The Cousins: a New Series from Philippa Gregory

Coming out September 8. Preorder now.

The White Queen
Author: Philippa Gregory

New series - The Cousins

Elizabeth Woodvbille. The White Queen tells the story of a common woman who ascends to royalty by virtue of her beauty, a woman who rises to the demands of her position and fights tenaciously for the success of her family, a woman whose two sons become the central figures in a mystery that has confounded historians for centuries: the Princes in the Tower whose fate remains unknown to this day. From her uniquely qualified perspective, Philippa Gregory explores the most famous unsolved mystery, informed by impeccable research and framed by her inimitable storytelling skills.

Pre-order this book on medieval-novels.com!

Latest New Releases on medieval-novels.com

Here are some new releases you can find on medieval-novels.com!

Release date September 1, 2009

The Memoirs of Mary Queen of ScotsAuthor by Carolly Erickson

Fictional first person account of the Scottish Queen's life.

Coming June 1!

This Time
Author: Joan Szechtman

This Time rediscovers the fifteenth century Richard III as he attempts to unravel the mysteries of the twenty-first century. Not only must Richard III acclimate himself to this whole new world—to sometimes comic effect—he must try to undo the damage done to his reputation through 500 years of history.To preorder a copy for a 20% discount off the $19.95 list price contact Collected Stories Bookstore: Phone: 1-203-874-0115 Email: bassetpublishing@collectedstoriesbookstore.com Additional discounts may apply for bulk purchases.

Coming in September 09

Serpent Among the Thorns: A Medieval NoirAuthor: Jeri Westerson

Preorder now. The Crown of Thorns is brought to England as a peace offering...or is it a French assassination plot against King Richard II? Ex-knight turned detective Crispin Guest must discover the true culprit before he falls prey to the king's justice.

To be released in February 2010!The Boleyn Wife
Author: Brandy Purdy

Originally published as Vengeance Is Mine, this controversial novel with enhanced content deals with George Boleyn's wife, Jane, and the havoc she wrought for two of Henry VIII's six wives.

New release in UK 30 April!
Bones of the Hills
Author: Conn Iggulden

A boy was abandoned in the wilderness by his tribe -- but he did not die. As those Iggulden admirers who have read Wolf of the Plains and Lords of the Bow will know, this luckless boy has grown into one of the most feared and powerful figures in history, Genghis Khan. He has persuaded the tribes that had been tearing each other to pieces to ignore their differences and unite under his leadership to battle their oldest enemies. Under his ruthless (and ferociously inspired) leadership, a mighty nation has been forged. But this is only the beginning of his struggles: Khan sends out emissaries, but they are tortured and killed. He attempts to open trade routes; his efforts are met with violent rebuff. Soon, the Mongolian army is stretched to the furthest corners of Khan's realm, and destruction looms. Available in hardback and audio CD.

This is a new feature of That's All She Read, and we hope to update the new releases as often as they accumulate. Contact us if you have a new release coming out in the future.

Library of Congress, UNESCO and Partners Launch World Digital Library

World Digital Library

April 21, 2009

Paris, Washington D.C.—The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and 32 partner institutions today launched the World Digital Library, a website that features unique cultural materials from libraries and archives from around the world. The site―located at www.wdl.org―includes manuscripts, maps, rare books, films, sound recordings, prints and photographs. It provides unrestricted public access, free of charge, to this material.

The launch took place at UNESCO Headquarters at an event co-hosted by UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura and Librarian of Congress James H. Billington. Directors of the partner institutions were on hand to present the project to ambassadors, ministers, delegates and special guests attending the semi-annual meeting of UNESCO’s Executive Board.

Billington first proposed the creation of a World Digital Library (WDL) to UNESCO in 2005, remarking that such a project could "have the salutary effect of bringing people together by celebrating the depth and uniqueness of different cultures in a single global undertaking." Matsuura welcomed the proposal as a "great initiative that will help to bridge the knowledge divide, promote mutual understanding and foster cultural and linguistic diversity." In addition to promoting international understanding, the project aims to expand the volume and variety of cultural content on the Internet, provide resources for educators, scholars, and general audiences and narrow the digital divide within and between countries by building capacity in partner countries.

