Merlin & Arthur: The Awakening - A New Review

  

A new review for

Merlin & Arthur: The Awakening

Have just enjoyed another epic story from Bob Stegner: Merlin & Arthur, The Awakening. Loved the way it jumped between the different characters and timeline. I am not keen on blood and gore, so this simple trick, kept me on board and enthralled. Having experienced tears towards the end of Black Grotto, I did not expect to have more with this story. How wrong could I have been. The last couple of chapters, had me tissues in hand, and struggling to read through the tears. Thank you for weeks of happy reading. On a final note, considering that this story was written pre 2020, and published early 2020, is it just coincidental that it is about a pandemic? Or is Mr Stegner actually a Seer?

The third and final book of the Alban Saga is being written!

As Of Today, My Blog Is Being Read In 81 Countries!

Readers Around the World

  

I want to say hello to everyone around the world who is reading my blog! Readers from Fiji are the latest. They are the 81st country on the list! Welcome! 

Here's a complete list of the countries:

• United States
• Poland
• Ukraine
• France
• Turkey
• Germany
• Denmark
• China
• Russia
• United Kingdom
• Spain
• Netherlands
• Belgium
• Romania
• Taiwan
• Saudi Arabia
• Italy
• Canada
• Brazil
• Indonesia
• Mexico
• Vietnam
• Thailand
• Colombia
• Austria
• Macau
• Ireland
• India
• Singapore
• Moldova
• Pakistan
• Netherlands Antilles
• South Africa
• Philippines
• Czech Republic
• Finland
• Malaysia
• Kenya
• Australia
• Estonia
• Japan
• United Arab Emirates
• Greece
• Nepal
• Bangladesh
• Switzerland
• Hungary
• Portugal
• Slovenia
• Bulgaria
• Israel
• Mongolia
• Puerto Rico
• Iraq
• Latvia
• Serbia
• Sweden
• Georgia
• Azerbaijan
• Iceland
• Croatia
• Egypt
• Algeria
• Turkmenistan
• Cypress
• South Korea
• Ecuador
• Kenya
• Ethiopia
• Kazakhstan
• Armenia
• Morocco
• Uzbekistan
• Madagascar
• Belarus
• Mozambique
• Albania
• Haiti
• Zimbabwe
• Uruguay
• Fiji

"Cure of Troy" by Seamus Heaney

 

"Seamus Heaney" by Burns Library, Boston College
Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Seamus Heaney is an Irish Nobel Laureate poet. He is one of President Biden's favorite Irish poets and one of mine as well. In honour of the inauguration today, here is a poem that President Biden is especially fond of.

THE CURE OF TROY

 

Human beings suffer.
They torture one another.

They get hurt and get hard.

No poem or play or song

Can fully right a wrong

Inflicted and endured.

 

History says, Don’t hope

On the side of the grave,’ 

But then, once in a lifetime 

The longed for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up
And hope and history rhyme.

 

So hope for a great sea-change

On the far side of revenge.

Believe that a further shore
Is reachable from here. 

Believe in miracles.
And cures and healing wells.

 

Call miracle self-healing,
The utter self revealing

Double-take of feeling.
If there’s fire on the mountain

And lightening and storm
And a god speaks from the sky

 

That means someone is hearing

The outcry and the birth-cry
Of new life at its term.
It means once in a lifetime 

That justice can rise up
And hope and history rhyme.

 

by Seamus Heaney 

CONSIDERING 2020

I was thinking about 2020 and all the worries and hard times. Then I found this Mary Oliver poem . . .

I Worried

by Mary Oliver

I worried a lot. Will the garden grow, will the rivers

flow in the right direction, will the earth turn

as it was taught, and if not how shall

I correct it?

Was I right, was I wrong, will I be forgiven,

can I do better?

Will I ever be able to sing, even the sparrows

can do it and I am, well,

hopeless.

Is my eyesight fading or am I just imagining it,

am I going to get rheumatism,

lockjaw, dementia?

Finally I saw that worrying had come to nothing.

And gave it up. And took my old body

and went out into the morning,

and sang.

SOME FUN NEWS!

 My new sci-fi/fantasy/international intrigue paperback MERLIN & ARTHUR: THE AWAKENING just made it to the upper 19% of all books about Merlin and Arthur on Amazon.com. I'm 460th out of 3000 books on that topic! I was excited about the achievement and wanted to share it with you!

Hope all of you have a wonderful holiday season!

🎉

I AM THANKFUL FOR MANY THINGS TODAY, BUT. . .WE MUST REMEMBER . . . .

 

Alban Saga Books I & II: Two New Reviews

 

A new review for

BEATRICE: BOOK I OF THE ALBAN SAGA

Finally, I have just finished Beatrice. Did not take too long to read, but had taken months to find the time! It is a great book. Bob guides you gently through the story. I hate books, where right at the start you are inundated with characters and information. You spend the next half dozen chapters, playing catch-up. This was different, a lovely gentle read, which took you through all the complex twists and turns of the story. Looking forward to reading the Black Grotto next. Happy days from Inverness.

A new review for

BLACK GROTTO

BOOK II OF THE ALBAN SAGA

Finished Black Grotto and what a fantastic read. Never expected to spend the last of it, in tears! Gripping from the beginning. Spent so many nights, thinking of the possible next twist or turn and normally, got it wrong. So looking forward to the last one.

The final book of the Alban Saga is being written!