Empire. Cornwell portrays Merlin as a lecherous, driven, mischievous, and irreverent druid. His solution to the problem of integrating the magic of the Arthurian mythos in the context of historical fiction is to leave room for the reader to take the "magic" depicted in the story at face value or to interpret it as a mixture of coincidence, psychology, primitive technology, and illusion, which preys on the superstitions, religious fundamentalism, and intolerance of the time. Reception The Warlord Chronicles has been acclaimed for both its storytelling qualities and its accuracy in portraying contemporary life. Cornwell himself has said, "I have to confess that of all the books I have written these three are my favourites." Audiobooks Isis Audio Books and HarperCollins have published unabridged audiobook recordings of all three novels, read by Edmund Dehn and Jonathan Keeble respectively. Penguin Audiobooks have also published abridged versions of the three novels, read by Tim Pigott-Smith. Television adaptation In 2020, Epix announced that a live-action television adaptation of the series, entitled The Winter King, was in development with One Big Picture and Bad Wolf. On April 4, 2022, Bad Wolf announced that Kate Brooke and Ed Whitmore would be the showrunners of the series, that filming would begin in late 2022 in Wales, and that the series would no longer air on Epix. It will be premiere on ITV's new streaming platform ITVX in the United Kingdom. References Book series introduced in 1995 Fantasy novel series Historical novels by series Modern Arthurian fiction Novels set in sub-Roman Britain Works by Bernard Cornwell Michael Joseph books