The World Digital Library functions in seven languages―Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish―and includes content in more than 40 languages. Browse and search features facilitate cross-cultural and cross-temporal exploration on the site. Descriptions of each item and videos, with expert curators speaking about selected items, provide context for users and are intended to spark curiosity and encourage both students and the general public to learn more about the cultural heritage of all countries.

The World Digital Library was developed by a team at the Library of Congress. Technical assistance was provided by the Bibliotheca Alexandrina of Alexandria, Egypt. Institutions contributing to the WDL include national libraries and cultural and educational institutions in Brazil, Egypt, China, France, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Mali, Mexico, Morocco, the Netherlands, Qatar, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovakia, South Africa, Sweden, Uganda, the United Kingdom and the United States.

"UNESCO welcomes the creation of the World Digital Library which reflects the values and priorities of our organization," Matsuura declared. "WDL offers an invaluable platform for the free flow of information, for international solidarity, for the celebration of cultural diversity and for the building of inclusive knowledge societies. With projects like the Digital Library, the cultural and societal potential of digital technologies come into their own."

"We are honored to be working with so many great libraries in this venture," said Billington, "and thankful for the strong support that UNESCO has given to this project. What we launched today is a first step. We look forward to seeing this project realize its ambition to bring people together, deepen our understanding of each other, and help electronically oriented young people enjoy what is best in traditional culture, using the new media."

Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al-Missned, UNESCO Special Envoy for Basic and Higher Education and Chairperson of Qatar Foundation, congratulated UNESCO and the partner institutions on the launch of the WDL, and stated that "Qatar is very proud to be a founding member of this remarkable international collaboration." Her Highness noted that "universal education is the key to international understanding," and "this endeavour will do much to develop the appreciation of other cultures and nations."

The National Library of China (NLC) contributed manuscripts, maps, books, and rubbings of steles and oracle bones that span the range of Chinese history from ancient to modern times. "The World Digital Library project offers a brand-new platform for showcasing the diversity of the world's civilizations," said Dr. Furui Zhan, Chief Librarian of the NLC. "This endeavour enables cultural exchange while bringing together different countries and peoples in mutual understanding and enrichment. The spirit of equality and open understanding comes into full view with the creation of this World Digital Library. The National Library of China is ready to work in close cooperation with the World Digital Library, continuing to promote in concert the prosperity and progress of all human civilizations."

Examples of other treasures featured include Arabic scientific manuscripts from the National Library and Archives of Egypt; early photographs of Latin America from the National Library of Brazil; the "Hyakumanto darani," a publication from A.D. 764 from the National Diet Library of Japan; the famous 13th century "Devil’s Bible" from the National Library of Sweden; and works of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish calligraphy from the collections of the Library of Congress.

Ahead of the launch, Matsuura invited UNESCO member states to encourage their cultural institutions to participate in the development of the project. He noted that their participation would contribute to a truly universal digital library that showcases the cultural heritage and achievements of all countries. Matsuura also highlighted the synergies between this initiative and UNESCO’s Memory of the World Program, noting that the WDL should help provide public access to digital versions of collections on the Memory of the World register.

One of UNESCO’s main mandates is to promote the free flow of all forms of knowledge in education, science, culture and communication. The organization therefore promotes education, research and exchanges through the improved and increased availability of content on the Internet. To this end, it collaborates with a number of partners on the creation of digital and other repositories.

Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. It seeks to spark imagination and creativity and to further human understanding and wisdom by providing access to knowledge through its magnificent collections, programs and exhibitions. Many of the Library’s rich international resources will be available through the World Digital Library at www.wdl.org, while other resources can be found at the Library’s main website, www.loc.gov and via interactive exhibitions on a new, personalized website at myLOC.gov.

NOTE from Nan: On their website WDL promises it intends to make their project accessible as defined by the W3C and offers a link for comments. Let's help... and hope.

