Sharpe's Fury, by Bernard Cornwell - Richard Sharpe Adventure Series

Sharpe's Fury
Bernard Cornwell

Richard Sharpe Adventure Series

We were confused at first about Sharpe's Fury because it did not seem to be in any of the lists of the entire Shapre series.  It turned out that's because the book was written and published rather recently.  How lovely that there were all kinds of battles in the Peninsular War to allow Cornwell to go back and fit Our Heroe in here and there.  This novel shows its more recent composition.  It is better written, better researched and has the best battle scene we have read in his or any other novels yet.

Sharpe's Fury wanders thorugh several plots, places and over a period of time.  It starts with Sharpe and the boys helping to blow up a bridge, but thanks to a bumbling major, getting stranded on the wrong side.  They have to make their way downriver, and on the way Sharpe gets shot in the head and almost dies.  they wind up near Cadiz, where they get pressed into service saving the Duke of Wellington's brother's ahem by helping to retrieve some embarrassing letters.  The villain in this piece is a nasty priest and the Spanish traitor admiral who is his puppetmaster.  Lord Pubmphrey shows up in this one, but does not come out of the novel smelling as sweet as he has before.  Come to think of it, he didn't before either. 

The last part of the novel is the Battle of Barrossa, and it is a bang-up job, no pun intended.  It is a detailed, exciting, understandable and extremely well written battle scene.  The best part of it is the Scots officer Graham, a terrific character and a historical figure so complex and admirable I suspect we will have to read his biography.  There are other colorful and inspiring characters  in this battle as well, almost making Our Heroes irrelevant.  You won't mind it at all, I promise you.

I have to say I felt the letters plot felt somewhat unresolved.  Yes, the evil priest's quest was defeated but I kept expecting him to pop up and seek revenge.  I found the love interest subplot a tad unbelievable in its resolution, hard to believe Catarina's reappearance would be so politely overlooked.  The novel lacks the cogesion of many of the others in this series.  however, even if you only read the Battle of Barrossa you will come out of it the happier.

Use the tool in the right hand column to find out if this novel is available  your preferred format and where.  We bought this book.

The Phoenix, by Ruth Sims

The Phoenix
Ruth Sims

I cannot even beghin to tell you how much I enjoyed this novel, but I will try. It is an intelligent, well written, emotionally involving book that so impressed me that while I was reading it I found it was the last thing I thought of as I fell asleep at night and the first thing I thought of whenever I awoke.

The Phoenix tells two interwoven stories. The first follows the life of Jack, a boy from London's slums, who through a tragic set of circumstances is adopted by a wealthy man and grows up privileged and destined to a brilliant career as actor Kit St. Denys. The other is Nick Stewart, who comes from a fundamentalist religious upbringing that plays havoc with his destiny, which is to fall in love with and struggle with his love for Kit. It is a story of true love, conflict, mental agony and redemption.

All his life kit is plagued with nightmares of his father, whom he stabbed in retaliation for his brutality and the death of his twin Michael. Only Nick, a physician, seems able to help him through his torment. In the meantime all of Kit's life experience and fears find their way into his acting and help to make him an internationally renowned thespian. Nick's possessive jealousy drives him away to America where he tries to remake himself as a respectable heterosexual. When Kit's childhood trauma returns to haunt him in a very real way, Nick is back in Kits arms and there to save him. But now others get in the way, and the rest of the novel is about whether these two star-crossed lovers will find their way back to each other.

Sims took a couple decades to write this novel. It started out as the story of an American doctor in the years before the Civil War and his courtship of a beautiful woman involved with the Underground Railroad. Sims tells how she added an English actor as a character, and in the way of good writers' characters, he and the doctor took over the story, and soon the actor and the doctor were the ones courting.

There are so many things I value in this novel. It is a lovely and poignant love story. Unlike too many novels about gay men or lesbians, there is no "explanation" of why the characters are attracted to their own sex. They just are, as Kit says, "and no one knows why." The naturalness of the attraction is what makes this love story so compelling. It is outside influences, not any "deviance" on the lovers' parts, that interferes with the trueness of their love. How refreshing and how important.

Sims knowledge of the theater and its history in Victorian England and the U.S. is astounding and brings authenticity to every page. She peppers the story with historical figures such as Oscar Wilde, Diamond Jim Brady, Maude Adams, and William James in a most non-intrusive way. More than any other quality of the novel I was struck by the utter lack of predictability. Throughout the reading of this long incvolved story I had expectations over and over that over and over did not come about.. keeping me thoroughly in volved and turning pages.

The characters are likewise complex and credible, not only troubled brilliant Kit and troubled earnest Nick, but also Nick's wife Bronwen, both victim and victimizer,  who develops into the viper that Kit first discovered she was not, Kit's friends in the thater, Nick's Bowery patients, and Kit's string of lovers who could never take Nick's place.

I highly recommend this novel for its originality, sensitivity, depth, emotional richness, and for its simpley enjoyable and involving story.

It is available in paperback and as an ebook.  I purchased the book in order to read it. It is one of those chance purchases for which I will forever thank myself.

The Boleyn Wife, by Brandy Purdy - Review/Interview and Book Giveaway!

