Code and Conduct: THE KING'S SPY by Andrew Swanston

A very decent debut novel from author Andrew Swanston.
Set against the backdrop of the English Civil War, around the time of the Battle of Newbury. The main character Thomas Hill, a bookseller from a small rural town, is commandeered to assist Charles I with codes and ciphers, encrypting and decrypting. He must leave the secure home that he shares with his beloved sister and nieces in Romsey, and relocate temporarily to Oxford.
The book twists and turns and has you guessing. The 'who is bad/who is good' that a reader of historical mystery has come to expect is there in spades.
The historical description, as far as the environment and the times go, is good. Not too much, just enough to help you see through the looking glass into the character's world.

I did have some issues with the detail in which the author has gone to to demonstrate how codes are written and broken in the 17th century and I felt it fractured the flow and ambiance of the book early on. From the very first page the story was delightful, the characters charming, and then it changes tack and turns into a lesson on early coding and nothing else is really going on in the story. A lot of going for walks and more code breaking sessions. Letter by letter, cipher by cipher, number by number. A similar issue happens at the gambling table, when the characters are playing Hazard. Much too much detail, that breaks the spell and jolts you out of the story.

This is mostly in the first 120 pages and if you can make it through that and still maintain interest then you will discover the info dumps come down to a dull roar. If the reader is not interested or they had enough in the early stages of the book, then it is easier to scan over these sections as they come to make up paragraphs instead of the whole pages from earlier scenes.

The King's Exile by Andrew Swanston

It was this detail and a couple other minor problems (that would be spoilers to mention) that nearly made me give the book 3 stars, but then I realised that a book which can make me read virtually non stop until finished surely deserves 4 stars, despite the rather dull coding and 'Hazard' info dumps, so let's call it a 3 1/2 star book for now.
 All up, as mentioned in the beginning of this review, a very decent first outing for Mr Swanston. I will definitely be reading the next one: The King's Exile which is due for release in some countries in September 2013.


- MM

Let's See What The Indies Think Shall We?

In the Ancient and Medieval Historical Fiction Group we have many members who are authors or aspiring authors.  Some are Traditionally Published and some are Self Published.
The A&M Group is, in its essence, not a place for authors to actively seek sales from the non author members. It is a reader's group. Authors, Traditionally Published or Self Published, are asked when they join to not be in the group only to sell books. Their first priority is to be in our group as a reader and to enjoy reading and talking books with us.
 Over time, as members get to know these authors and trust that they are not just there to sell books, genuine relationships are built and then sales start to happen naturally. Of their own accord.
We have a lot of authors who try to aggressively market their book or books, but we have some lovely self published authors who join the group conversations because they love historical fiction in general. They may like to write it, but they also love to read it.
I wanted to reach out to some of these lovely authors this month and interview them here on the blog. To let them know that we really do see them and that, as readers of historical fiction, we appreciate that they have joined us to chat books, not just to sell them.
It is also an opportunity for me to ask, on behalf of myself and the readers in the group, what is happening in the Indie world.
 I would like to introduce the three Indie authors that I invited onto the blog for this interview.

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Bryn Hammond - Bryn lives in Australia and has been a member of the A&M book group since May 2012. Most active members of A&M know Bryn. She is as big a book fan as any of us.
Her first love is the Steppes and the history of the tribes. The Mongols have become a passion for her and she is proud of the way she has presented the Mongols in her books as a people. Not as the violent, cultureless, bloodthirsty hoard that they so often portrayed as. Pictured is her book Amgalant One: The Old Ideal






Jean Gill -  Is a writer of many varied genres, but the ones that are of interest to us today are her historical fiction.  Jean hails from Wales but lives in the South of France and has a lifestyle that many of us may consider a perfect idyll. With bee hives and an orchard and a near proximity to the vineyards of this area of France.
She writes, currently, in historical settings in the 12th century. Narbonne and Jerusalem.  Pictured is her book Song at Dawn.








Paula Lofting  - Writes in the 11th century which is a favourite period of history of mine as well, so I can understand why she wants to write in it. Paula truly loves her 11th century history and can talk about it all day long. A mother and nurse as well as an author, she is currently working on the follow up to the book Sons of the Wolf.







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What does being 'Indie' mean to you?

Bryn: It means you keep control of your work. Every decision is yours. Whether it’s artistic integrity you care about, whether it’s your own choice of cover and title: your book is in your hands. That’s what I like.