Game of Kings, by Dorothy Dunnett

Game of Kings
By Dorothy Dunnett

Lymond Chronicles

I have just become the exception to a rule. I have been told that in general if you like one of Dorothy Dunnett's two chronicles, Lymond or House of Niccolo, you will not like the other. It has to do, I think, with the force of the main characters in each. I read the entire Hose of Niccolo series, and I just finished reading the first volume of the Lymond Chronicles, and I loved them both. In fact, Game of Kings knocked me right off my feet almost from the first sentence. This is now officially my second favorite novel. (If you don't know what my favorite one is, you haven't been paying attention.)

It is the first novel of a six volume series. I wonder what it would have been like to read it when it was the only one and the fate of the protagonist was not already implicit in sequels. The fellow in question is Francis Crawford of Lymond, the master of Coulter. He is the younger son of Lord Coulter, now deceased, and the younger brother and heir apparent of the current baron, Robert. Like Niccolo Lumond is a man who is misjudged and mistrusted and even reviled by just about everyone who knows him or knows of him. Bothe Niccolo and Lymond inspire instant distrust and an assumption of the worst. Unlike Niccolo, the reader starts out knowing nothing better, assuming the worst about him right along with all the characters in the novel. He is not engaging, except in the way a traffic accident enhahes your attention. How much more satisfying, then, to get to know him and come to understand him.

We drop into his life and story not long after he has returned without sanction from exile and two years as a galley slave of the French. We see what seems to be a terrible fellow, a robber, a trickster, ruthless, hard-hearted and sociopathic if brilliant, erudite and possessing the most silver of tongues. The story is about his rivalry with his brother who loathes him for his past crimes and more Freudian issues, and his ambiguous actions as the leader of a band of criminals. This is a complex story, a series of mysteries, of a man's true character obscured not only by what is believed about him but by his own self-destructive actions. Did he really do these terrible things, selling out his countrymen and causing a slaughter of Scots by the English under the Lord Protector, Edward Seymour, the corruption of the scion of a respected house, the seduction and tricking of a good hearted blind woman, the kidnap of his brother's wife and the killer of her unborn child, a spy for the enemy, and, the ultimate charge, the murder of his own sister Sister Eloise? The story unfolds in a dance of revelation and deceit, cruelty and love, loyalty and betrayal.

I thought Niccolo, at least at first, was the most engaging protagonist I had ever encountered. Like Lymond, you come to know him in all his brilliant complexity over the course of the entire series of novels, and I know that I shall have to read the House of Niccolo again since I will now know Nichoals's secrets from the start. It's the same with Lymond. At least with this first in the series, I will have to watch what I see and keep in mind what I now know to really appreciate the artistry of the work.

Dunnett is a joy to read, not the least because of her skillful plotting and even more more awe inspiring character development. She is simply a joy to listen to.. so many wonderful images, choices of wrods, such as calling Lymond's personality "incalculable", and such subtlety with language.

It's not often that I hear, at the end of the cassette book, "End of " followed by the title and author of the book and sit smiling savoring the conclusion. usually I am either sad to lose the world I have been immersed in or just relieved that I can now move on to another book. This one, Dorothy Dunnett's Game of Kings, leaves me satisfied and awed. What a blessing to be able to experience such brilliance, such insight, and such language.

2027, New Madrid, Missouri, by Arlington Nuetzel

2027, New Madrid, Missouri
By Arlington Nuetzel

This is a quirky little book with tiny chapters and a tendency to sweep from one geological age to another. It's also a fascinating account of a disaster that had human habitation been as fragile and dense as it is now, would have been a cataclysm. This Arlington Nuetzel illustrates by one last chapter detailing the impact of an earthquake in 2027 as strong as several that took place over a few months in 1811 and 1812. It is both a story of human struggle, tragedy and triumph and also a cautionary tale to spur us to more effective action to prepare ourselves for the unthinkable.