The Boleyn Wife
Brandy Purdy

The Tudor Wife (UK)
Emily Purdy

An Interview and Implicit Review

NH: As you know, I read Vengeance is Mine when you first had it published through iUniverse. I enjoyed it then, but I discovered re-reading the expanded version published by Kensington Books as The Boleyn Wife even better. I don't know if that's the book or me, but either way it reflects well on how thoughtful the novel is. A lot of authors who went indie with their books would love to hear the saga of "The Boleyn Wife." How did it come to be picked up by a mainstream publisher? Was it so successful as an indie that a book formerly overlooked interested them?

BP: Well, at the time I made the decision to publish with iuniverse, I had written two novels, "The Confession of Piers Gaveston,," and the original version of "The Boleyn Wife," then known as "Vengeance Is Mine." I was represented by an agent for about five years, but for whatever reason, she was unable to sell my work, maybe it was a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, maybe as a complete unknown being represented by a very large agency I just got lost in the shuffle, I don't know. "Vengeance Is Mine" did very well for a print-on-demand book, and after it had been out for a few months I was contacted by my current agent, he wanted to take a stab at selling it to a traditional publisher, and he succeeded. Kensington purchased the US rights, and a UK edition, as well as a Turkish translation are also in the works.

NH: The story of Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII's second wife and the mother of Elizabeth I, is an oft-told tale. What did you hope to bring to the familiar story to make your telling unique?

BP: Ever since I first started reading about Anne Boleyn as a little girl I was always fascinated by the role Lady Rochford, her sister-in-law, played in Anne's demise--the accusation of incest. I always wondered about the how and why of it all. How could she do such a thing, and why would she? And how did she go on after? One doesn't just do a thing like that then forget all about it, and it never darkens the doorstep of one's mind again. No book, either non-fiction or fiction, ever satisfactorily answered those questions for me. So, after my first novel, when I was thinking about writing a second, I thought I might take a crack at it and see what I could come up with, after all, I didn't have anything better to do. Another aspect of Anne Boleyn's life that always attracted me was the close bond she had with her brother George. As a person who doesn't have much experience of these things personally, loyalty and devotion have always been qualties I value
and admire greatly and take very seriously. There was a moment at Anne's trial, which is depicted in my novel, when George Boleyn read a paper aloud after he had been explicitly told not to, and thus sealed his doom. George Boleyn was an intelligent man, he knew exactly what he was doing, and I've always admired him for having the courage to do that.

NH: Your novel is primarily about Anne Boleyn, but her kinswoman, Katherine Howard, is a major part of it too. I felt this was a good decision, for two reasons: It completed the story about the narrator, Jane, Anne's sister-in-law, and the cause of her ultimate downfall, but I think more importantly it provided the reader with a better rounded view of Jane, Henry and the court. Is this what you you striving for? What else?

BP: Most of the novels I've read about Anne Boleyn have a very admiring tone, the author is clearly a fan, and on her side, and in saying this that is in no way meant as a complaint or criticism, she is a woman I admire very much, she had her faults, as do we all, but she was a fascinating and courageous individual, but I wondered what it would be like to read a novel from the viewpoint of someone who absolutely detested her, though Anne's finer qualities would still shine through in spite of this. This tied in perfectly with my fascination and curiosity about her sister-in-law's malice and motivations. But Jane's life didn't end with Anne's, it changed, she had to go on living with what she had done, and she went on to work further mischief, which ended up costing her her own life, so I couldn't just end the story with Anne's death, I had to keep going. I'm not a person who likes loose ends; it's a pet peeve of mine, I don't like to be kept dangling, so
as an author I didn't want to do that to my readers if I could keep from it. As for Katherine Howard, many depictions of her that I've read portray her affair with Culpepper as a grand romance, one of the great love stories of history, though the facts as they have come down to us make it more likely that this was a more casual and sordid backstairs affair, though a highly dangerous one given the circumstances, and love had nothing to do with it. I've always seen her life as something of a tragedy, she never had the the right kind of love or attention, no one ever took time with her and gave her the things she really needed most in order to grow up an emotionally healthy person, and I believe her relationships show that she often confused sex with love, and I think this affected her behavior. She had the body of a woman but the mentality of a child and was thrust into a sophisticated world where going her own way, like the willful teenager she actually
was, could, and did, get her killed.

NH: The one thing that struck me the most in your novel is that you developed extremely plausible motivations for all the really awful things the primary and secondary characters did. There is not much really known about Jane, is there? But the character you created for her is quite believable, in her unstable way understandable. How did you go about creating such a character?

BP: You're correct, there isn't much known about Jane, there isn't even a portrait of her. Since my novel was first written one biography has been published, but it is primarily speculative, and sheds very little light on her personality and motivations, though I admire the author for trying; it was a daunting task and biographers cannot (at least they're not supposed to) take the same liberties that novelists can and do. To be honest, I don't really know how I do it. I am the kind of person who always tries to understand, and to see things from all sides, to understand why people do the things that they do, especially when they hurt others, so maybe that has something to do with it. I'm not all that good at it in real life though, but somehow, it all seems to come together on the printed page.

NH: I can't say I really found a single person in the novel very appealing, and they reminded me, the Tudor court that is, of jetsetters playing fast and loose with each other's reputations. They were self-centered, ruthless, and reckless. I know you have a strong interest in old Hollywood. Did that play a part in how you drew the characters?