Jean: Freedom. I can publish exactly what I want, without cuts or compromise, and I write to my own deadlines. I love designing my own book jackets – three previous publishers let me do so but I still remember the disappointment of seeing the woman’s face on my first novel – nothing like my character! I write in many different genres and I’ve got over not finding Editor Right. I will never have another rejection or be let down by a publisher again in my life.

Paula:  I guess that being Independent means that I have full control over what goes in my book, the content, what I am writing about and the cover images. I take advice but the end of the day, being Indie means I am in the 'Driving Seat' and I can make choices that often mainstream authors can't. Also, being Indie doesn't mean I do everything myself, it just means I have the power to employ whoever I wish to help me produce my book. Some Indie writers are self-published. I don't think that's me, I am more assisted published.




Did you investigate going 'Indie' before going it alone? ie seek advice, online research etc.. Or was it a decision you had to make due to major publishers' reluctance to sign up new historical fiction authors (especially in light of what has happened this decade in world economies)?

Bryn: Neither of the above... no, I didn’t investigate much. I had always been afraid of a number of things about traditional publishing. One is the changes they make to your book. That’s an issue for me, and I expected conflict, since we’d have different aims. Theirs is to make my book as commercial as they can, whereas I’d sacrifice ‘commercial’ to ‘what’s right for the book’. Next anxiety: publicity demands. I’m acutely shy in person, but you can’t say no, can you? The only comfort I ever saw on an agent’s site was that shy writers are catered for: they might be asked to do radio interviews. Yeah, right. Then, it’s typical, I think, that you have to produce a book a year, by contract. To me, that’s a factory line. A book needs the time it needs.
So I’d always thought of (traditional) publishing as a necessary evil. Not necessary any more.

Jean: No, I jumped first and checked out the flotation devices afterwards. The books were already written and ready for publication, a mix of ‘near misses’ with publishers, and rights-reverted, so I went crazy and published 11 e-books in one year as soon as amazon allowed writers outside the USA to publish kindles. Prior to that, I was desperately seeking a friend in the USA to publish with and it was so frustrating to be held back from entering the new marketplace. I also discovered smashwords and Mark Coker's advice there - so helpful.

Paula: I did investigate going to a publisher but the whole prospect seemed very daunting. In the end, after speaking to a well known author who had decided to go to an assisted publisher, I thought, what the heck, lets do it. I could be dead by the time I found a publisher who would take me on, if one did at all! It took me 6 years to research and write my first two books, I didn't want to wait another 6 years looking for a publisher.




How common do you think it is these days for Indie authors to choose not to shop a manuscript around and from the very beginning they write with the intention to only publish independent?

Bryn: To become common. When I think of how past writers have struggled with publishers. Last year I read John Cowper Powys’ giant Arthur novel Porius, painstakingly reconstructed out of his notebooks. He’d had to cut a third of the book to satisfy a publisher – which must have hurt. As an independent, you publish what you want, when you want. If big publishers make conservative choices, if they want clone books, then independence means freedom – from trends, from what’s judged to be in and out, and even, still, notions on what you can and can’t write about. That’s got to attract creative minds.

Jean: That’s exactly what I do but I think many Indie authors are hoping to attract a big publisher with their success, rather than to remain self-published. Maybe I’ll change my mind if a big publisher sweet-talks me but at the moment I feel I would lose more than I’d gain by signing a contract. Indie suits me.

Paula: Its very common. A lot of indie authors publish very cheaply. sometimes the results are not that good, the product is not a professional standard but if you know what you are doing, it can be a very good choice. I prefer to use an assisted publisher I trust to take care all of the details that would give me a headache like uploading into the Nielsen System etc. But its worth shopping around for a good affordable price for a quality book. You don't have to fork out thousands.




How do you find the market responding to Independently published historical fiction? Is it growing in popularity do you think or are other genres dominating and taking the lion's share?

Bryn: Romance is going gangbusters. Maybe it’s an adventurous spirit, maybe it’s about cheap ebooks, maybe – as I suspect – it’s a catch-on thing. People do what their fellow enthusiasts do. I don’t know whether they have killed the prejudice, over in romance.

Prejudice remains, and I think a double-standard. Indie’s sins are pointed out where I see those sins in trad. But indie hf is in a healthy state and can only grow.

Jean:  I don’t think readers these days distinguish between independently published and traditionally published authors, and Historical Fiction is hugely popular. It’s the 4th biggest genre out of 19 listed with the popular bargain-chaser site Bookbub, after mysteries, romance (including historical romance) and thrillers. However, this makes HF very competitive and very difficult to break into the bestsellers lists. You need huge, regular sales to get to the top 100. My ‘Song at Dawn’ had 26,000 downloads when it was on free promotion, reached Number 8 on the HF bestsellers’ list, has great reviews, but dropped straight back out of sight when the promotion finished.