The narrative, for as I will explain below it is more that than a novel, concerns the Boncouer family living in new Madrid, Missouri, in 1811. The family is the basic unit facing not only the forces of nature but also of human nature. Throughout the story the well-being of the daughter, Sarah, as she is first kidnapped by pirates and later becomes the love and lover of a seeming charlatan and elopes with him, circumstances equal to the trials of natural disaster. The quakes affect Sarah primarily because she thinks she may have lost her love and the father of her unborn child to its forces, but another family member, her uncle, whose actions as a result of the quakes' damage that are really tragic.

I would have to say the writing in this book is uneven, running from unduly formal and stilted to simple, straightforward and descriptive. I sometimes felt that Nuetzel, faced with a 25 cent word and a dime word invariably chose the quarter. In the dialogue this may have been suitable, as the written English of the day was that, but it tended to be too much in the narrative itself. However when the thunder starts and the earth shakes, Nuetzel's prose changes. His forte in this book is his description of the disaster as it takes place from the perspective of indibidual characters.

I say it is a narrative more than a novel because it has a family storyline but in many ways that storyline seems imprinted on the real tale. The characters don't feel authentic or well-rounded. I must admit however that I got choked up with the ultimate scenes of the love story of Cletis and Sarah, so they m ust have been real enough to me for that. And it is a good narrative as far as what it relates. It contains details of the 1811-12 quakes that are absent from other books I have read, and the 2027 events are equal to other quake novels I have read. The story comes aroundfull circle with a descendant of Sarah in a way that is quite satisfying.

There are peripheral characters that will delight you. The historical characters include the commander of the pirates and his Indian and Portuguese mixed blood wife, Pluggie, an unforgettable figure in American history. I told Mr. Nuetzel I liked her best, and he told me, "Everyone does." I would love to see him take a crack at a fictional biography. His illustration of the Chickasaw tribe is loving and true to history and if a bit romantic, a real positive in this ultimately sad story.

This book is available in paperback and on Kindle, and if it is not yet, it will be available on BookShare.org for people who are print impaired.

Boiling the Kindle2/NFB Issue Down

I got into some trouble yesterday with my opinions on the NFB's Kindle2 protest. That's OK. One doesn't have principles to hide or weaken them just because someone, even someone you care about and respect, gets mad. Most of what i experienced was misunderstanding. As I know I am a bery clear and reasoned writer, I conclude I just pushed some easily pushed buttons.. or ran head first into some agendas.

Boiling down the issues raised by NFB, Amazon, and the Author's Guild:

1. THE KINDLE2 READS ALOUD. Amazon recently announced the Kindle2, a slender electronic book reader with a special feature: text to speech capability. For those unfamiliar with this concept, it's simply a matter of making it so a device can turn letters on a screen into electronic text that then is converted to audio.. that is, read aloud. They announced that all their books downloaded would be readable with text to speech.

2. AUTHORS WHO HAVE AUDIO EDITIONS OF A BOOK DON'T WANT THEIR SALES TO SUFFER. Apparently the Author's Guild, which bills itself as advocacy for authors, contacted Amazon and asked that authors be able to choose to opt out of this feature so their sales of those editions would not suffer.

3. THE AUTHORS AND AMAZON ARE BEING MEAN TO BLIND PEOPLE. Or so says the national Federation of the Blind, an activist organization of blind people. They say the authors are denying access to their books to people who cannot read text. They point out that the hundreds of thousands of books available for Kindle2 swamps the number available through the National Library Services for the Blind and Dyslexic.

4. BUT WE PLAN TO GIVE FULL ACCESS TO PEOPLE WHO ARE PRINT IMPAIRED. That was Amazon's response to the perceived discriminatory act.

5. YOU COULD CHARGE MORE TO UNLOCK THE TEXT TO SPEECH ON THOSE BOOKS. This is what the Author's Guild suggests to compensate the authors with their own audio editions so the authors won't lose out on the deal.

6. BUT THAT MEANS CHARGING BLIND PEOPLE MORE FOR THE SAME BOOK A SIGHTED PERSON PAYS THE STANDARD RATE FOR! That's the NFB objection to that.