BP: As a writer, I owe a lot to classic Hollywood. I loved those old movies long before being into classic films was considered a normal or acceptable interest, before we had Turner Classic Movies on cable tv, it was another one of those things that made me like a zebra in a cow pasture growing up. I love all the care and detail that went into those films, particularly the ones made by MGM, like my all-time favorite "Gone With The Wind." When I write, I see the story playing out like a movie in my mind. As the author of course my vision of it will always be clearer, more distinct, than anyone else's, no one else will ever see it exactly as I do, but I strive with each round of proofreading, editing, and polishing to try to bring it into a sharper focus for the readers. As I read over the lines I've written, I try to zero in on things that only I, as the author, am seeing or feeling, and to try to find a way to make the reader see and feel them too. I
have to be satisifed with how the movie in my mind plays before I feel comfortable letting go of a book. The amount of time I devote to this is often a sore point with those around me, which annoys me as I don't like being pressured to hurry up and get it done. Of course, details are a double-edged sword--you can't tell the reader every little thing, and you can easily go overboard and drown them in details. I once started to read a mystery novel--I can't recall the title now but it was one I really wanted to read--but by page 28 I knew more about the main character's furniture than I knew about him, and by that point I couldn't care less and moved on to another book.

NH: I noticed your loving detail about the clothes. Do you think that is one reason so many people love the Tudor era? Is it the glamor? Is it other things?

BP: I think that is definitely a part of it. Even before I could read I would get books about the history of fashion from the library and pour over them, also books about classic films with lots of costume stills and glamour portraits. I've always loved the work of MGM's brilliant designer Adrian, who dressed stars like my favorite actress Jean Harlow and did the breathtakingly beautiful costumes for the 1938 version of "Marie Antoinette," which is another favorite film of mine. It also ties in with my love of detail, and my style of writing, the movie playing in my mind. After all, what's a movie without costumes? And throughtout history fashion has been about more than looking pretty, clothes and jewelry have been status symbols, used symbolically, to make a point or define a person or their loyalties, for example in my novel the headdresses, the French hood and the English gable hood, are used by the ladies to show whose side they're on, plus everyone
needs a little beauty in their life, and even a plain or ugly girl can wear pretty clothes and jewelry.

NH: I struggled a bit with all the listening at keyholes scenes, but then I realized that I have known a couple people who would be every bit as sneakily inquisitive and paranoid. Was it difficult to find a way for Jane to be privy to all the seamy goings-on?

BP: This is a point readers often find difficult to accept or believe, and I can understand that. However, one of the things I have noted in reading about various royalty over the years is that in royal courts the walls often seemed to have eyes and ears, kings and queens had little privacy. Foreign ambassadors would have spies or informants in their pay at the various courts, and there were gossips and busybodies everywhere; even today we still delight in gossiping about the royals. How many times has a servant leaked stories about a celebrity or royal employer to the tabloids? I remember reading about Marie Antoinette catching courtiers with their eye at the keyhole or their ear against the door. In Tudor times, and after, people at court knew when the King and Queen slept together, and when the Queen got her period, like with Elizabeth I's various marriage negotations, as she got on in years foreign ambassadors would bribe the laundresses or her ladies-in-waiting to tell if the Queen still bled so they would know if she was still fertile. And regardless of whether she was liked or disliked, Jane would have been a part of the Boleyn faction, the inner circle of which Anne was the center, she was one of Anne's ladies-in-waiting, she would have had inside knowledge and been an observer at most of the significant events in Anne's story. And in portraying her as an unstable character, I took it a step further and gave her voyeuristic tendencies. Given her hatred of Anne--and Anne was no fool--I couldn't see Anne sitting down and baring her heart to Jane, and pillowtalk with George would have been equally far-fetched, so I thought this fit better with her character. And I didn't want to have too many scenes where Jane said things like I heard this or that from so and so, or everyone was saying...

NH: I wanted to share the two areas where my experience of the novel changed. Because I had read it once, my view of the characters and what happens to them changed during my second reading. It was richer, for example in terms of the rather astounding loyalty of Anne and George, and also the men who were their entourage. What a contrast with what happened to Katherine later on. While I was less sympathetic with some of the characters, such as Weston whom I felt was cruel to Jane, I was the more struck by the courage he and the others showed. What do you have to say about that?

BP: I take that as a great compliment and thank you for it, and hope others will feel the same way. As a reader, I know there are lots of books I've read and never thought of again, but there are others I've gone back to, sometimes repeatedly. After the suspense of reading a story for the first time is gone and wondering how it's all going to come out, things I might have missed or overlooked before become apparent, sometimes I stop and think more. It's a bit like buried treasure, I gain more from it. And I'm glad you made the contrast between Anne and Katherine, that was one of the main things I wanted to show; Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard were cousins and they both ended up suffering the same fate, accused of the same crime, but apart from these similarities they were very different women, also, Jane's feelings for them were quite different as well. The courage and loyalty George and the "Evergreen Gallants," as Anne dubbed her friends in my novel, is one of my favorite parts as well. I think one of the reasons the stories of so many people who were executed are remembered and retold so often to this day is the courage they displayed in their final moments. For instance, many of the aristocrats who died during the French Revolution were rather spoiled and self-indulgent people, the only thing noble about them was their titles, yet when they were standing before the guillotine they achieved true nobility, few of them broke down and begged and cried for their lives, they died bravely, with dignity and majesty. There's a pathos and pride that can still reach out and touch us across the centuries. How many of us think Mary Queen of Scots was a silly woman yet are nonetheless moved by the way she met Death? As Gaveston says in my novel, "The Confession of Piers Gaveston," "I am determined to make a good death since I could not make a good life," and I think, in many of these cases, that sums it up
quite well. And with Anne and George and their friends it was very important to me to portray their bravery and dignity. I tried to track down all their scaffold speeches, and when I fictionalized I tried to be true to the characters' personalities as I had portrayed them, so some kneel before the block with quiet dignity, and then there is flamboyant Francis Weston giving a farewell performance, and Anne Boleyn making her speech double-edged like the sword that would take her life.

