The Reckoning, by Sharon Kay Penman

The Reckoning
Sharon Kay Penman

I am very sorry to report that I have now finished reading all of the books in Sharon Kay Penman's trilogy about the strife between the English crown and the Welsh from King John to Edward I, from Llewelyn the Great to his grandson, Llewelyn ap Griffydd. I did not read them one after another, but nevertheless, it will be hard not to have these people I have come to know, to love in some cases and to hate in others, in my daily life.

In this final novel, there was so much to wrap up with the fortunes of the de Montfort family and the royal house of Wales that at first I feared that was all the novel would be, a sort of superbly written denouement. It proved to be much more, though it cannot have had the single focus of the first two. Here Be Dragons was the story of Llewelyn and Joanna first and foremost, and Falls the Shadow was clearly focused on Simon de Montfort and his fight for a better goverbment in England. The Reckoning is several stories, the further adventures of the de Montfort boys and the love story of their sister Eleanor and Llewelyn's grandson, also named llewelyn. The plus is that the several characters involved in these two stories, the de Monrtfort sons and Llewelyn, Eleanor and his fractious brother Davydd, are such well drawn and compelling characters that the reader will not mind the string of connected yet separate tales to get to know them.

Penman has a highly developed abilitiy to stick to history and yet write a heck of a great story. I don't want to risk a spoiler, but not handled well, the dramatic events of the end of the novel, one coming after another as they did in real life, could not have been better crafted into a satisfying and well dramatized story. I have long admired Penman's ability to create a sort of linking character, in this case a largely fictionalized Hugh who can bring the characters, events and stories together. I was not as attached to Hugh as I was to her earlier linking characters, but he worked to the purpose anyway. I was afraid near the end that Hugh and Caitlin would get in the way of the story, but I was wrong. Pennman uses them to bring it all together at the end in an understated manner that i appreciated.

This novel was finished in 1991. I have read novels Penman wrote since then, but not all of them. I wonder if a device she used in this and earlier novels has gotten out of her system. There are regular and numerous scenes where a cut to another place and person is followed by a literal knock on the door, heralding a messenger with usually terrible news. Nothing wrong with a scene like that. Penman uses it to catch one up with what the other characters have been up to and does it darn well. But it happens so often that I found myself thinking, "Now, keep your trews on, you guys, because there's a message about some powerful bad news a-coming." A terrific novel like Penman's should not start to become comic unintentionally.

That is a minor problem, however, and probably something she's outgrown, and all in all The Reckoning is a wonderfully compelling and well told tale I would recommend to anyone and everyone. Penman has a healthy approach to the history in her historical novels. You can count on accuracy where it matters and yet find yourself lost in the speculative illustration the author adds to make her magic.

I listened to The Reckoning on National Library Service cassettes (RC 36863). It is also available from Bookshare.org in text and Braille for eligible persons. It is, of course, also available in the UK. I am sorry to say it does not appear to be abailable on Kindle or from Audible.com or BooksOnTape.com. It is only available in English.