7. I HAVE SO MANY LOGICAL ARGUMENTS FOR THAT ONE I DON'T KNOW WHERE TO START. That's me this time. The fact is, whatever the commercial, moral or PR ramifications of the fact, Amazon is not obligated under the law to make any of its products accessible to the blind. Further, there are other ways to get books into accessible formats, including buying or borrowing the very audio editions that are freaking everyone out, or scanning and reading the book, or getting it from the organizations specifically set up to provide access to print material. It is not Amazon's job to take on responsibility for blind access by itself.

8. YOU JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT BLIND. That was implied or staed outright by a couple people when responding to my post.

9. OH YES I AM. That's from me again.

10. BUT, BUT, BUT... Go back and read #4.

I don't know if the NFB and the people who are mad at me now are deliberately ignoring Amazon's promise, or they are just so darn mad they can't absorb it or whether some are just so invested in being The Oppressed that "people bein' mean to us" is so ingrained it trumps all other concepts. I could start abother whole blog post about the poor reasoning of an awful lot of people. Just watch one episode of Judge Judy and you will see illustrations, e.g. "But judge, I only hit him because he called me a slut!" Anyway, thanks to the NFB and others of their ilk, there is more adrenaline flowing in the veins of people who were hitherto largely unaware of each others' existence the day before.

Let me finish, and I mean finish, with some truths I hold to be self-evident.

• Universal Design, or making things in such a way that no one is excluded from their use, is a fine ideal and we should at all times strive to apply it. How practicable this is is another matter. And I don't think it is any one person or company's responsibility to bring inclusion about. It's everyone's. Yeah, the oppressed too.


• In my own experience, actual intentional exclusion is rare. Most of the time people just don't think. They need to be aware. They need to be educated. They need to be shown that it is in their best interest to create an inclusive society. They need not to be battered with recrimination for something they did not even know they were doing. It's like slapping a little kid for something you just think s/he did. A friend said categorically to me that authors don't care about blind access, that I am the rare one. This is the opposite of my experience with authors. Once they know what a receptive market people who are print impaired are they fall all over themselves to share their work. What impact will a prima facie condemnation have, do you think? I'm not naive.. I know there are less pleasant types out there. I just aver they are the minority.


• Now down to brass tacks. Author's Guild, just chill, will you? The average reader will start to l isten to his or her first text to speech book and will just hate it. The speech output on computers these days are all but indistinguishable from human. But no one I know who hears my computer or my Text Aloud books can understand the boice. They will turn that feature off in a flash and go buy your audio book. I am afraid, Amazon, you had a great idea, you wanted to make the NJB happy, though I suspect that is impossible, but it just ain't gonna work. No person not already used to computer generated voices will want to read books aloud on the Kindle2.


• My own belief is that most authors will only be too happy to have their books on Kindle2, with text to speech, shouted from a bullhorn, whispered in a dark corner, forcefed to prison inmates, translated into Klingon, anyway, just please read my book!


• And finally, what will decide all of this is money. Is it economically rewarding for Amazon to probide the talking Kindle? Will authors sell more or fewer books if their books are on the Kindle? What will groups like the NFB do to make providing accessible books worth their while? Will anyone spend $27.99 for a really good, really long paperback about an Anglo Saxon king? my friend said authors should boycott Amazon to "punish" them. Leave me out of it.. I have books to sell.

The NFB's Latest Dust Up with Kindle

You have read what I have to say about National Federation of the Blind's campaigns related to books and access for people who are print impaired. Their latest issue with Amazon.com concerns the Kindle 2 which has a text-to-speech feature that would make every single one of the thousands of books available on Kindle accessible as audio. The Author's Guild has put the case that requiring authors to allow this for their books denies them the exclusivity of selling their own audio books. Therefore Amazon is considering allowing authors to opt out. This has sparked a petition drive by NFB demanding authors not have this choice as it would constitute discrimination on the part of the authors against those who cannot read print.