NH: Again, as in "The Confession of Piers Gaveston,," you demonstrate an ability to write first person narrative in such a way that the astute reader picks up that the narrator is not always telling the truth, not even to themselves. Piers and Jane are quite different people, but did you find they had this self-deception and self-sabotage in common?

BP: I did, yes. One of the things I'm sometimes drawn to explore in my novels is the conflict between the head and the heart. It's something I've also experienced in my own life, situations where the head, the reasoning mind, says one thing and the emotional heart another. As human beings we sometimes let our emotions rule us, there are times when, depending on the situation, we make excuses or even lie to ourselves, times when we can be stone-cold deaf to the voice of reason even when it's screaming at us, we know we're doing it, but, for whatever reason, we choose to waltz in the arms of Destruction or willingly follow the path to Disaster. We don't always know why, but we know we're doing it. Sometimes we try to pretend we're not or to ignore it, other times we recognize what we're doing, that we're caught in the grip of a dangerous and destructive compulsion, and want to stop, to break the cycle, but for whatever reason just can't do it. I saw that
in both Gaveston and Jane despite their differences.

NH: I see the British company that is releasing this novel changed not only the title but your name. Can you shed some light on that?

BP: The name change, to Emily Purdy, was a cultural as well as a marketing decision. My real first name, Brandy, is not common or popular in England, and it was felt something more traditional and British would have greater appeal. As for the title change, to "The Tudor Wife," my British publisher felt the title was too similar to other books already on the market, so they decided to change it.

NH: Are there anty other issues you would like to address here?

BP: Some people have commented on the sexuality. Katherine Howard was a young woman who was introduced to sexual behavior at a very young age; in modern times this would have been considered child abuse. She was about five when she was sent to live with her grandmother and lodged in the Maid's Chamber, where the other girls and women were significantly older than Katherine and used to sneak their boyfriends in at night. Katherine was an observer and later a participant in all this. I did not invent this happening, though I did dramatize it, the language is a tad dry to a modern reader but it's part of the evidence that was collected when Katherine's past came back to haunt her, I just tried to breathe some life into it, make it more real for a modern audience, and to show how this affected Katherine's behavior and developement as a person. I don't use sex for shock value, as hard as that may be for some people to believe, there's always a reason.

NH: I am curious. You are obviously concerned about how some people react to the provocative elements in your novels. If this really concerns you, why do you write them?

BP: If I thought about what people think of me and my books or how they may react, it would take me ten years to write a single sentence. I write what I write, what comes into my head as I'm sitting at the computer gets typed, and if it still feels right throughout the various rounds of editing and polishing it stays in unless my editor decides to take it out.

NH: Your prose never ceases to impress me. What are you working on now? I know we are all looking forward to whatever you write next and in the future.

BP: Thank you. I am currently under contract with Kensington to write another Tudor novel about the daughters of Henry VIII. If all goes well, it should be out sometime in 2011.

Visit Purdy's web site at http://www.brandypurdy.com as well as her blog, Brandy Purdy's Book of the Week at http://brandypurdy.blogspot.com.

BOOK GIVEAWAY!!

If you would like to be entered into a drawing for an autographed print copy of this novel, post a question for Brandy PUrdy in the comments section below. Sorry, for reasons of shipping costs, U.S. postal addresses only.

Links to:

Kensington
Harper Collins UK
iUniverse

Federally required disclaimer: The author provided me with a digital copy of The Boleyn Wife so that I could write this review.

The Confession of Piers Gaveston, by Brandy Purdy

The Confession of Piers Gaveston
Brandy Purdy

I read this novel when it first came out but before I started publishing this book review blog. It is a testament to the writing that I remember so much of it distinctly. The Confession of Piers Gaveston is full of colorful, well drawn characters, lavish descriptions, humor and human compassion. It uses first person narrative with a sophistication that takes that form of storytelling to its proper level.

The Confession of Piers Gaveston has Piers recounting the story of his own life on the eve of his execution. It tells the story of "the most hated man in England", the first of the two notorious "favorites" of King Edward II. Piers Gaveston sees his mother die burning at the stake as a young child, must fend for himself on the streets just to survive, but through his wits and skill as a soldier, is raised to no less a height than the royal court of England. There he is to be the role model for young Prince Edward, whose unmanly ways are the despair of his hyper-manly father, King Edward I. Instead the young Edward falls madly in love in Piers and makes a sexual advance that the object of his affections gladly encourages. The rest of the story is about how Edward's total lack of discretion and restraint combined with Piers' own self-mocking risky behavior results in the latter's destruction. Even when Edward returns from France with his lovely young wife, Isabella, he makes a scene with Piers in front of all and seals Piers' and ultimately his own doom by handing over the rich jewels of which her father, the King of France, made a wedding gift, to his beloved "Parrot".

