's mind, producing an interesting, but at times, frustrating book. One of my milder criticisms of the first book (Harlequin) was that the Grail Quest was completely forgotten in pursuit of a wider plot which took place against the backdrop of the start of the Hundred Years War. Cornwell just about got away with it in Harlequin because you could argue that all this extra ...  Read the complete review

'Vagabond' picks up where 'Harlequin' left off, chronicling the further adventures English archer Thomas Hookton in his quest for the grail and revenge for the death of his family. Following the defeat of the French at the battle of Crecy, Thomas returns to England to seek the knowledge of a dying monk on the whereabouts of the grail, but quickly becomes involved in repulsing a Scottish attack on the city of Durham. The skirmish is depicted with Cornwell's usual skill, evoking vivid images of wild, bedraggled men from the northernmost corners of the land waving claymores in amongst the melee. A number of Thomas' companions are killed off, to be replaced by ...  Read the complete review

This is a book for an incredibly wide range of readers! For the general and history loving readers Bernard (of?...sounds in keeping with the period...good name for a warrior monk) Cornwell's sequel to Harlequin was well worth waiting for. This is a story that is bitter sweet to read as you look forward to the next book, sadly aware that it will be the last in the trilogy. The significant players from Harlequin are all here, with more depth of character as Thomas of Hookton, the legal bastard of a cleric from an old established aristocratic line, continues his search for the Holy Grail amidst the background of yet another successful 14th Century ...  Read the complete review