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The Void Place (The Swithen Book 3) by [Scott Telek]

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Scott Telek

The Void Place (The Swithen Book 3) Kindle Edition

by Scott Telek (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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Merlin destroyed two lives to create one. But that one—is King Arthur. The classic legend is now a shocking, emotionally devastating psychological thriller, as the main character of our series is finally born.

“Makes the Arthurian legend readable and relatable for us.” —Alex S., Amazon Review

A striking modern take on the original legend, this novel remains faithful to the shocking events that begin the Arthurian legend with a cannon shot, while also offering a surprsingly modern recontextualization that confronts the gender and power issues inherent in the story. Far from any kind of pleasant fable of noble kings and lovely ladies, this is a nail-biting psychological thriller and a juicy, twisted love story rife with vicious hatreds, unforgiveable crimes and unexpected tenderness, set against a backdrop filled with magic and court intrigue.

“The Swithen series is an exciting new addition to modern Arthurian fiction. Too often, Arthurian characters become stick figures in modern retellings, but that is far from the case here.”
—Tyler Tichelaar, author; “Children of Arthur”

Merlin has taken over King Uther Pendragon’s life, leaving the king struggling to find his own voice—or if he has any control over his life at all. After an attempt at making his own decision fails spectacularly, Uther falls into obsession over the lovely (and married) Igraine, believing that only her love can fill the gaping hole in his life. What neither of them realize is that they are both falling right into Merlin’s devious plan, a plan that will leave both of their lives devastated, tear the young country apart—and give Merlin what he wants: a child born of nobility that he can mold into the future King Arthur.

The Swithen series is committed to remaining faithful to the actual Arthurian legend from 800 years ago, so you will know that as you read, you are learning the real stories of King Arthur and not some made-up tale. What the series does is add in the psychology of the characters and critically re-examine the morality of the time in a way that makes the story shockingly resonant in the present day.

“Between the [first] two books we can start to see how the author is tilting the story even as he remains faithful to the legends, and what he’s doing is creating credible—and very shaded and sometimes dark—psychologies for each of these people that bring them to life and make them relatable, while also supplying all the majesty and grand sweep we expect from King Arthur stories.” —Judy J., Amazon Review

You do not need to read books 1 and 2 in order to jump right into the riveting story of Arthur’s birth. This novel sets up the conflicts that will resonate throughout the rest of the Arthurian legend (and this series) and adds a surprising layer of suspense to events we thought we knew. You will meet future sorceress Morgan Le Fay at ten years old and her sister Margause, and find out why they vow to avenge their mother by destroying King Arthur in the decades to come. You will meet a young King Lot and see why he will make war on Arthur 15 years from now. And you will learn the heartbreaking tale of Ulfius, loyal friend to the ailing Uther, and future mentor to his son, the young Arthur.

Finally, you will experience an engrossing tale of lust, power, war and passion as we witness the fall of a king and the destruction of a lady, victims of Merlin’s single-minded focus on creating a man that will bend the country to his will—and become the greatest king Britain will ever know.

“Different than most [Arthurian literature]… rather than the typical magic and sweep of history and all that, this just shows them as real people. This is a very personal story, and one of the cool things about it is that you just get involved with the characters, and then you realize that THAT is MERLIN.” —RC., Amazon review of Book 1

Print length

408 pages
Language

English
Publication date

27 December 2018
Reading age

14 - 18 years
File size

3525 KB
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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07J5YP7JL
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3525 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 408 pages

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Scott Telek

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Scott Telek is exactly the kind of guy you would imagine spending over a decade reading and studying the different versions of the Arthurian legend, then devoting the rest of his life to writing the longest and most detailed telling of the Medieval King Arthur legend in existence.

His series The Swithen is committed to staying faithful to the actual Arthurian legend as laid down between the years 1136 and 1485. Too many King Arthur stories stray so far from the original Medieval sources, they lose the magic and mystery that made this saga so enduring in the first place. Telek's rule, and the challenge he has set for himself as a writer, is that he cannot change anything from the ancient story, he can only add or enhance scenes and characters, but anything he does add has to slot seamlessly into the existing story. In this way, when you read The Swithen, you can know that you are discovering the actual Arthurian legend and not some made-up story.