Some debate whether the historical Edward II and Piers Gaveston were really homosexual lovers, but even if there was not plenty of reason to believe so, as a novel The Confession of Piers Gaveston is as much about the tribulations of loving and being loved in a time and place where to do so is forbidden -- being "star-crossed" is not the sole purbiew of Italian teenagers. Piers comes to love Edward truly, but Edward's regard is no more than skin deep, lust and pride of ownership and the satisfaction of causing the chagrin of the nobles rather than any deep regard for the person Piers. Purdy's Piers wishes his lover would not shower him with jewels, land and titles as if his favors must be bought, but rather that his royal lover should cherish and admire him for his genuine accomplishments. This element could be laughable if the author had not so masterfully used the first person narrative style to show Piers' own self deception and illusion. That is what struck me most about this book, how the narrator makes light of his own predicament and lays out for the reader how he self-destructively antagonizes those who would destroy him. The subtle reader will recognize how Piers deceives himself, almost consciously, purposefully taunting and offending those who despise him. I am not partial to first person narrative, but this novel is the one that really made me see what insightful use it can be put to.

I have come to know the author, Brandy Purdy, since I first read this novel. Her talent is astounding. More than anything her artistry with prose impresses me, but The Confession of Piers Gaveston is the novel where I think her insight into characters shines the brightest. Her Tudor novel is the wild success of the two, but as much as I enjoyed the book that will be rereleased next month as The Boleyn Wife (The Tudor Wife in its British edition under the more English sounding pseudnym Emily Purdy) and its exquisite prose, I will always recall fondly my first reading of this tale of Piers and Edward.

The Confession of Piers Gaveston is available in print, as well as an ebook through Kindle and Smashwords and in a format that can be converted to etext or Braille from Bookshare.org. You can watch a video trailer which I actually produced on Purdy's web site. A radio play by Brandy Purdy performed by American Radio Theater can also be found there.

Copyright Owners Fight Plan to Release E-Books for the Blind

Rehular bisitors to That's All She Read know that besides book reviews this blog is about accessible reading for people who are blind or otherwise perint impaired. Thus this post leading to a Wired article, Threat Level Privacy, Crime and Security Online Copyright Owners Fight Plan to Release E-Books for the Blind.

By David Kravets
Wired News, December 11, 2009

A broad swath of American enterprise ranging from major software makers to
motion picture and music companies are joining forces to oppose a new
international treaty that would make books more accessible to the blind.

On Monday, dozens of nations will meet in Geneva to consider adopting the
WIPO Treaty for Sharing Accessible Formats of Copyrighted Works for Persons
Who are Blind or Have other Reading Disabilities. The proposal before a
subcommittee of the roughly 180 World Intellectual Property Organization
members would sanction the cross- border sharing of DRM-protected digitized
books that tens of thousands of blind and visually disabled people read with
devices and tools like the Pac Mate, Book Port and Victor Reader.

"This treaty would be the first one that is not done for the copyright
owner, but for the user of the works - for the blind to make a copyrighted
work accessible," says Manon Ress, a policy analyst at Knowledge Ecology
International, a Washington, D.C.-based human rights lobby that helped
spearhead the proposal.

But that prospect doesn't sit well with American business. The U.S.
Chamber of Commerce, the nation's largest lobby representing 3 million
businesses, argues that the plan being proposed by Brazil, Ecuador and
Paraguay, "raises a number of serious concerns," chief among them the
specter that the treaty would spawn a rash of internet book piracy.

More....

Read entire article:

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/12/blind_block

The Amber Treasure, by Richard Denning

The Amber Treasure
Richard Denning

The Amber Treasure is the story of Cerdic, a young Angle living in the Dark Ages kingdom of Deira at the end of the sixth century AD/CE. During his lifetime Cerdic is fated to find himself in the midst of the last Celtic attempt to drive the descendants of the Germanic invaders from what was once their land. Starting in childhood, Cerdic is as much subject to the legends and songs of the great Northumbrian warlords told by the bards as any other boy. It is how he learns what warfare really means to him as a person that makes The Amber Treasure the gripping and satisfying tale it is.

Cerdic is the son of a farmer of higher rank, the nephew of a warrior lord whose heroic death is the impossible standard for a young man's plans. He lives a secure life in the Villa, the old Roman farmhouse now crumbling but nevertheless symbolic of a time he cannot quite understand. He has every reason to believe his placid life will continue as it is, that is, until Celtic raiders come and steal a precious treasure from the Villa, amber jewelry presented by the king as reward to the great hero's wife and now the possession of Cerdic's mother. The Celts, which Denning calls "Welsh" from the old English word for foreigner, take more than the jewelry. They take other precious things, his older brother's life, his sister as a slave, his innocence and youth and his trust in both a Welsh slave and his own half brother, his father's unacknowledged and bitter bastard. As part of a small force he travels to Welsh Elmet to get his sister and the treasure back and to avenge the violation of his home and trust. His heroism in freeing all the captives leads to his involvement in a larger effort to prevent a huge Celtic force from overthrowing Deira. The constant impact of disappointment, disillusionment and compromise not only constitutes Cerdic's own growing maturity and leadership but sets the stage for his future adventures.