I am myself both an author and blind. I do a good deal to advocate for authors to get their work out to print impaired people in alternate formats. I however do not support this petition nor NFB's position. I wrote to John Pare of the NFB expressing my own position. Below I post his response and also my own counter argument.

Hi Nan:

Thank you for your email. It is your decision whether your books are sold as e-books. If you do decide to offer your books on the Kindle 2, then I have every right to listen to them using text-to-speech technology. Every independent copyright attorney has said that this is not a violation of copyright and falls under the same rule as reading a story to your child at night (referred to as the private performance rule).

I disagree that books are readily available via another source. I am blind and have encountered numerous books that are not available from NLS, RFB&D, Bookshare or as commercial audio books. Many of these books are now available as e-books on the Kindle 2.

Authors have every right to sell audio books but they do not have the right to limit certain books to only the sighted. This is
discriminatory and constitutes a form of censorship. It is ironic that authors who would typically be on the side of the free flow of
information, now want to determine who gets to read and who does not. This is not a matter of protecting an author's copyright, it is a matter of protecting an American's civil right - something I am sure you want to do.

We want your support and I hope you will reconsider. Fifteen million Americans are not buying e-books because they are not accessible. These readers, who are hungry for your books, will purchase e-books. Please do not close your books to us. We do not want them for free - we want to purchase them just like the sighted.

John

My answer:

I am afraid my original message was not clear enough. I want to be sure you understand my position.

I am myself blind. I know what you are talking about when you say that books already accessible to the blind are in limited supply. I often address this topic in my blogs. I am in fact almost out of NLS books in my chosen genre and they cannot be added as fast as I read them. I have turned to two other means of finding more such. One is BookShare. But of course that is even more limited. The other is my Plustek BookReader. With it I can read any print book in existence in a wide variety of languages. This is significant to me as I have hitherto been unable to do my own research for my novels to the fullest. And this is why I say there is no barrier to finding books and no need to force authors to give up the pittance we make from our books.

I know about copyright law and the fair use provision and constantly encourage authors to make their books to people who are print impaired. I facilitate a book discussion group on AccessibleWorld.org and have had authors attend who were thrilled to find such a responsive engaged group of readers. However, I must point out that the fair use provision stipulates that books that are made accessible be available only to those that require alternate formats for access. Kindle is not such a device.

Therefore by insisting that authors may not remove their books from Kindle's text to speech feature makes the books audio available to anyone without restriction. That is what makes it unfair. I know well that authors must accept conversion to accessible formats for people with print impairments and I am entirely in support of that, even militantly so. I do not however ask authors to sacrifice audio book sales to people who do not need that alternate formatting. That is unreasonable.\ and unfair.

The vast majority of authors I know will be happy to make their books available in alternate format, though of course I know they need not be. As it is almost impossible to get a book added to NLS, I talk to authors about getting their books into BookShare. That is, I ask them to donate the physical book to them to have turned into text for the use of blind and other print impaired people. The authors never balk when I ask.

I immediately made both my published books accessible via BookShare. In addition I put my novel on Lulu in pdf format at a greatly reduced price. I also made it known through AccessibleWorld.org that any person who is print impaired may have a Word copy of my book for free. I will ask Amazon to make the book accessible through the Kindle. But those last two are my choice as an author.

If the NFB thinks authors are greedily denying access then you are way off base. First of all we rarely make a dime. I still have not come even close to making back my expenses. Only a tiny number of novels make a lot of money, and those are the bestsellers that are always made accessible on NLS and BookShare. Second, it is not access authors are thwarting but competition with their own audio books.

Therefore I cannot support your petition and will advise authors I know, as well as other print impaired readers, of my position.

Nan Hawthorne

• Author's Guild position

Sharpe's Triumph, by Bernard Cornwell

Sharpe's Triumph
By Bernard Cornwell

Sharpe Adventure Series

This is the second novel in the Sharpe Adventure Series that spans the Napoleonic era from 1798 through Waterloo and beyond. As I mentioned in my review of Sharpe's Tiger, I think Bernard Cornwell decided after Waterloo and a couple other post Napoleonic novels to go back in time and show Richard Sharpe when he first joined the army and was sent to fight in India. In the first book his wit and connections get him promoted from private to sergeant. Triumph takes him from sergeant to ensign, the lowest rank of officer. That is the triumph.

