Rather to my surprise (considering I gave Taliesin a 3-star rating), I'm giving this one a 5-star rating. It didn't keep my spellbound throughout, and in the middle I felt it dragging several times, but really, now that I'm finished with it, I found myself rather impressed, indeed.

The first person perspective works much better in this one than the third-person perspective of Taliesin. Reading it is like seeing out of the eyes of a strange, crotchety, yet impressive and ageless old man, which is exactly the image Stephen Lawhead was going for in his vision of Merlin. I was quite impressed. Now, obviously this is a Christian take on the Merlin myth, so I can understand people who are confused by that. Very different than most other Merlin tales you'll read, and it took me a bit to get used to that. But hey, if it's a myth anyways, a Christian interpretation of it isn't any less "true" than any others, right? I appreciated it for the unabashedly Christian fantasy that it was.

The storyline feels slow at points, but overall I was continually intrigued by where it was going and found it very believable and interesting to read. Stephen Lawhead struck an interesting balance between Merlin having glimpses of the future but not being omniscient and annoyingly self-assured. He felt quite human. I'm looking forward to reading Arthur next.