The Amber Treasure is the story of three swords, the image that is the spine of this novel. Cerdic's warrior uncle's sword stands for the heroic heritage the young man longs to live up to. The second is a fine newly forged sword that is too rare and dear for anyone to wield until it is won by an unworthy man. The third is the sword of a long dead Roman that Cerdic takes from the hand of the first man he kills in battle, the sword that is the reality of war to both the young man and to us, the readers. The symbolism here is also emblematic of one of the things about this novel I most appreciated. Unlike so many depictions of the Middle Ages of late, Dennning provides us with a credible disillusion with battle and glory that is untouched by false modern sensibilities. Cerdic's falling out of love with his uncle's legacy is the natural outgrowth of real experience, coming from an intelligent and reflective mind. It is a grim recognition of the consequences, not a lecture from a distant post-modern future.

Denning presents us with an interpreted early England that does not much stray from what is known but rather offers a flavor of it enhanced with engrossing descriptions, such as the King's hall, the nature of shield wall battle, the stink and fascination of the city of Eoforwic.

The author has a knack with characterization as well, constructing distinct and consistent main and secondary characters, Cerdic's family and friends, the leaders he watches for how to inspire and also not to inspire men and how to make decisions, the enemies who become clearly human to him, and the two young men who challenge his prejudices. Along with the imagery of the swords, the common binding of the novel is a bard, Lilla, an almost unworldly figure who represents the illusion of glory. You know Cerdic has fully matured when he turns to Lilla at a critical moment and tells him to tell his tale another time, for something more important must come first.

This novel is intended to be part of a continuing story and as such is told by Cerdic from the perspective of many years later in his life. I look forward to what Denning does with this.

All in all, The Amber Treasure is a strong and engaging tale told with skill and eloquence, and is satisfying and yet thought-provoking by an able storyteller.

I purchased the book on Smashwords. It will be released on Lulu.com soon, as well as Amazon in the near future. You can learn more at http://www.theambertreasure.com .

The Virgin's Lover, by Philippa Gregory

The Virgin's Lover
Philippa Gregory

It can be honestly said that you have never seen Gloriana the way you will see her here. That is to say, a possible alternative title for The Virgin's Lover could be, I think, "Elizabeth I as Dingbat". Accustomed as we all are to a spunky, spirited, gloriously autocratic Elizabeth, this whole book had me listening with my jaw dropped.

It is the story of the love affair, real or imagined, of Queen Elizabeth I and Sir Robert Dudley, her rakish favorite, the Gypsy, the Master of Horse, the monumentally arrogant and ambitious Robin. When Queen Mary I dies, he is the first at Elizabeth's door with the news. While his forsaken wife, Amy Robsart, languishes dutifully at home waiting for his letters, Dudley sticks to Elizabeth like, well, rumor sticks to a man once accused of killing his own wife. He takes advantage of a jolly good scare Elizabeth has to seduce her. They go so far as to to perform a ceremony of "in futuro" betrothal, in spite of the fact he is still married. In the meanwhile, Sir William Cecil, the trusted secretary of state in her court, does what he can to prevent the scoundrel from completely ruining her and England. It is Cecil who comes up with the ultimate solution to the problem when Elizabeth finally realizes she is in over her empty little head.

Gregory's portrayal of Elizabeth, the fiery red-headed Tudor queen, already known for having instigated more than one rebellion of her own, is in my mind downright bizarre. She is weak-willed, giggly, bratty, feels she cannot rule without a man, can't say no to dashing Robin, vacillates, coquettes, and flies into tears at the drop of a plumed hat. If she were the 14 year old or even the 17 year old Elizabeth, then maybe, but in The Virgin's Lover she is in her mid to late twenties. It isn't even a very consistent portrayal. While she is flitting about being girly, the author describers her as clever, imperious, and strong. I don't think so.

The gem of The Virgin's Lover is the portrayal of Robert's and Amy's relationship, in particular their exchanges. The two people's reactions to each other are brilliantly insightful and accurate. In two scenes in particular Robert's irritation with some of Amy's idiosyncrasies when waking up beside him in the morning and his reaction to the house she has found for them in a later scene are as well done as any scenes I have read. Robert himself is all too familiar a type, a ravishingly good looking man who simply can't see beyond his own perfect nose.

I have found Philippa Gregory to be a capable but often unreliable author. I adored one of her books, Earthly Joys, but so far have not cared for anything else she i have read of hers. She plays with historical people in I suspect intentionally provocative ways, but that can be great. Perhaps she just does not have quite what it takes to make it convincing. I know i am in a tin y minority in my doubts about her books.

I turn out to have unknowingly purchased an abridged version of the novel from Audible.com, so take my opinion with an appropriately abridged grain of salt. It is also available in print in the US and UK, on Kindle, in Braille at the NLS, on BookShare.org and in the following languages in print: English, German, Danish, Latin (?!), Portuguese, Russian, French,
Polish and Italian.

New Release! The Amber Treasure, by Richard Denning

New release!
The Amber Treasure
Richard Denning

“I will take care of the body of my lord and you can carry the sword, story teller. For all good stories are about a sword.”

Cerdic is the nephew of a great warrior who died a hero of the Anglo-Saxon country of Deira.

Growing up in a quiet village, he dreams of the glories of battle and of one day writing his name into the sagas. He experiences the true horrors of war, however, when his home is attacked, his sister kidnapped, his family betrayed and his uncle's legendary sword stolen.

Cerdic is thrown into the struggles that will determine the future of 6th century Britain and must show courageous leadership and overcome treachery, to save his kingdom, rescue his sister and return home with his uncle’s sword.