Paula: historical fiction is extremely popular, both indie and main stream published books are doing well. I do think that chicklit and crime is more popular though




When you write historical fiction do you research what eras are popular and more likely to sell, then fit a story to that more marketable era? Or do you choose an era you already love, whether it is popular or not, and then write your story into it?

Bryn: Definitely the latter. Writers ought to write what they love – and what they have things to say about. I was a writer without a story for years, the symptom of which was unfinished novels... until I stumbled on a subject ideal for me. Then I felt those trials (failure and frustration at the time) had been an apprenticeship. I remember the fortnight – now eleven years ago – when I read Huc and Gabet’s travels in Mongolia; straight away to Rene Grousset on Temujin’s life; and third the Secret History of the Mongols itself. Most exciting fortnight of my life. Might be like meeting your future spouse.

Jean: Not at all and an Editor friend has said this is the mistake most writers make – we don’t check out the market. Maybe she’s right but that just wouldn’t work for me. Stories come to me and demand to be written. My historical period chose me when read the statement ‘It was rumoured that a female troubadour toured the south of France with a large white dog’. How could I not write that story?! It was during my research that I narrowed the year down to precisely 1150. When I plan the book in detail I do think about 'what shelf' it will go on and how long it should be to fit reader expectations. It wasn’t until after I’d written the first HF book that I thought seriously about marketing it.

Paula: I write what I enjoy the most. Writing Sons of the Wolf was a labour of love for me. I write for me first, then if people buy it its a bonus. If they read it and like it, its an even bigger bonus.




Where do you see Independent Publishing and Indie authors going in the future? For example; Do you foresee Indie books only ever being available and bought in digital form or do you think book stores will start to carry more lines of hardcopy Indie books?

Bryn: With Amazon’s Extended Distribution paperbacks are available, for instance, from The Book Depository and Australia’s Fishpond (who have increased my prices hideously). Possibly in actual stores in North America... it’s a start. Smashwords, meanwhile, pioneers in ebook distribution – including to libraries, an idea they are committed to. Availability is a happening area, there’s frequent news on that front.

Jean: Here in France, people are still saying that ebooks will never catch on, which makes me very aware of how fast the world has changed. Obsolescence usually takes three generations (of people, not of iphones!). Take the invention of the calculator: grandparents refused to use calculators; parents used them but had good mental arithmetic; the children relied on calculators completely. I think the same will happen with e-books. We are the dual-use generation, loving physical books and also enjoying e-book advantages. The children will grow up with lightning-fast keypad dexterity, able to search and find, plagiarise and annotate, but very slow in use of physical books.

My books are all available in print and not just because I like to hold them and look at the jackets. I see physical books as a shop window and loss leader for e-books. Goodreads will only do a giveaway for a print book. I always have 50 books printed, which I sell directly and from a local bookshop. I use a print-on-demand service, with ISBN, and readers can order my books from bookshops. Sometimes a niche book can be placed on sale where it fits best and, as physical bookshops are an endangered species, other outlets for print books will become vital. I mailed the Pyrenean Mountain Dog Club of Great Britain, and the one in France about my dog book and they have copies of my book for sale.

Paula: I'm not sure really. It would be nice if there were more Indie bookstores like the one near my home who stocks my book. The owner there John has a few indie author's books in there. He has been a great help in giving me somewhere to sell my books. I think that attitudes in most of the mainstream market is still pretty snobby toward Indie.




 If someone was going to write a novel or is thinking of writing a novel, would you encourage them to shop their manuscript first and publish Indie as a last resort? Or would you encourage them to forget the big publishers and go Independent first?

Bryn: Whichever they feel comfortable with. I wouldn’t nudge them either way.

Once I was tempted. Knew a writer who had his opus online, getting attention, but he kept trudging around agents, as he’d done for ten years past. He never talked about indie, instead we heard his gallows humour about the next rejection. The guy already had a readership. I felt like giving him the elbow, believe me... but I didn’t.

Jean: It depends on the writer’s publishing skills, financial situation and confidence. If your aim is to make money, forget small presses. If, however, you value a well-produced book and an Editor who works with you, a small press might be just the thing. If you want to say ‘My book is published by Penguin’ then you need to approach Literary Agents and you need to be prepared to wait, probably for years, with no guarantee of publication. Most publishers no longer read unsolicited manuscripts and they are as confused as authors about what’s going to happen next.