Telek has been a professional writer for over 30 years. His degrees are in English Literature and Psychology, both of which he brings to bear on turning blank archetypes such as Merlin, Arthur and Morgan le Fay into fully fleshed out charcacters with relatable flaws and emotions. He has also maintained a film review website (some of which you can find in books here), created films of his own and studied oil painting. He was born in Michigan, lived in New York City, Chicago, and is now a permanent resident of Ontario, Canada.

Telek's love of nature and ongoing interest in legend and folklore led into his obsession with the Arthurian legend. Discovering that most of us actually don't know many of the stories it contains, and that any telling would need to be longer, not shorter, in order to fully deliver the epic scope and majesty the saga deserves, he plotted out 25 novels... No making it up as we go! Five of them are out now, taking us from the birth of Merlin to Arthur's coronation as king. The Swithen offers readers an ongoing fantasy saga they can grow with over the next 20 or so years. And it just happens to be one of the greatest stories ever told.

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Katinka

Mom Kat Reads

Reviewed in the United States on 28 January 2019

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The epic tale of the legend of King Arthur, Merlin, and the Knights of the Round Table continues in this third instalment of the series. Uther Pendragon is the High King in this book, and his biggest problem seems to be that he feels that while he may be the king, his rule is determined primarily by the knowledge given to him by Merlin. As time goes on, he begins to see himself as no more than a pawn who is doing Merlin’s will without any choice in the matter of his own. He has come to believe that even his decisions were predetermined by the man who knows all that is to come and all that has come before. As such, is he really the king? How can he have free will if Merlin already knows everything he will do?

Doubting himself, he begins to resent Merlin and all that he represents. And he finds himself wishing to be free of the devil’s son to rule things as he would rather than in the manner that he believes was predetermined for him. Learning that the greatest achievement during his reign that he will accomplish is to hold the place for a great king to come, one he will never have the chance to meet, begins to send Uther into a state of depression from which it seems he is doomed to remain in until the end. After all, if he is meant to be nothing but a placeholder for someone else, how can any sort of greatness be his own?

But then he meets Igraine, the wife of one of his loyal knights. Igraine comes to represent everything that Uther wants but cannot have. She is truly in love with her husband and supports him in every way possible. Uther comes to believe that he can never be happy without her. He must have her love or he will surely perish. His obsession with the honorable wife of one of his knights nearly tears the kingdom apart. And for those familiar with what happens next in the legends surrounding Arthur’s conception, there is little surprise in how it comes to pass.

The actions and thoughts of the characters are very well portrayed in this book and certainly the best part of the story being told. We gain great insight into all of them and how they react to the circumstances surrounding their actions. I greatly enjoyed seeing how they played off of each other, as well as how they handled the feelings of being controlled and manipulated by those surrounding them.

There is a great deal more to this tale that I don’t want to spoil for you, for it is well worth reading. I have long loved reading stories about King Arthur and the rest of the round table, and this book as well as the series as a whole thus far is no exception. Arthur may not make an appearance until late in this story, but he will be a major part of the next book in the series. I am looking forward to seeing where Mr Telek takes this tale next on his journey through his series. It has been a very enjoyable tale thus far, and one that seems to improve with each book he adds to his series.

I have heard that Mr. Telek has an extensive 25 book plan for this series, and if the rest of them are as enjoyable as the three that I have been fortunate enough to read thus far, it should be quite an impressive series. I look forward to seeing where it goes from here as each successive book does seem to improve on what has gone before.

I hope you will give this one a chance, especially if like me you enjoy Arthurian tales. I know I’ll be waiting impatiently for the next book in the series to be released.

2 people found this helpful

H. Williams

An old, old story told with modern language and sensibility

Reviewed in the United States on 19 March 2019

Verified Purchase

"The Void Place" is the third shortish book in Scott Telek's modern re-telling of the King Arthur myth and is a moderately big step up in writing, storytelling, and motivation from the first two books. Even if you haven’t read the earlier books, Telek has included quick summaries and character outlines to catch you up (or remind you how we got to this point in the rather sizeable story). If you haven't read the first two books, that's OK - this is a good place to start.

In this book, Merlin the all-knowing wizard is still in charge but winds up taking a slight back seat as the good king Uther reigns over this thriving kingdom. Uther knows that Merlin controls everything, which becomes one of the central issues of the book: Does Merlin manipulate people to advance his wildly wide-ranging plan for England or does he do it to fulfill their destiny? In “The Void Place,” a number of the characters are brutalized to get to the point in history that Merlin wants or needs to fulfill his destiny.