Learn more and purchasse this book at http://theambertresure.com

The Heretic Queen, by Michelle Moran

The Heretic Queen
Michelle Moran

The Heretic Queen is a richly painted tapestry of life in the 19th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, the time of Ramases, Luxor, Moses and all we usually picture in our minds when we think of the ancient Pharaohs. Michelle Moran has set the story of a young girl whose past holds her back from all she desires against this dynamic time.

Nefertari is the nieve of the Heretic Queen, Nefertiti, who, with her husband, Pharaoh Akhnaton, threw out the gods of Egypt in favor of just one, Aton, thus going against all the people believed and valued. Though raised alongside Ramases, the boy who would be pharaoh hereafter, there was no question of her becoming his wife, no less queen. She is taken under the arm of the high priestess of Hathor who does a PYgmalion job on her, taking her from a hoyden to an elegant young princess. Ramases is married already by that time, but to Isit, a woman who is all surface. Nefertari, on the other hand, knows several languages and has better advice on how to keep a husband happy than Isit does. The real conflict here, especially when Ramases does marry Nefertari, is with the people who are wildly superstitious and bitter about Nefertiti. So young Nefertari must deal with that baggage, the underhanded plots against her, and her own longing to know her mother, who died giving her birth, through what little is left of her heritage. Throw in Moses coming along asking her to let his people go, and you have a young lady with a lot on her plate and her mind.

The Heretic Queen is well researched and well considered where it diverges from the Known. i appreciated Moran's explanation of what and why she made some of this up. The feel of Ancient Egypt is so palpable that you can almost smell the pomegranates simmering. The story of a lonely young girl caught between warrring politcal factions is compelling, and the love story is sweet and sexy.

There was a point in The Heretic Queen when I started to get an uneasy feeling of familiarity. For all her protestations that she really only cares for what happens to Ramases and Egypt, Nefertari can't seem to keep her mind off what a skank Isit is. The two have a relationship that sounds an awful lot like two cheerleaders agonizing and sabotaging each other over who will get asked to go steady with the captain of the football team. Nefertari's main interest, in spite of her vaunted intelligence, is clothes, maekup and perfume. One minute she is focused on Ramases, then the next she is obsessing about about Isit. Is she prettier than me? Does he only me for my usefulness? Is he going to take her to the prom?? This was just too familiar a villain in my personal history, the Popular Girls. That gave me high school flashbacks... I was the history nerd.

This chilling reminder and several small continuity problems marred for me what was generally a very pleasant experience. I nevertheless recommend the book, for its lushness, for its narrative style, for its handling of a fascinating age, and for the many richly developed characters and supporting characters, particularly for people who are not haunted by high school ghosts.

I purchased the book from Audible.com o read on my Kindle2. I do not believe it is available in any other format than this and print, nor in any language other than English.

Sharpe's Escape, by Bernard Cornwell - Richard Sharpe Adventure Series

Sharpe's Escape
Bernard Cornwell

Richard Sharpe Adventure Series

If you will pardon my Middle English, Sharpe gets into more shit, literally. A sewer is the means to escape referred to in the title of this novel, and there is no pussyfoooting around it.

The extended title of Sharpe's Escape describes the novel as being about the Battle of Busaco in 1810m but in fact, though dramatized in typically loving detail, this battle is actually over shortly into the story. Most of the novel is about Sharpe's escape from a warehouse full of food being kept to sell to the French, a big no-no with the British army, by a thoroughly villainous fellow named Ferrahas, a former pirate and current profiteer.

Sharpe is not a happy man. Col. Lawford has set him up against brother-in-law Cornelius Slingsby, an eager incompetent lush, and Our Hero is convinced Lawford doesn't want him around any more. In the meantime, he steps on the massive toes of Ferragas whose brother is a Portuguese officer playing both sides as well. Ferragas has Sharpe beaten up, though he is none the healthier for his part in it. When Sharpe and Harper are sent to fetch turpentine in order to destroy supplies of salt meat in Coimbra, he runs into his old pal, Vincente, and they rescue Sarah Fry, Ferrera's governess, who has been bound naked in the attic of Ferrera's house by Ferragas. Somehow they find out about the warehouse of food, but, apologizing continuously to Sarah for their foul language, go to investigate. Ferragas catches them and locks them in his cellar along with two dead bodies. This is where the sewer comes in. In the process of leaving Coimbra, Our Heroes burn up the warehouse. They make their way south trying to get to Lisbon before the Bad Guys, and wind up helping the South Essex who are getting themselves killed in a farmhouse, thanks in large part to Lawford's misguided pushing of his brother-in-law into situations where he can learn some soldiering. Sharpe manages to bed Sarah in all this, and can be counted on for the grand gallant gesture afterward.

This is the usual barrel of Sharpe's moods, military acumen, besottedness, and all around bad luck, really. In other words, jolly good fun. It seemed to me to end rather abruptly, and Cornwell had to reach even farther than usual for the final "It was Sharpe's escape." Ferragas seemed awfully easy to subdue in fine, and you don't find out what happens to everyone: did Sarah use the money for the school she wants to start? Did Slingsby get booted back to England? Did Lawford get into even more trouble with Gen. Picton? Is Johanna going to stay on as Harper's main squeeze? I suppose we may learn all this in the next book, but Jim and I are now well trained t assume what happens in the movies is not what is going to happen in the books. We shall see.

We read this book from the paperback which we bought. It is available on in print both in the US and England, on Kindle, Audible.com,BookShare.org, on cassette and on BARD at the National Livbrary Services, but in no other languages than English.