Paula: I would say do whatever feels right for you. If you're young enough to wait ten years or whatever it takes to find a publisher, then do it. If like me you want to get your life's dream realised quickly, then go indie!




What would be the best advice on publishing independently and the best tips on marketing you could give an author who was thinking of going Indie?

Bryn: I have a warning. Indie books can sit there obscurely, even terrific indie books – I’ve seen them, and seen their authors grow disheartened.

On the other hand, think of the reality for the trad-published. Most books never sell enough to cover the author’s advance. You have six weeks to sell, or you’re off the shelves. Your book is then dead. They can leave you out of print, and digital unused, and you’re stuck, without the rights to your book. We don’t hear about those authors but they are the majority. Even an obscure indie is out there, in print: paperback and ebook can be bought worldwide. Your book always has a chance.

Jean: Get critical input on your work. I have an invaluable network of writer friends and we do quality-control for each other. Beta-reading (error-checking what we oldies call the draft version) is a great idea – I’ve had readers volunteering to beta-read my next novel and I know they’ll spot any plot inconsistencies. One true fan is worth 10,000 freebie-chasers.
If you don’t seek, or don’t find, a publisher, then you need to assess what you can do yourself and what you can’t. You can pay for services but beware the crooks!
www.smashwords.com has free booklets on formatting ebooks correctly and on marketing. It also has lists of jacket designers and professional formatters, at reasonable prices.
You have published a great book? Now network. Read writers’ blogs. Use social media to share what you learn. Little and often is better for social media.

And face the Giant. Amazon. No-one markets your books better than amazon. Make your author page and your book pages attractive to your readers. No-one makes you sign your soul away to the extent amazon does. Your choice.

Paula: Shop around if you're going assisted, there are many companies who will charge you a fortune and you most certainly wont ever get your money back on a first novel. Use a good editor whose work you have seen or someone has recommended. Blog, join book groups on FB and Goodreads and network! And remember, for most of us, this is not a career. Very few writers can give up their day jobs. Its a lovely hobby, that's how I see it.

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Thanks Bryn, Jean and Paula for all the time you put into your answers.

- MM

Getting Real at Acre: TEMPLAR'S ACRE by Michael Jecks

Templar's Acre by Michael Jecks

Anyone who writes reviews for a review site or their blog knows that feeling when you sit down to write and your fingers sit on the keys motionless. You write a few words. Erase them. Try again. Erase them. It is a dance I am sure the writer of novels knows only too well, especially when things are not so straight forward, and reviewers who want to write about the books they read are no different. It is a dance and I was in it when I sat down to write about Templar's Acre.

When a story, or in this case a review, is not an easy do - as in, there are some contrary and not so straight forward opinions to share – things get tough. With this book most of those opinions are positive and worthy of some wordy salutes and yet I have some gentle critique to give too. The review requires thought and so my fingers wavered and my mind stalled and the dance began.

So, how should it evolve? This contrary review. I gave the book 4 stars out of 5, not 5 out of 5. Which foot should I put forward first then? The negative that made the book lose a star from me? Or the positive that gave it a bountiful four?

As my fingers waver again, I think I need to put my negative foot forward in this dance and whirl of words and imagination. The reason I dropped a star.

I enjoyed the book. Enjoyed it from the beginning, but it had its ups and downs for me at first.
Michael Jecks begins the book on a high seas journey to the Holy Land with our main character Baldwin de Furnshill, who is the son of a Knight and “A man of honour and trained in the sword”.
In time, he will become familiar to you as Sir Baldwin de Furnshill, one of two main characters in Michael Jecks' 31 book mystery series, A Knights Templar Mystery. Only this one, Templar's Acre, is a prequel to that entire series. Technically it is book 32, but is a spin off of sorts called A Knights Templar Adventure and it is the most recent released to date.

So he is not Sir Baldwin the stoic and war weary character of the Knights Templar Mystery series. He is a different man, his younger, unexplored self, a youthful Baldwin the Pilgrim. And in 1290AD he is on a sea journey and under attack by Genoese pirates.

It was a fantastic kicking off point and I instantly knew that I was going to like this book. I just had to, once we got away from the sea battle and off the boat, get passed some Holy Land character set ups and scene creation that failed to really draw me in. The characters were not very exciting at that stage and there was a very mild love story that I felt nothing for. To this reader, that love story felt forced and disconnected. Included just to make an extra plotline. It improved for me later in the book, but I could have done without that storyline altogether. Others will disagree, but that was how I felt.

