Category Archives: Book Review
Rosemary Sutcliff’s THE LANTERN BEARERS
The third volume in Rosemary Sutcliff’s Roman Britain Trilogy, THE LANTERN BEARERS is set roughly 300 years after her first, THE EAGLE OF THE NINTH in around 427 AD. 18-year-old Aquila is just starting out on life, and has spent … Continue reading
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Rosemary Sutcliff’s THE EAGLE OF THE NINTH
No-one knows what really happened to the Ninth Legion, the Hispana. All that is known is that it marched north into what is now Scotland to deal with the Painted People, and disappeared into the mists. A battered eagle, shorn … Continue reading
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Maria Bordihn’s THE FALCON OF PALERMO
Maria Bordihn’s THE FALCON OF PALERMO is an ambitious biography of an ambitious character. Emperor Frederick II (1194-1250), was known to his contemporaries as Stupor Mundi (the wonder of the world), because he could speak six languages – including Arabic … Continue reading
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Gabriella Brooke’s THE WORDS OF BERNFRIEDA: A CHRONICLE OF HAUTEVILLE
I loved the frame of this story. Bernfrieda, an illegitimate daughter of aristocrat Mauger de Granville, sits down in her old age to write a biography of her half-sister Senda. Thus the beginning is imaginatively cast as a medieval chronicle. … Continue reading
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Cecelia Holland’s GREAT MARIA
I started GREAT MARIA by Cecelia Holland, but couldn’t get on with it. The story was curiously lacking in shape and the pacing was off. This is what happens at the beginning: Maria is visiting a shrine, when suddenly her … Continue reading
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Upton Sinclair’s THE JUNGLE
Upton Sinclair’s THE JUNGLE is a wonderful novel that is not for the faint of heart. This powerful indictment of the meat-packing industry in Chicago at the turn of the century contains relentlessly explicit details about the working conditions that … Continue reading
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Philippa Gregory’s FALLEN SKIES
Philippa Gregory is a talented author with a knack for making characters come alive. But I have noticed a not-so-wonderful pattern to her novels: The beginnings are usually very strong, and then they peter off. Too many of her novels … Continue reading
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Ken Follett’s EYE OF THE NEEDLE
Ken Follett’s EYE OF THE NEEDLE is such a compelling well-written story, it seems a shame to mention the one weak spot in it, which involves an unbelievable plot twist. But first, I should like to tell you something about … Continue reading
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