A Little Lamb: THE LION AND THE LAMB by John Henry Clay

The Lion and The Lamb

It is about time that books of this kind - set in this period of history and of an epic nature - begin appearing in bookstores. Books that cover similar, are generally old or dated ones now. Published many decades ago and no longer in print. In fact, I can not think of any recent ones at all that are set in this thoroughly fascinating period of history.
There are shorter books purpose written to be the kicking off point for a series, but I can not think of anything like The Lion and The Lamb, which has been released in the last four or five years. By anything like The Lion and the Lamb, I mean epic journey fiction set in Roman Britain.

There have been similar in epic feel, like Hawk Quest by John Lyndon. Only that comes much later in British history and is set in countries outside of the UK for the most part.

I was very impressed by this debut from John Henry Clay (who most certainly has an epic name to match an epic story). It was not without its naivete and its rough edges, but I think most readers can forgive that in a debut. There are debuts that hit their marks and perfect notes. Debuts you would not guess were debuts, but they are not common. Therefore, I forgive this book for being freshly whelped. It would be unnecessarily pedantic not to.

The book was riddled with characters I liked and characters I did not. I really liked Paul and Eachna and I really disliked Amanda and Patricia. But that's going to happen in every book. Some characters appeal, some do not. Then for each reader that will be different.

If you read this book I would like to know what you think of the characters (whether I know you or we are yet to know each other, please feel free to give me your opinion).

I was very fond of Eachna. For her toughness, her vulnerability, her disability. She was the kind of well rounded and flawed character that I like and that will keep me coming back.

I do have to confess why it was that I gave this book four stars out of five..and nearly gave it three and a half. Sometimes, the names of the people, the way settings were described, I felt this book was not set in the period it was supposed to be. It had this habit of not having any sense of place or era and you could be reading a story in Roman Britain, or Medieval Britain, or even, at times, when there were scenes with no definite indicators of period, with names like Paul, Amanda, Victor, Patricia flying around, it could even have been not in history at all. But in current day.

For what it is worth, I understand that the author is educated through his profession in this period, and he would know if variations of these names are commonly attributed to this time, but I do not think these kinds of names give a good sense of era to a book like this. I think it makes it sound like an episode of  Heartbeat.
This improved a lot later in the book though. I must admit.

A caveat. I will add an apology in advance to the author for such cavalier disregard of the names he chose for his characters, but hey, reader reviews are all about personal taste, not whether we are right or not.

That was my only big negative to the book. I am not mad for stories about love either, but I do not cry foul about that because the book makes no secret of its strong relationship plots. I expected it.

What more can I say? It's a great debut. It's an honest attempt at giving us, the readers of historical fiction, a real epic of this period to sink our teeth into. Its the harbinger of things to come from this new author and he will be welcomed out of the Hodder & Stoughton author stable by more readers of the genre as he develops his skills over time.

 It is all those things and I recommend you give it your consideration (and then make sure you get back to me on what you thought of the characters).

- MM