And then it happened. The Siege of Acre. And what a beast it was. It caught me off guard, in fact. I was kind of reading along, liking but not loving the book, and then some momentum started to build. Things started to happen. Scenes and plotlines locked into place. The book began to pull together. The characters came into their own and by the time Qalawun, then in turn Khalil, and the Muslim army marched upon Acre my eyes were wide and my pulse was actually racing.

I stood on the walls with Baldwin and the defenders of the city as they watched the Muslim army, strengthened by Egyptians and Syrians, gather and raise their siege machines across the rugged Levant landscapes beyond the confines of Acre. Here was an army well versed in siege warfare, who had taken Tripoli by siege not long before. They were driven by revenge and a passion to repel the Crusaders from the Kingdom of Jerusalem and so they built their machines, their catapults and mangonels, and they planned their deadly strikes with precision.

Men on foot and on horse back, moving about and forming up in greater numbers than the defenders of Acre could ever have dreamed of and when those mighty siege machines swung back and released upon the walls and towers of the city, Baldwin stood - I stood - watching them, feeling the thud and quake run through the stone and our bodies as they smashed and pummeled the gigantic walls of Acre to dust and rubble. Crushing the defenders, tearing the town apart from the inside out and burning its inhabitants alive with their barrage of Greek fire.

Now things were getting interesting.
Now we had ourselves a book.

If you know your history of the Fall of Acre, the last major stronghold of the Crusaders, then you know what was to eventually happen. The outcome of this battle is not written by Michael Jecks, it is written by history and the author needed only do what he knows he must. Place his characters across the battlefield in our mind's eye and hope we can see what he saw as he laid it out for us. For this reader, I believe he managed it. He harvested his years of experience as a writer, dosed it with his experience with research and threw it out across the page like the artisan of historical fiction that he is.

That was why I gave this book four stars. I took one away for the part that left me unmoved and gave him four for the craft I saw in this fictional version of the real life battle of Acre.
When I closed up the book I had one train of thought that I remember repeating to myself several times.

Write more of this, Michael Jecks. Write more of this.
Find yourself another field of play and another collection of set pieces and write more of this.

- MM


I did an interview with Michael Jecks on this blog when Templar's Acre was released, in which he speaks of the book.
http://ancientandmedievalmayhem.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/blog-interview-with-author-michael-jecks.html

I received my copy of Templar's Acre for reading and reviewing from Simon & Schuster Australia.
Boy, am I grateful they sent me a review copy or I may have put off reading this book for goodness knows how long.
A big thanks to them for the great read.

 

 

Blog Interview With Author GILES KRISTIAN

Giles Kristian is becoming a familiar name in historical fiction circles, and it is not only for the reasons you expect.  He writes of course. Is an author with a reputation as solid as any. Has written a three book Viking trilogy called the RAVEN Series, which is about to get the Prequel wand passed over it as Gods of Vengeance batters and carves its way from the authors mind onto paper.
He has also taken on the 1600's and a story set against the English Civil War in his new RIVERS Family Series of which Brothers' Fury is the latest release.

What else is he becoming familiar for then? Well, it is for his love of history! For Giles Kristian is one of those authors who lives and breathes his settings. He gets out of his chair, removes himself from his office, and really puts himself out there. He wants to not only draw inspiration from research, but from life experience as well.
Most recently, that urge to breathe and walk his historical eras saw him stalking the timbers of a replica Viking Long Ship in Norway with fellow esteemed historical fiction author Robert Low.

So not only was it my lucky day to have landed this interview with Giles Kristian and hear him talk about all those wonderful things that we love so much to read and learn about, but we are also able to hear first hand of Giles' experiences on a beautiful replica Long Ship. What was it like? How did it
feel? Was it what he expected?
He has answered all these questions and more in this months Author Interview.  Done to coincide with the August 2013 Group Read of RAVEN: Blood Eye in Ancient & Medieval Historical Fiction Group.
So grab yourself a horn of mead, stir your cauldron, stoke your fires, gather your children, shrug on your wolf pelts and settle in for some moments with Giles Kristian and Medieval Mayhem as we talk of books, histories and sagas and so much more.

Do you think it is important to be as historically accurate as possible in an historical fiction novel?

I think this is the question we historical novelists get asked the most, and yet I still never really know how to answer it. In the past I’ve found myself bristling ever so slightly at this one and feeling somewhat defensive, as if the question’s subtext goes something like this: So, don’t you feel bad about changing history to fit your make-believe story? How very dare you! Or something. Nevertheless, I can see why readers (myself included) want to know the author’s feelings about truth verses story - as though the two are mutually exclusive - in historical fiction. So, how to answer…?

