Bard

This is a story of ancient Ireland. This story wraps around ancient mythic tales of magic, faery folk, unicorns, druids and sacred groves. The story is based on the travels of Felimid mac Fal -- Bard of Erin, descendant of Druids and the Tuatha de Danann, the ancient faery race of Ireland.This is a thoroughly enchanting fantasy tale, well worth your time!

Bard has been my favourite fantasy novel since I first read it thirteen years ago. Taylor's fantasy is comparable to Robert E Howard, Andrew Offutt and the like (he and the latter, in fact, completed a series started by Howard). Taylor's writing style, however, is superior to both. His passages can seem almost poetic- very fitting for this tale of Felimid, the teller of tales and reluctant, but skilled warrior. It also should be noted this series is for the most part, historically accurate. Taylor uses historical facts, while adding a magical twist. Magical events depicted are also not unrealistic. There are no grand wizards casting lightening bolts and fire or resurrecting the dead, so common to today's generic fantasy. Instead, you have dark, druidic arts, which focus more on control of the elements, enchantments of items and personal affectation. If you are a fan of classic fantasy (Burroughs, Moorcock, Leiber, etc.) you will thoroughly enjoy this book.

A good book. Not great, but not a bad way to spend a rainy day or two. As a matter of fact that's probably when it'd be best to read it. Bard follows Felimid Mac Fal, "Bard of Erin, descendant of Druids and the Tuatha de Danann - ancient faery race of Ireland, armed only with his harp and the fierce magical power of his poetry..." as he gets tangled up in things with vikings, a unicorn, the evil British royalty and simple tribes of Celtic folk.The writing style, while not being a moving, eloquent masterpiece, holds its own. The book isn't high fantasy, but certainly has it in spades. The mythos also differs greatly from the establishment when it comes to fantasy; the bards aren't your garden variety dungeons and dragons singers, there aren't dragons and elves bounding about, and while it maintains a strong celtic feel to it, it has its own celtic feel; a good book, if you're looking for fantasy but you're tired of all the cookie cutter fantasy works out there. Back to the writing style, that's another plus; character delevopment is good, while the author doesn't have character development as the only thing going for him, ala Margaret Weis/Tracy Hickman. The writing is well constructed, and even meagerly eloquent, in its own way. What it all comes down to, is if you're stuck for three days in gloomy weather with nothing to do, or if you're looking for a book that has its own style of fantasy, you could do a lot worse.