All Comments on 'The Archer's Apprentice'

As usual, great story, However, They are not quarter cents! Care to guess what my surname is?

Damn good story tellin'!

Thank you.

Silver pennies during Henry I's reign could buy a lot of things, so they had a cross stamped on one side and traders would cut in half and quarters to provide change for smaller items or services. These defaced coins turn up regularly, so was clearly a common means of trade. When I wrote the story, I thought the first halfpennies were issued by Henry III in 1216, but a few Henry I thin, small halfpennies have turned up in recently in London excavations. Clearly they were circulated, but perhaps only in the largest market of all England, where they would have been most convenient.

Ironically I had reread (for the 4th or 5th time over a couple of years) The Archer just yesterday. It is a lovely story of an old-fashioned romance. This installment maintained that lovely romance and added elements of intrigue and adventure. I am eagerly awaiting the third installment.

This is a worthy follow up to the first in the projected trilogy. The story progresses at pace and possible romantic entaglements bubbles benesth the surface.

A couple of minor typos (Jessica instead of Rebecca and Stansford instead of Stansfield) and some of the geographic references may be stretching things slightly. Unless I misread it personally I think travelling @ 90 miles in a day and night (Pitstone to Lichfield) may be pushing it a bit given the probable state of most roads in the period.

However all in all I enjoyed it and can't wait for part three.

Well written indded

More please! Not fair, ending on the edge of that cliff.

Thank you very much! Wonderfully written story. Please finish and publish the third part

5 Stars! I greatly enjoyed The Archer (wow, 2 years ago!) I re-read it just before I read Apprentice. Book 1 ends as a great stand-alone, but does leave the reader desiring more! Book 2 picks up seamlessly, as near as I could recall, every detail in 1 and 2 fit perfectly! Book 1 has so much mystery and intrigue all built within William's head because he did not know how his money was invested. Book 2 has the wildly intriguing turn of events near the end! I had to back up and re-read some paragraphs to make sure I got the details! Wonderful romance and love between William and Alwen, and Robin's love interest in Elinor. Through-out the whole story, i have been looking for forward to Book 3! And in the final words, it is a cliff-hanger! You have got to finish it! Or at least let us read Book 3 while we wait for Books 4, 5, and more!

I am in USA, so I can't be a stickler for exact town distance details and coin, as another wrote, and in fact, those complaints never occurred to me. I did notice that a name of "Jessica" showed up a few times, but near as I figured, it should have been "Rebecca" so no harm done! I do enjoy what seems to me to be Old English words and styles from the period!

Thank you for sharing these with us!

I first discovered "The Archer" a couple years ago, and found it to be completely enjoyable. This tale is every bit as enjoyable, and is a worthy successor to the first. There most definitely needs to be a third chapter, since this one ends the way it did.

Excellent work!

SSW 1050

Thanks for a great story. Hope you do the third one sometime.

Seriously? You can't leave us on a cliffhanger like that and preface your story saying you don't know if you'll ever finish this trilogy. This and The Archer are fantastic, and I hope you get around to the next one. Do you have a rough estimate of when it might be up?

I was with you until it went one twist too far. The Count should have stayed a bad guy. Sorry, I couldn't resolve all the reasons to go to France, The Inn, back home, and all as a test of loyalty for the wrong person?

What will become of Rebecca and the Count if there is no Part 3?

I am sorry that this writing will take so long, but I have dedicated NaNoWriMo this coming November to write part 3. I have been putting together the scenes and outlines that drive a story of intrigue, grand scale deceit, divided loyalties and true chivalrous romance and honour. I will allow myself a month to first-draft the novel, then several months of revision and pulling it all together for completion and sharing with you early in 2018. As someone who loves to immerse himself in this period, I am grateful to anyone who reads these stories and sends me such inspiring responses. I want to do right by you and produce a story that will satisfy your appetites. I can reveal that there will be a Preface to the story, which predates the incident in the Smooth Field which ended Part 2. In this brief section, Robin has just completed his apprenticeship and is summoned by Royal Command on his first day as a man to one of the King's hunting lodges, one that is more than a lodge, naturally in those days of royal intrigue. By the end of that momentous day, Robin has to endure a lone knight's night vigil, where he has to consult his demons and excise his love for the lady who has so totally captured his heart. Then, in the cold light dawn, the boy archer who once saved the King's life, becomes one of Henry's Black Knights in Secret, sworn to serve the Crown even beyond the rules of chivalry. Patience my friends, patience.

Great read, interesting twists and turns, be well!

I am a fan of stories about the Middle Ages, and this series is one of my favorites. Honestly, I do not know if I can wait until the spring of 2018 to read the third book ...

One of the things I liked the most was the absence of sex (something rather unusual in this site), as well as the descriptions of who is narrating that part of the story. It has seemed like a great idea that helps us to understand reading. I have also noticed the mistakes (so I interpret) about the names of some characters, but it has not affected the understanding of the story.

Very well reflected the cruelty of the events described (remember the time that is told, AD 1122, where human life did not have the same value as today, especially that of plebeians, and where, most of the crimes were paid with life).

There were times when this story located me in England of "The Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett, with their same intrigues, injustices and cruelties. Which is logical, since the times are almost the same. However, in this story has given me the feeling of more movement or action. The work of K. Follett is more focused on a single location, except for the Jack's trip to France and Spain.

Here Will has traveled much more, and Rob has gone to Bruges (I loved this city when I visited it in 1974). There are many similarities in both histories, but the arguments are completely different, although they share the same romances.

Anyway, I hope to live enough to read the third book (I have suffered two consecutive heart attacks and my heart has been damaged, although I am on the way to recovery, according to the doctor :-), but you never know).

I wish I could give you more than 5 stars, but that's not possible here.

Thank you for sharing your great work. Keep going like this forever!

I apologize for my English (yet and forever), isn't my native language.

A well written and compelling story full of ingtiguing twists and turns and set in an greatly undervalued time period. Bernard Cornwell hasn't touched it, Phillpa Gregory is stuck on the Tudors and I was only impressed this much by Ken Follet's "Pillars of the Earth" and Elis Peters' "Cadfael" in exploring the chaos of the time of Henry and Maud.

This is a very worthy addition.

Thanks for a fine read. Looking forward to part three.

5*

Hope you're getting close to publishing the last part of the trilogy.

"The Archer's Lady" is now submitted under "Novels and Novellas", which should publish in a day or two. It continues with many of the old characters being featured, with the two principles being Robin Archer, son of Will Archer and the Lady Elinor, daughter of King Henry, and follows on about three and a half years after Book 2. It has taken a long time to write this, for which I apologise, but I found it was quite a challenge to invent new adventures and fresh scenarios for the characters in what is quite a narrow field and a genre with a limited number of followers, who were however, keen to have more adventures written about these characters. I hope there is enough here to sustain your interest to the conclusion.

Another wonderfully told tale. Spencerfiction, I am glad to have found your stories. I hope the final installment is just as riveting.

DoW