The book revolves around Uther – with Merlin pulling his strings in the background, and introduces a few other inhabitants of the famous Round Table (which was physically created in book 2). These other characters include Ulfius, Uther’s trusted servant/knight; the hardworking and popular (but ultimately doomed) Riger; the handsome and clueless knight Gorlois, who is led into a senseless battle that he can’t win, Gorlois’ too-beautiful and too-pure wife, Igraine; and Gorlois’ and Igraine’s contrasting daughters, sweet Margause and creepy Morgan. Late in the book, two new characters appear: the innocent but important Knight Ector and his pregnant wife.

In an introduction to the book, Telek warns us that a central event in “The Void Place” is a rape. He works hard (perhaps too hard) to fall into line with modern attitudes toward women, sexuality, and rape. Especially with the number of well-drawn women throughout, “The Void Place” gains an almost feminist feeling that seems to offer the greatest contrast with the “real” story of King Arthur.

The writing is solid with realistic dialog and no hints of “ye olde thee and thou” or “kingly” speechifying. The motivations of the characters are filled out from the original tales so that they seem more real and not just mythic archetypes in armor and gauzy gowns. There’s also a modern sense of suspense as we wait to see how events work themselves out. I think that some of the plotting plods a bit in the middle with too much explaining what the characters are thinking but Telek flips between stories and settings, which creates a cinematic feel, slipping between events that are taking place at the same time.

This is a fast read, and very pleasant. Telek refers to this as “The Swithen” series of books and we get an explanation of what a “swithen” is in this book. After the harvest, a barren field is traditionally burned to clear it and prepare it for the next year. This book has the feel of a “swithen” event with a very strong, violent ending that makes me want to read the next book in the series.

One person found this helpful

Mariana

The story of Uther and Igraine

Reviewed in the United States on 4 July 2021

Verified Purchase

The Void Place is the third book in this series and told the story of Uther and Igraine.

Plot

This book tells the story of Uther and Igraine and the conception of Arthur. We learn more about the characters, their desires and their fears and faults. We see the reign of Uther and his difficulties in ruling the kingdom and we also learn the story of Arthur mother.

Characters

Uther

Uther was a character that was really good. Sometimes I hated him, but most of the time I just felt sorry and pity for him.

In this book he starts to have depression because he fells that everything he did was because of Merlin. He started to see himself as Merlin puppet, a person he needs in order to achieve his plans. So, when he meets Igraine he started to feel that he needs her in order to be happy.

We saw a man completely broken with a lot of insecurities and it was good to see him portrayed in this way, so different from everything I have read before.

Igraine

She was a very lovely woman. Innocent, kind with a very beautiful life. She truly loved her husband and had a very happy relationship with him until Uther decided that he must have her.

I also love her growth during this novel. We see a big contrast between her character in the beginning and the character in the end of novel after the events and it made me feel really sad for her.

Gorlois

I was really surprised by this characterization. Most of the times, Gorlois is portrayed as an old man, rude and basically a bad husband and father. So, I was really surprised when I saw that Scott Telek decided to made him a very beautiful young man. Kind, honorable and really in love with his wife and a very attentive father.

Ulfius

Probably my favorite character here. Ulfius is the best friend of Uther and I loved the way he was handle here.

He was a really good friend, always trying to help Uther even when he knew he was wrong, but he wanted so much to have his friend back that he was willing to do everything he could. Some scene with him were really sad, especially the scene with his father.

Merlin

Merlin is basically the same character here. But, I liked the idea that he manipulated everyone in order to conceive Arthur. The way he act, the way he plan this whole events in this book was really interesting and I liked the reaction he had in the end in he started to see the consequences of his own acts.

Morgan and Margause

Cannot wait to see more of them in the future, they were so interesting here.

The reason for their vengeance on Arthur was explain here and I liked that reason. I mean they had a very good life with their parents until Uther. After that, their father died and they were married to some kings they don't even know. Of course, they also saw what happen to her mother when Arthur was conceived so, of course, they will try to revenge her.

Writing and World-Building

I like the writing. I think it is always improving.

The world building was also really good. The way the author describes the medieval times (the costumes, the way they act, their culture, and even the women's role) really made me feel that I was there.

Final Thoughts

Really good book that talks about the conception of Arthur. Now with the main character born in the end of the book, he will start to see his story and I cannot wait to see how Scott Telek is going to make him.

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