Jack Whyte

Jack Whyte (born 1940) is a Scottish-Canadian novelist of historical fiction. Born and raised in Scotland, Whyte has been living in Canada since 1967. He resides in Kelowna, British Columbia.

Whyte's major work to date is the A Dream of Eagles series (as it is titled in Canada, but known as The Camulod Chronicles in the United States and elsewhere). This series of historical novels presents the tale of King Arthur set against the backdrop of Roman Britain. This retelling of the popular legend eschews the use of magic (as in T. H. White’s The Sword in the Stone) to explain Arthur’s ascent to power and instead relies on the historical condition (with some artistic licence) of post-Roman Britain to support the theory that Arthur was meant to counter the anarchy left by the Roman departure from Britain in 410 AD and the subsequent colonization and invasion of Britain by various peoples from Northwestern Europe, including the Saxons, Jutes, Franks, and Angles. Whyte incorporates both traditional Arthurian names, places and events (albeit in Gaelic or Latin form) as well as the names of various historical figures that have been suggested as being the possible basis for the original King Arthur legend. The tacit implication is that Whyte's version of history is the true story that has become distorted over time to become the legend and stories of magic that we know today.

Jack Whyte served as the official bard of The Calgary Highlanders and performed several tracks of poetry and song on the 1990 recording by the Regimental Pipes and Drums of The Calgary Highlanders entitled Eighty Years of Glory: The Regimental Pipes, Drums and Bard of The Calgary Highlanders.^[1]

Camulod Chronicles

A Dream of Eagles (Camulod Chronicles)

• The Skystone
• The Singing Sword
• The Eagles' Brood
• The Saxon Shore
• The Sorcerer Part 1: The Fort at River's Bend
• The Sorcerer Part 2: Metamorphosis

The two volumes The Sorcerer: The Fort at River’s Bend and The Sorcerer: Metamorphosis were written as a single volume entitled The Sorcerer but were split for publication.

Golden Eagle (companion mini-series)

• Clothar the Frank (titled The Lance Thrower outside of Canada)
• The Eagle

Other

• Uther is a stand-alone novel about the life of Uther Pendragon from infancy up until the end of events in The Eagles' Brood. It serves to answer lingering questions left open by The Eagles' Brood that result from the fact that the latter is told exclusively from the perspective of Merlyn Britannicus and as such is not able to explain actions and events of which Merlyn is unaware. In this way, Uther is also an effective companion novel to The Eagles' Brood as it follows the title character and others as they grow up and wage war on Uther's main enemy, Guhlrys Lot, King of Cornwall.

The Templar Trilogy

• Knights of the Black and White (released August 1, 2006 in Canada)
• Standard of Honor (released August 28, 2007 in Canada)
• Order in Chaos (released in August 2009)

The Guardians of Scotland

• The Forest Laird (2010)
• The Renegade (2012)
• The Guardian (2014)

Legends of Camelot

• Excalibur (2013)
• The Boy King (2013)
• The Sorcerer (2013)
• Lancelot (2013)
• The Last Stand (2013)
• Merlyn: Arthur the Son - Book I (2014)
• Pendragon: Arthur the Son - Book II (2014)
• War of the Celts: Arthur the Legend - Book I (2014)
• The Round Table: Arthur the Legend - Book II (2014)

Short fiction

Though primarily a novelist, Whyte has also written and published at least one short story:

• "Power Play" in Paradox Magazine, issue 8 (Winter 2005-2006), an exploration of the nature of power, set in Roman Jerusalem.

References

Further reading

• A Way with Words in Okanagan Life Magazine (includes a profile of Whyte)

External links

• Official website for Jack Whyte. Includes biography, bibliography, book excerpts, radio interview transcripts, and an active fan forum.
• Jack Whyte's now defunct blog at the penguin.ca website at the Wayback Machine (archived January 8, 2006). Includes questions by readers and Whyte's answers to those questions, as well as general observations by Whyte.
• Jack Whyte: one pen, one sword, one million sold Feature article about Jack Whyte published in the Globe and Mail, Sept 2, 2009
• Jack Whyte at Fantasy Literature
• Jack Whyte at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database