The Pendragon Protocol

The Pendragon Protocol is an urban fantasy thriller by Philip Purser-Hallard, published in 2014 by Snowbooks. It is the first volume in the Devices Trilogy.

The Pendragon Protocol
Cover of The Pendragon Protocol
AuthorPhilip Purser-Hallard
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
GenreUrban fantasy thriller
PublisherSnowbooks
Publication date
2014
Pages350 pp
ISBN978-1-909679-17-7
Followed byThe Locksley Exploit, Trojans 

Plot summary

The novel introduces the Circle, a Crown-sponsored British paramilitary organisation descended from King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table. The "devices" of the title are both the heraldic devices the Knights of the Circle bear on their riot shields, and the emblematic identities of particular Arthurian knights (identified as semi-autonomous archetypes or memes), whose stories they continually re-enact.[1][2]

The protagonist, Jory Taylor, bears the device of Sir Gawain, which puts him in direct conflict with an eco-activist cell called the Green Chapel and led by the avatar of the Green Knight. The political assumptions underlying the Circle's model of heroism are increasingly questioned as it is revealed that the Green Chapel take their inspiration from a radically different British legend, that of Robin Hood.

Critical reception

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction wrote that the novel's "story is modestly softened [...] giving its telling a Young Adult focus".[2] The British Fantasy Society review stated that the novel's "writing is crisp and clever, the plotting devoid of flab and the cast of characters appealing, interesting and consistent", and that it was based on "that rarest of fantasy beasts – an original idea."[1]

Sequels

A sequel, The Locksley Exploit, was published in 2015.[3] Trojans, the third book in the trilogy, followed in 2016.[4]

gollark: Too bad, I read 100000 words or more today for no apparent reason and so you should obviously read my dubiously useful OIR™ information.
gollark: It really shouldn't be, but the entire subsystem crashes mysteriously sometimes for no reason.
gollark: Unfortunately, as I said, this is horribly broken for no debuggable reason. Fun!
gollark: This meant it could now do websockets, which would in theory allow greater interactivity and such, but which are currently just used to ship song data more efficiently.
gollark: Interestingly enough, some weeks ago the Random Stuff API was rewritten to use asyncio instead of the horrible gevent bodge it used to use for much of its history.

Notes
  1. The Pendragon Protocol by Philip Purser-Hallard. Book review. British Fantasy Society 2014.
  2. Purser-Hallard, Philip. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction 2014.
  3. The Locksley Exploit by Philip Purser-Hallard. Book review. British Fantasy Society 2015.
  4. The Devices Trilogy website.
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