Sep 04, 2001 10:03 AM
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Harlequin - probably derived from the Old French hellequin: a troop of the devil’s horsemen. This is one of the inscriptions on the page preceding the prologue, aimed at titillating the browsing customer, which it did to some extent in my case.
Having just finished the first three books of CJ Cherryh’s Galasien series, a difficult but rewarding task, I picked this book up in the library recently, hoping for some light entertainment. This was with a degree of trepidation, as it’s not that long since I read the rather dire Stonehenge by the same author. So was it any better?
Harlequin is set at the start of the Hundred Year war in Europe and begins on the South coast of England in 1342. Tom is a young lad with a keen eye for archery and the ladies. He’s also the central character of the book. Unluckily for him, he sees most of his village slain by marauding Normans in the opening pages. They attack the village of Hookton to steal the lance that St George reputedly slew the Dragon of English legend with. This has been guarded by Tom’s father, the strange (In that he is educated and slightly mad to boot) village priest. His fathers’ dying words imply that the leader of the marauders, the Harlequin, is Tom’s cousin and thus Tom is set on his course to seek, albeit in a lukewarm fashion, some revenge. Several years later and Tom is a successful mercenary in France, under the banner of King Edward the Third of England. Fighting as an archer, the scourge of the French in that period, he belongs to a small mercenary company that rampages through the countryside in what Cornwell refers to as a form of medieval carpet bombing. That is to say, when they aren’t laying siege they’re destroying the lifeblood of the Country and as such are referred to by some of the French as the Hellequin. Ooh, I hear you cry, big lashings of irony from Bernard there, perhaps the book is going to be all deep and meaningful. Well don’t build your hopes up. Despite his having spent a year at Oxford University and being able to speak French, Tom’s tale is not particularly stimulating in an intellectual sense.
The rest of the book follows Toms half-hearted attempts to find his Fathers killer and retrieve the mysterious lance, whilst trying to stay alive in spite of himself. The story is enlivened by several engaging subplots, including the obligatory bit part baddie, Sir Simon, whose self-interested actions are often at loggerheads with Tom’s purpose. There are also a couple of token women, one a raven headed vixen with a heart of stone who fights the English out of misguided greed, the other a camp follower. When you weigh up these ingredients and throw in Cornwell’s past history, you have a book that screams out TV adaptation. And very deliberately, I would say. And with real potential to be very successful, should a decent production company get hold of it. The series of books this belongs to is called the Grail Quest. The jacket blurb includes the enthralling – “And this shadowy enemy (Harlequin) could harness the power of Christendom’s greatest relic, the grail itself.” This is both misleading and disappointing, if like me you find the grail as subject matter fascinating. Even generously allowing for this one being just the opener in a series, the Grail is only mentioned a few times. Initially when Tom gets lumbered with searching for the mythical bowl, and subsequently when he’s sulking about his mountainous quest. Of which he is too often reminded by his fellow mercenary, Father Hobbe. After all, he likes killing, drinking and womanising quite a lot, so why should he be interested in playing out Arthurian re-enactments? Especially when he’s an archer, who collectively spit in contempt at the stupidity of the brainless nobility doing their knightly bit.
You must be starting to think I didn’t like this book. Well that isn’t the case really as it only took two days to read to rattle through the 370 pages and towards the end I couldn’t put it down. Despite the simplistic style it’s written in, Cornwell has made the characters interesting enough, and the plot not too obvious. The best part of the story for me was the battle of Crecy, which was done both entertainingly and with a sense of reality. This is a piece of genuine history (As is most of the story) that it was nice to grips with, and the events leading up to it along with the terrible mistakes made by the French, who had overwhelming odds on their side, are told with clarity and skill. Unfortunately, in my opinion, Cornwell is nowhere near as good at conveying the horror of battle, the technicalities of the equipment and the sheer bloodiness as my best read of late, Mary Gentle in her epic novel, Ash. Which although being set about 100 years later, also shares a background of mercenaries, chivalry and mystique. Gentle though, goes full tilt at the lot. You can tell indisputably that her work has been painstaking, whereas Cornwell is a pale second, almost a churner, next to her. Having said all that, the story is remains quite readable, despite its occasionally clumsy plot, and the series may well turn out to be a classic in its own way.
So would I recommend Harlequin? Yes is the answer, and furthermore it knocks Stonehenge into a tin hat. Well, it would if they’d had tin hats 4,000 years ago. I’ll definitely be keeping my eye out for the next in the series, as Harlequin was one of those books that’s great to read between times. If you’re an avid reader with flu this will be ideal, as it won’t tax a woolly brain too much. Also, if you like Cornwell’s work in general you shouldn’t be disappointed. I’ve read seven or eight of his and this is one of the better ones. I know I only gave it a three, but three and a half would probably be a fairer rating.
