Only a few stand-outs.

The side characters of Avalon have their ups and their flats. No character in the bunch is disastrous or painful, but plenty of them make little to no impact, flitting about in small stereotypes, a trait forgivable and even partially desirable in some measure but without commendation in the extent it features. Of them all, very few have strong images and characteristics; most are as completely summarized by a description of their role as by their whole part in the story.

Calum is ‘dependable, slightly needling best friend to the protagonist.’ Rhys is ‘serious, mysterious chauffeur to Merlin.’ Isobel Rothes and Lady Rothes have a slightly stronger image, but they exist only in reference and in a scant handful of quick scenes. Omitting some other characters of similar scale, the antiquarian Collins has something to him, I’ll say, even if he dies rather quickly, but, well, he dies very quickly. Donald Rothes has some substance too, substance that matters before his death, but as a purveyor of the book’s attempted royalism, he falls prey to the thinness thereof, though he gets a flash or two of his own.

Waring’s cronies have something to them, albeit I can’t remember their names off-hand (probably because there’s no need to figure out which Knight of the Round Table is supposed to be attached to each one). They push back, offer interesting conversation, and provide the political machinations with a sense of realism, of practiced people putting their skills to work, of a bureaucracy and a slander-machine in process, well-handled and managed. They do things (unlike, say, Calum or Rhys).

Embries, Merlin’s alter ego and the most critical secondary character, is also the second best side character by my count, if not exceptionally good. He has a presence to him, an assurance and mode of living which translate into charisma (of a sort). Embries stands as the man who knows what to do, when to do it, the wise counsellor to the protagonist and the call to action. He has a character to him, but….

Embries is also the incarnation of the plot, inasmuch as it has one. He calls the protagonist to action; he chivvies him along through his prolonged reluctance; he advises him repeatedly. His voice in the story is almost the author’s voice, hallowing actions or presaging problems. For a man over a millennium experienced, that role has some appropriateness, but Embries verges on being a plot device wrapped in character- more character than most of the rest, but also far more plot. I will not call Embries badly done (not without a re-read I don’t have time for), but he is not a saving grace.

Jenny, the protagonist’s love interest and the reincarnated Queen Guinevere (in this series, a warrior queen), is the most memorable of the side characters. She does relatively little in the story, albeit she plays a role worth mentioning in a plot summary, but in that relatively little she displays some internal character (agency), if nothing particularly complex or unique. Far more importantly to my liking for the character, however, is that Jenny, far more even than Embries, possesses an aesthetic character, a set of ideas and moments which coalesce into a vivid, living mental picture. The caveat is that this derives largely from the two or three visions of her past self, effectively described and connected to an evocative, understandable premise. Overall, she’s not much better than the rest of the pack; my liking for the character derives from her superior aesthetic depth, the sense of personality which those moments provide, which, while good, are not enough for high praise.

The sum of it all, I must be clear, is not that the side characters are incompetently written. They do what they need to do for the plot, and sometimes they do a bit more. The issue here is not of commission but of omission: Lawhead avoids pitfalls at the cost of very rarely climbing an eminence. The side characters are barely memorable, as a rule, and therefore fail to bring a sense of life to the story; their capacity to flesh out the narrative, to provide other tones and other perspectives, is sadly limited as a result. The story would be much, much better if just a few of them ascended past plot-fulfilment.

God bless.