‘Give Me Back My Legions!’ – Harry Turtledove (St. Martin’s Press)

Bank Holiday Weekends are a time for finding a nice patch of sun, sitting in it and getting pleasantly drunk. (And then being told by the police that you really shouldn’t be drinking there, they’ll let it go this time but they don’t want to catch you doing it again... but I digress...) Bank Holiday Weekends are also a time for catching up on all the reading that you meant to do but didn’t have the time for. That was certainly the plan for me and Harry Turtledove’s ‘Give Me Back My Legions!’ but it didn’t go quite to plan, I ended up putting this one down and won’t be picking it back up again...

‘Give Me Back My Legions’ chronicles the events leading up to the calamitous (for the Romans!) battle of Teutoburg Forest. I’m not a historian by any means, and know nothing about this period, but the blurb on the front cover left me wondering why I should bother reading this book if I already knew how it was going to end. In case anyone was wondering, the Romans lose...

Having never read anything by Harry Turtledove, I thought I’d give the book a go anyway. Maybe Turtledove had an exciting story lined up to make up for the fact that everyone knows how the story ends. Maybe he did and maybe he didn’t, I don’t know because I didn’t get far enough to find out. As far as I’m concerned, a book that’s only just over three hundred pages long needs to move along one hell of a lot faster than this one did. I managed to get just over a hundred pages in before putting this one down. Does there need to be a slow and laborious build up to an ending that everyone knows will happen? Harry Turtledove thinks so, I don’t (it’s an approach that I didn’t find entertaining at all and gave me no reason to keep reading, especially when I knew how it would all end...) and that proved to be the final straw as far as my reading the book was concerned.

Fans of Harry Turtledove will probably get a lot more out of this than I did. I’m not sure if I would give his work another go or not. Anyone got any recommendations?

‘Caligula’ – Douglas Jackson (Corgi)

Is it me or were all the Emperors of Ancient Rome more than a little bit mad? It’s a well known fact around here that I never paid an awful lot of attention to my history lessons but I did watch loads of Sunday afternoon films (you know the ones) and they were chock full of Roman Emperors letting the power go to their heads and killing people in lots of new and interesting ways.
Nero’s name is always the first name out of the hat when it comes to mad Roman Emperors but Caligula is definitely up there as well. One of my New Year’s resolutions for the blog was to shake up my reading a little bit and read more historical fiction (so long as it has plenty of sword fighting etc, like a fantasy novel but full of stuff that actually happened...) and Douglas Jackson’s ‘Caligula’ came along at just the right time...

Rufus is a young slave who believes that his luck has changed for the better, training animals for the gladiatorial games under a master who has promised to free Rufus and make him a partner in the business. However, luck can change the other way just as quickly and Rufus suddenly finds himself looking after the Emperor’s elephant. Life at the Imperial Court is dictated by the Emperor’s ever changing moods and his constant fear that people are plotting against him. This paranoia is not misplaced though. There are at least two plots to kill Caligula and Rufus is about to become embroiled in both of them. In a court where something as innocuous as a look can be seen as a sign of treachery can Rufus play both sides and escape with his life?

I’ve said it before and it’s worth saying again; I’ve pretty much forgotten what I learnt in my history lessons so can’t really comment upon how historically accurate ‘Caligula’ is. Jackson writes confidently though and doesn’t make many references to historical events, suggesting that he knows what he’s on about (and feels that he doesn’t need to overdo it in this regard) and is happy to let the story take centre stage.

The story itself is a mixture of full on bone crunching action, in the arena, and subtle machinations in court leading up to a bloody conclusion. While the emphasis is on physical confrontation and armed combat things move along at great speed and I completely got into what was happening on the page. Jackson isn’t one for leaving out any details, be warned though that this is also applied to some of the more unfortunate beatings that minor characters must suffer... These passages are perhaps best not read while you’re eating! Jackson has the ability to keep things running smoothly, keeping the reader’s interest in the meantime.

It’s a shame then that this isn’t the case when the plot shifts into the Imperial Palace. Scheming and plotting are the order of the day, with a long game being played by all sides and everything dependant on what mood the Emperor is in at any one time. This slow patient approach, on the part of the players, really slows things down and can be very annoying considering that certain characters are particularly good at hiding their motivations. At times I was left with no idea what was going on, only the knowledge that everything turned out ok in the end...

It’s a good thing then that the main characters are accessible and have plenty to recommend them to the reader. Rufus’ progression from naive slave to player of the game of intrigue (still a slave though) is compelling and we get to see how personal tragedy shapes his development. The gladiator Cupido is also a good character to spend time around as well, his internal conflict between honour and doing the right thing is an ongoing theme and ends in the only way such a conflict can.

‘Caligula’ is rather a ‘stop start’ affair but enjoyable nevertheless. There are hints that we might see more of Rufus in future books, I’d certainly be interested in seeing where his story takes him next.

Seven and a Quarter out of Ten

‘Raven: Blood Eye’ – Giles Kristian (Bantam Press)

Everything starts to slow down the closer it gets to Christmas (not long now!) and this is definitely the case with my reading. I just can’t seem to get into anything right now so I thought I’d give myself a little kick start by reading something that I wouldn’t normally go for. The only problem was that I wanted to read something with all the elements of heroic fantasy, just without the fantasy...
Luckily for me, I had a copy of Gile Kristian’s debut ‘Raven: Bloodeye’ (out next February) waiting on the ‘to be read’ pile. This piece of historical fiction looked like it would have enough sword fights and derring do to keep me happy and the total lack of fantasy would satisfy my need for something different...