Pawn in Frankincense: Fourth in the Legendary Lymond Chronicles, by Dorothy Dunnett

Pawn in Frankincense: Fourth in the Legendary Lymond Chronicles
Dorothy Dunnett

It's hard to know where to start with talking about this novel. I suppose a good place would be to say you absolutely must read the first three of the Lymond Chronicles before you read this one. They are: Game of Kings, , and The Disorderly knights. If you do not, you will simply not get the full impact of the novel. On the other hand, given that the impact will be intense, maybe not. maybe you'd rather soften it a bit.

This is a devastating novel, a long, complex and heart wrenching story of Lymond's search for Gabriel, the Knight of Malta who is about as pure an evil as he could be, and the parallel search for Lymond's son by Una O'Dwyer, Kyreddin. Gabriel has control of the boy and has operatives who will kill him if anything happens to Gabriel. Throughout the novel we see Lymond and his stalwarts try to come to grips with whether Gavriel is so huge a threat to the peace of the world that the child's life is no longer seen as so important. When you discover that there are two boys, one Lymond's and one a child Gabriel had with his own sister Joleta, you up the heart wrenching ante exponentially.

Pawn in Frankincense's plot is so complex I am not sure I can really give it to you. Lymond is selected as a special envoy from the King of France o the Sultan of Turkey and sets out with an odd assortment of companions. Jarret Blythe from the mercenary force and Philippa, the teenager who at first just detested Lymond are both there, he to protect Lymond and she to care for the child when they find him. Lymond has a Swiss chamberlain of sorts, and is also traveling with the maker of a magnificent music box the size of a harpsichord, along with his niece, Marthe. Archie Abbernathy joins the troupe en route, and some inter sting hangers on do as well. After a shocking discovery in Algiers, Lymond, Marthe and Jarret take the North African route to Stanbul while Philippa slips away from the rest and travels with a sort of hippie/beatnik across Italy and Greece. Add a sidetrip to try to stop a plan to destroy the Knights of Malta led by a turncoat Gabriel, Philippa's voluntary time in the Sultan's seraglio, lots of sexual tension between Jarret and Marthe, Lymond and Marthe, and Lymond and Jareet, and a macabre chess game, and you will be wrung out and useless by the end of the book. Oh, and did I say something about constant attempts on Lymond's life, buried treasure, and opium addiction? Don't finish this book just before you have to join in on any really important things.. you won't be all there.

I mustn't forget to mention Mme. Doutance, a creepy living spirit guuide who seems to be Dunnett herself, telling Lymond he has "three lessons yet to l earn". Philippa is not so sure the lady is on the level but instead might be setting everyone up for a cataclysmic fall.

My Lymond friend told me I would want to throttle Lymond throughout this novel, but frankly I never did feel that way. Now, Jarret and Philippa are quite another matter. They each drove me nuts at times with their fuzzy headedness.

There is some dancing around with homosexuality in this novel, which as far as I am concerned made it just that much more fascinating.

If I were Kate, even though I don't believe in corporal punishment, I am sure I would give Philippa the spanking of her life when she got home.

What does it tell you that every time I read one of the novels in this series, I have to wait a couple months to read the next. Don't be surprised if no one ever hears from me after I read the final novel in this six volume series.

Just thinking about it has m e breathless.

I read this book on cassettes from the national Library Service.

The Dragon at the Edge of the World by Charles White

The Dragon at the Edge of the World
Charles White

If you go into this novel blind, as it were, as i did you should be prepared for a surprise. I admit when I first heard that a main character's name was "Kevin", I thought, "Uh oh, anachronisms." Luckily I had the foresight.. or is it forehearing? to keep reading. It did not take me three sentences to figure out I was in for a hoot.

This is one funny novel. Funny à la Monty Python and the Holy Grail. maybe not quite in that caliber, but funny enough to be a welcome diversion from all these dramas and romances.

it is the story of Leif Erickson's younger brother, Kevin, who when joy riding in his new dragon ship, finds himself shipwrecked off the coast of North America. he immediately goes into business with an Indian named Baby selling maps, wooden duck decoys, lottery tickets and tobacco. The maps are intentionally made so that all those explorers traipsing through looking for China will keep traipsing. In the meantime, Leif's and Kevin's mom is tired of Leif sitting around in his armchair drinking beer and tells him to go find out what happened to his brother. Leif and his buddy wind up slaves of the chief of another tribe that doesn't like Baby's. A Big Canoe competition starts, another explorer named Rude Fugger shows up and manipulates the situation to his own ends, and various hijinks ensue, all of them hysterical.

One of my favorite lines is when the daughter of the chief in the midst of performing her many duties around the village and for her father, decides that "She really liked the sound of 'Princess Terri'." Another comes when two Chinese explorers likewise searching for new lands come upon a people who sell lots of little trinkets, like ceramic boys fishing and nesting dolls and such, a people called "The Knickknacks". But honestly, it ain't that easy to pick a favorite line.

The one problem I found in this novel is a tendency to slip into serious narrative at times, and I wished then that Charles White would have chosen either humor or narrative, not tried to do both. And I thought it all went on a little too long. But as it kept providing jokes that any historical novelist and pretty much anyone with a grounding in history would love, it was all well worth it.

This book is available in paperback and ebook. The author sent me a digital file in exchange for this review.