February 2004
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Review
This is the story of Merlin Lakin; an archeologist who mainly studies Mayan culture, but with the help of several friends and
acquaintances rediscovers the way Mayans traveled in time. Merlin originally intended to end up in ancient Guatemala, a
period where he might know something , but as you might of guessed from his name, he lands smack dab in the middle of
Arthurian legend and the fight for Briton. I do mean Briton as in 4th through 6th centuries and not the Britain of shiny
armour and jousting fame. The author is adamant on distilling the legend of Arthur down to its nascent historic truth. The
problem is that he does a horrible job at it. He certainly tries to convey the idea. But usually by giving a character a
throw away line about Merlin stinking after he comes back from his extended stays in the past. While we are there, Mr. Burch
is not descriptive of anything.
As a matter of fact, Burch isn't really descriptive at all. The most glaring example of this is that after 60 pages of story with no more than 500 words devoted to cultivating a relationship with Merlin's love interest Vivian, they have their first argument. It's a terse exchange with gems of dialog such as:
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"Wait a minute. Don't be so snippy." "Why shouldn't I be?" "Aren't you happy here?" "No. Not really" |
Confused? So was I. Vivian feels that ,even though we had not been aware of it before, she is doing all the work of developing a time machine and Merlin is getting all the credit. She feels that he should step down in favor of her as project director because her skills in physics are integral to temporal mechanics and they can always get someone else who knows about ancient culture.
She's exactly right.
You might think what Merlin brings to the table is, his expertise. However, the only mention of any great aptitude on the subject of archeology is for his older "colleague" Adrian, who is "showered with recognition" and makes important advances through the use of his beloved technology. Whereas Merlin seems to either pour over ancient tomes while complaining about how his sinuses suffer in the pollution that passes for air in metropolitan DC or, in true Ludite fashion, pine for better days in the purity of the jungles of Guatemala.
"Okay" you might counter, "He found out how the Mayans discovered time travel." No, again that's Adrian. Merlin's older "colleague" prefers a shadowy professional existence because he does not like the publicity. The only reasons that Merlin is overseeing the project and is its premier guinea pig are his connections to the institute funding the machine and the fact his name is Merlin.
When the device is finished, he makes a few forays into the past. First alone and in the fairly recent past. Then with others back into the Civil War where the group learns two valuable lessons. Number one is get your own medical staff when time jumping because an ER doctor is usually leery of any excuse you might have when they pull a minie ball out of your shoulder. Number two is get your own medical staff when time jumping because you might need to be immunized for some viral strain no one has seen in 140 years.
Hold on now, here it comes. Up until this point there was no real clue that the focus will shift from the Mayan to the Arthurian, but anyone seeing the cover of the book where a sword engraved with the word "Excalibur" is prominently displayed, might come to that conclusion without any further knowledge. That the main character of the book is the namesake of Arthur's most trusted advisor is just gravy.
In the midst of a call to abolish the monarchy, the people of Britain are rioting, King Charles has abdicated the throne. (No mention of Queen Elizabeth). Prince William has opted to be coronated under his middle name and becomes King Arthur II. The King and the NSA have decided that using the top secret project is a good way to validate the new reign to all the Yvonne Sparrows and Ron Wheatcrofts of Britain. This is because the Windsors can link their family back to Cerdac, who may or may not be the illegitimate son of the King Arthur of legend. The idea is to prove a link between Arthur I and Arthur II. This is a big problem for me.
For the team to prove a link between the two, they must provide credible evidence to anybody who doesn't believe them. However, since the time machine is top secret, the group cannot tell anybody how they get their evidence. "You've got King Arthur's DNA? Riiight. . . How'd you get it?" This being the first book in a series, the matter isn't resolved by the end of the story. But, If I had to guess, the author will most likely provide some irrefutable proof of the link between the two kings. I'm not guessing as to whether or not I would believe that time travel was necessary to prove it.
Burch doesn't tell us what Merlin did to prepare to go back in time to Briton. My guess is he saw Back to the Future and
took note of Dr. Brown's insistence that the continuity of the timeline be upheld. I know this because
WHEN MERLIN GOES BACK
TO FIND ARTHUR, HE GOES WITH A SANDWICH, BAG OF CHIPS, A DR PEPPER, AND A WALKING STICK WITH A
{DR EVIL AIR QUOTES}LASER
{/DR EVIL AIR QUOTES} IN IT. HE THEN WALKS AROUND THE COUNTRYSIDE MEETING PEOPLE AND SAYING "HI! MY NAME'S MERLIN." WHEN HE AND
A FEW OTHERS ARE ACOSTED BY SOME BAD GUYS AND MERLIN DISPATCHES THEM WITH HIS
{DR EVIL AIR QUOTES}LASER
{/DR EVIL AIR QUOTES}
HE IS ASTONISHED TO FIND OUT HE ACTUALLY IS THE REAL MERLIN.
With all of this attention to detail can you really blame him?
In all fairness, the laser is introduced as a tool to help Merlin get from the past back to the present. However, the thing quickly becomes an artifact of deus ex machina. Merlin uses it for its intended purpose, then as a weapon of self defense as described earlier, and finally as a piece of heavy artillery when he uses the laser to strike a fort and burn it to the ground.
What follows is Merlin taking part in some of the well known stories of the mythos interspersed with Merlin returning to modern times. All of it reads as a synopsis. When describing a battle, the author usually gives formations and numbers of troops, rarely giving us a point of view character in the middle of it. When Merlin is back in modern times, there are references to a love triangle of a man named Chac, a woman named Adelina and the male wedge between them Quetzel Coatl. However, there is hardly any ink devoted to the relationship. The developments there are usually described by a third or fourth party. And, most importantly, Adelina, who is minimalisticlly described as "an olive skinned beauty with long straight black hair", has absolutely no dialog.
This is the biggest problem with the book. Burch has a story he should take 600-700 pages to tell. Yet he takes roughly 300 to tell it. And that with less lines per page than most other books we've read as a group. so its more like 250 pages. If he was more descriptive, I might be inclined to suspend my disbelief for everything I've described above. I might not think so poorly of the scene where EVERY SINGLE TIME he is back in the modern age he and Vivian have coitus interrupts via a single character Annie. Only to discover afterwards that they are both too tired to carry on. Whereas I would say relieving the blue balls takes precedence over sleep any day. But I'll also admit that's just me.
On a side note, You might be interested that the fact that Quetzal is named after the feathered serpent of the Aztec's is not, as Sr. Coatl puts it, purely coincidental. As a mater of fact Merlin's last name is Lakin. And Lakin is the name of a sorcerer in a Mayan myth similar to the story of Arthur. Burch uses it in the book early on to get to a point to reveal the Mayan secret of time travel where he mentions the sorcerer Lakin but doesn't connect him to the character, even though the character's last name had been used before this. He's also using this as foreshadowing if you hadn't gotten it yet.
The Author seems to be writing a story connecting the Mayan and the Arthurian. Coatl goes so far as to state he believes that Arthur is Kukulkan, a mythic king of the Mayans. There are more similarities. Burch says in the afterward that only 4 characters are totally made up. In fact, most of the character's names have some mythical root. Burch seems to believe that there is a connection between the two periods. And, this is the most interesting thing about the book, but it's not enough to make me want to read the second one.