Osric cannot remember anything further back than the last two years he has spent in a village, apprenticed to a mute carpenter and shunned by the other villagers on account of his blood red eye. He doesn’t find out anything about his past either but ‘Raven’ is the beginning book in a trilogy so you can probably expect to find more out at a later date...
It’s the present that matters right now for Osric and this involves him being taken away by marauding Norsemen as their leader, Sigurd the Lucky, believes that their fates are intertwined. This remains to be seen but what we get in the meantime is an abortive attempt at returning home, by the Norsemen, which results in a dangerous mission (which must be undertaken) to steal a holy relic. This would be hard enough at the best of times but this is a small group of Norsemen stuck in the middle of a country that where all the inhabitants would happily see them dead...

Kristian doesn’t waste any time in kicking off ‘Raven’ with a bang, giving Osric the bare minimum of introductions before getting on with the serious business of rape, pillage and plundering as well as the sideline business of chopping the hell out of everyone who gets in your way. The glossing over of Osric’s past is very obviously there to set things up for a big revelation, later on in the series, but in the meantime it serves to fuel an interesting sub-plot where Osric must choose between the life he is leaving behind and loyalty to his new lord. The main plot itself is also a page turner with plenty of twists to keep things interesting.

There is plenty of action in ‘Raven’ which is only to be expected given the subject matter. Not only do the Norse Fellowship fight almost everyone that they meet but volatile tempers mean that they are also liable to start on each other as well! If you’ve come to this book looking for a fight then that’s what you’ll get! Kristian stops things from getting repetitive though by taking the time to get into the team dynamic that the Norsemen enjoy. While they’re all warriors in their own right, and won’t step back from a fight, they’re all (for the most part) happy to soldier under the leadership of Sigurd, mainly to get rich but also because there is something about this character that inspires loyalty.

While I enjoyed reading ‘Raven’, I couldn’t escape the feeling that I had read it before. Obviously I hadn’t, what with the book not being out until February next year, but there were elements that seemed overly familiar i.e. the archetypal ‘boy with a mysterious past who turns out to be amazing with a sword’, a quest (another one?) and ‘the hero falling in love with a girl whose station is above him and she hates him but starts to warm towards him eventually’. There’s enough going on in ‘Raven’ to make me want to see where the story goes next but I’ve been left hoping for a change in direction. Having said that though, there is something worthwhile to be said for a book/series where you know exactly what you are going to get. There’s nothing wrong with a comfort read...

My knowledge of history is decidedly rusty (it’s the present and the future that mostly concern me!) but I got the general impression that Kristian was writing with the air of someone who knew what he was talking about. There was one occasion though where I felt that he took a step out of context and placed twenty first century morals on an eighth century character in an attempt to get the reader to identify with him more...
I don’t need to tell you that rape is wrong, whatever period of history it takes place in, but it felt a little odd to me that Osric went through with the act but had an attack of guilt about it the whole way through. Either he should have done it (and be damned) or not done it and been more able to live with himself. The end result came across like Kristian wanted to include the scene but didn’t want to glorify rape and this made the passage feel awkward and stand out even more...

Despite this, ‘Raven: Blood Eye’ is an entertaining read that promises a sequel at least as good (hopefully better). The book ends on a bit of a cliff-hanger and I for one am interested to see what happens next...

Seven and a Half out of Ten

‘Gladiatrix’ – Russell Whitfield (Myrmidon Books)

It wasn’t until I saw ‘Gladiator’, for the first time, that I realised women also fought in the arena. I never really paid much attention in history classes and that one must have slipped me by… It didn’t slip Russel Whitfield’s notice though and he’s gone and written a book about it. This is the first historical novel that I’ve reviewed and to be honest I wasn’t sure, at first, if it would fit into the remit of what I’m trying to do with the blog. I picked it up anyway and enjoyed it so much that it definitely gets a mention here.
The plot is simple. Lysandra is a Spartan warrior priestess who has been shipwrecked and sold into slavery as a Gladiatrix, a female gladiator who provides the ‘warm up act’ to the crowd before the main events. It’s a slim hope but the only possible way that Lysandra can regain her freedom is by victory in the arena. Lysandra’s Spartan upbringing will help her survive the arena but she must still contend with the enmity of Sorina, the Gladiatrix Prima, and the brutal Numidian trainer Nastasen…
I really enjoyed reading ‘Gladiatrix’ and I reckon if you’re a fan of historical fiction by authors such as Simon Scarrow and Conn Iggulden then you could do a lot worse than pick this one up for a read. As the title suggests, a lot of the action takes place in the arena and after reading some of the fights I was left feeling almost as bruised as I would have done if I’d been fighting for real! Whitfield isn’t one of those authors who has their characters rushing in waving a sword, there’s evidence of real thought regarding the consequences of each sword thrust and shield block. The fight scenes can sometimes drag on for a bit though, sometimes this serves to increase the tension but at other times it just seems unnecessary (especially if you know that a certain character will win through) and almost cartoonish. The same goes for the ‘romantic sub-plot’ between Lysandra and one of the other gladiatrices, while there were some real poignant moments I’m pretty sure that the sex scenes perhaps didn’t need to be dwelt upon at such great length. It’s cool if you like that kind of thing in your reading but I wanted to find out what happened next!
On the whole though, ‘Gladiatrix’ is an entertaining read that has an air of thorough research about it. Whitfield steers the reader through a series of events in the arena (as well as some hard hitting stuff outside it!) that contrasts well with Lysandra’s journey to reconcile her Spartan upbringing with her new life as a slave. There are plenty of twists and turns and you’re also well advised not to get too attached any particular character; life in the arena is harsh and death is never far away!
If you’ve ever wondered what ‘Gladiator’ would have been like with Angelina Jolie in the main role (surely it’s not just me?) then give ‘Gladiatrix’ a try ;o)

Eight out of Ten