A few characters find their way from Tiger to Triumph. Sharpe, of course, who is still raw and a bit dopey. We see in this period of his life, which is four years since Tiger, his first real experience with battle. One scene I won't soon forget is when, protecting Sir Arthur Wellesley, better known for his own later promotion to Duke of Wellington, he unleashes the ultraviolent street fighter against enemy soldiers bent on killing him. Wellesley is himself some changed with more experience and savvy as a battle commander. Cornwell does a great if almost two painstaking a job really showing how Wellesley's brain worked. When everyone thinks he blundered, he takes one of his famous stacked odds situations and wins the day. We run into Colonel McCandless again as well, this time pursuing a renegade East India Company soldier named William Dodd who is based on a real person. McCandless brings Sharpe on the mission since he was the only living survivor of a massacre perpetrated by Dodd. Finally, and with regret, I report that the odious Obadiah Hakeswell is here. He is trying to pin an attack on Colonel Morris on Sharpe and almost succeeds. Un fortunately it seems Obadiah can thank not Providence for escaping almost certain death, but rather Sharpe's James Bond villain-like habit of putting him into situations where he certainly will die horribly but then leaving the scene.. so up pops the Obadiah-ster to haunt Sharpe another day.

This is typical, and that's a good thing, good rollicking Sharpe adventure. I do have one major complaint, however. If you started with the first novel as they were written you know that Sharpe got his break when he saved Wellesley from being shot by French cavalry. The sense you get then is that Wellesley takes notice of Sharpe for the first time in that episode. But Wellesley and Sharpe are so tight in Triumph that I found myself remarking "Why don't you two get a room?" I will be interested to see how having read the India stories changes how I look at that incident in Sharpe's Rifles.

There is one more of the series that takes place in India, namely Sharpe's Fortress, and then the seemingly unlikely events of Sharpe's Trafalgar. Then, oh happy day, we will be back to the Sharpe we fell in love with, the Sharpe as leader of the Chosen Men.

Cruel As the Grave, by Sharon Kay Penman

Cruel As the Grave
By Sharon Kay Penman

A Justin De Quincy Mystery

This is the sequel to The Queen's Man, reviewed here recently. This mystery has some great conceits but I am afraid it just did not grab me. As terrific a historical novelist as Penman is, I am just not impressed with her mysteries. I do, however, like what she says in the author's note of this one, that as long as she can write about Eleanor of Aquitaine and her tempestuous brood she is happy. I can dig it.

It is a matter of days since the end of the last novel. Richard Lionheart has been found. Queen Eleanor is worrying over what Prince John is up to still, and part of this novel concerns the Queen's man, Justin de Quincy, having to infiltrate Windsor Castle where John is under siege to convince him his mommy really does care for him and won't he please make nice? The main story is either the afterthought or this is, as they are only related in slim thematic way. The real story is the murder of a fifteen year old Welsh girl in a churchyard. Two men are suspected, both sons of a mercer, one the golden boy and the other the sulky inept one... and you may have picked up on that thematic connection already... see below if not. One plus of these mysteries is that you see Justin coming to grips with and internalizing some of the dirty tricks bound to leak from dealings with John. For much of the mystery solving, Justin is sure the murderer is not who it actually turns out to be. This is another equivocal success for Justin, where the solution to the crime is not at all the satisfying conclusion he hopes for.. and you do too. I was surprised that one seeming major clue turned out to be unrelated to the crime.. was that a successful red herring or just a faux pas on the author's part? My only hint it is that it involves a rock and a slingshot.

There are a couple neat little conceits in this one, as I mentioned above. There is a clear parallel between the two mercer's sons and Richard and John, the handsome elder son getting all the breaks and the younger simply misunderstood and mistreated. In addition, the unwanted pregnancy theme, which in Justin's case seems o0dd since he is so bent out of shape over his own being a bastard. The least he could do is give his dad the benefit of the doubt after joining the club.

This is the novel I wrote the post on Nan Hawthorne's Booking the Middle Ages about concerning clever metaphors. Penman is quite adept at atmospheric metaphors, but the one that stopped me dead, the self-shredding cabbage that is, should have been picked up by an editor.

I have already read The Prince of Darkness and reviewed it here. I will find out soon enough if there is a fourth in this series. I read pretty much any novel not about a Tudor.. and I read most of those too.. so I will no doubt read a fourth Justin if it comes in its little green box.

Sharpe's Tiger, by Bernard Cornwell

Sharpe's Tiger
By Bernard Cornwell

My husband, Jim Tedford, and I are totally hooked on Sharpe. Totally and completely. We whistle "Over the Hill and Far Away". We quote the movies. We discuss the books. We rent movies with the actors from the Sharpe movies in them. I have finally drawn Jim into the love of Bernard Cornwell and his novels that came to me when I read my first Untred novel.

Now we are reading all the Sharpe novels chronologically, and by that I mean chronologically in the year the books are set bot when they were written. As a result, we hit Sharpe's Tiger firs though it was written considerably recently compared to the others. It takes place in 1798 in India when Richard Sharpe is a private, only about 20 or 21 years old. For you Sharpe fans imagine a boyish Sharpe, never been in a pitched battle before, never fought with a rifle, is thinking of running away from the army, years away from meeting Patrick Harper and the Chosen Men. The only thing consistent with the later stories is that he is in Arthur Wellesly's corps.

Like all the books, Sharpe's Tiger is about a real battle the capture of the fortress of Seringapitam. Sharpe is a private in the infantry, carrying a musket. His Sergeant is the odious Obadiah Hakeswell, and right away Sharpe gets his stripes.. that is, the flogging alluded to in later novels. Courtesy of Obadiah, of course, who was out to get Sharpe right from the start. Sharpe is just out of the slums of London and before that the orphanage in Yorkshire. He has a lady friend, a half-Indian half-English widow who travels with the army. You will find Lawford too, the officer whom Sharpe captures the Imperial Eagle for later. The two of them and Mary Biockerstaff are sent to infiltrate the Tippoo's fortress to find and rescue Col. McCandless, Lawford's uncle and an inteliligence officer.

Pretending to be deserters, Sharpe and Lawford join the Tippoo's army to defend the mighty fortress which the Tippoo has rigged with explosives right where the British armies plan to breach the walls. Obadiah is captured along with other members of Sharpe's old regiment, the 33rd, and rats on Sharpe and Lawford in order to be spared the gruesome executions the other men are put to, including having nails driven into the tops of their heads or their heads actually turned all the way around on their bodies by the Tippoos strong men. Obadiah wind's up in the Tippoos dungeon along with McCandless, Sharpe and Lawford. It is in this prison that mcCandless teaches Sharpe to read. It is up to Sharpe and Lawford to get away, in spite of the tiger standing guard, to find a way for the British army to be saved from the deadly booby trap.

It is a little jarring to encounter a callow Sharpe, but the novel gives Cornwell a chance at an origin story, a love I share with him. You do learn a little about Sharpe's boyhood and his life of crime before taking the King's shilling and joining up. It is interesting to see Wellingfton when he was far from becoming Wellinfton... still learning his own ropes. The connection between them is slight enough in this novel not to ruin the monumental and legendary first encounter he and Sharpe have in Sharpe's Rifles, the meeting that leads to Everything Else That Ever Happens. I will not be so sanguine about this when I review the sequel, Sharpe's Triumph.

In the movies this and the next int he series are combined into one amalgam set in the 1820s, Sharpe's Challenge. They do that, I think, to hav e harper in the movie and also because Sean Bean could not possible pass for 20 when it was made. I am very mad at this movie, as they decide to kill Lucille off and I want to know why.