Well, let’s start with this author’s ultimate aim when writing a novel. I am not an historian. I am not an academic. More than either of these two things I am an entertainer. I want my tales to transport people to another time and place after a hard day’s work. I want nothing more than for them to feel as though they are inside the story, for my writing to weave a spell that keeps them turning the pages. I believe the best way to do this, particularly in an historical novel, is to be meticulous when crafting the world my characters inhabit, to let the details conjure that sense of time and place which the reader can smell and all but reach out and touch. To do this I make sure I do my research. And to be frank it can be a huge pain in the arse. The research is at least 50% of the job and probably more. The secret is, of course, to sow these details carefully and lightly and not to be tempted to show the reader how very clever you are and how much you know about, say, the twenty-five or so separate procedures in loading and firing a matchlock musket. As the writer I need to know every one of them, but the reader does not. Not unless they’re having trouble sleeping. If they did want to know this kind of stuff they would be reading a non-fiction book.

I rarely if ever get things wrong intentionally. I might not be averse to conflating historical events slightly if I have no choice, shifting the date of a political incident or skirmish by a matter of days to fit the timescale of my story, but I won’t ‘change history’ as we understand it. But then there’s another issue here. What is the truth? The truth is more often than not simply one person’s very limited view of an event already coloured by their own bias and/or prejudice. The hard-working non-fiction writer piecing it all together (to whom I’m very grateful) for her book has probably chosen to write the book in the first place because of a passion for, and possible bias towards, her subject. For example, Charles Spencer’s Prince Rupert:The Last Cavalier, whilst a brilliant and entertaining study of King Charles I’s nephew and poster boy of the Royalist campaign, is clearly written by a man who respects and likes his subject. Another historian might despise the proud, reckless prince and his book might reflect that. In short there are many versions of history. As a fiction writer my job is not to explain the past but to help the reader to feel the past, to give them an understanding of what it was like to slide 'into another’s clothes until we find what it was to wear them,’ as my fellow author and friend Manda Scott put it recently.
Indeed, of History of Alexandre Dumas said something like;

‘It is the nail on which I can hang my novels.’ For me though it’s perhaps more than that, it is an intrinsic part of the tale.

So back to the question. Yes, I think it is important to be as historically accurate as possible in an historical fiction novel. But none of it matters at all if your novel is dry, academic and void of texture, and if no one has the inclination to turn the next page.

 

Who is your favourite historical figure and why? And do you think you will ever write about them, if you already haven't?

One of my favourite historical figures is Hannibal of Carthage.  But David Anthony Durham  (Pride of Carthage) and Ben Kane (Hannibal Series)  beat me to him. Another is Alexander the Great (everyone has beaten me to him) and another is Harald Sigurdsson by-named Hardrada (literally, hard counsel, although perhaps a better translation would be ruthless) who was the king of Norway and whose death at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066 marks the end of what we call the Viking Age.

‘So much taller and stronger than most men, and so shrewd that he won the victory wherever he fought, and so rich in gold that no-one had ever seen the like of it.’

Snorri Sturluson– Harald’s saga.

Hardrada is remembered for his ill-fated invasion of England and his last stand at Stamford Bridge, but these events simply mark the end of an incredible life, a great journeying arc of warfare spanning thirty-five years and which must have made Harald Sigurdsson one of the most widely travelled men of his age. What I like about Harald, other than him being some sort of uber Viking (albeit a Christian one) in terms of his wander-lust, his martial prowess and his obvious charisma, is that he had an ambition and never let go of it. 17 years after his first battle, Stiklestad, he became sole ruler of Norway, a prize he had had his eye on for so many years.

I have not written about Hardrada in my novels but many of his exploits inspired my own RAVEN saga. I did though write some lines dedicated to the great man. I wanted these to have the feel of the old sagas and so filled the piece with kennings, which is the old Norse and Anglo Saxon convention of figuratively mentioning something without using the obvious word – a bit like a riddle. For example, some kennings for blood are: battle-sweat, slaughter’s dew, wound-sea. A ship might be a wave-steed or fjord-elk and the sun a sky candle. Pretty evocative aren’t they? If you’re interested, you can read my poem about Harald’s life here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/105137720/HARDRADA%E2%80%99S-SAGA

 

If you could go back in time where would it be to and who or what would you most like to see in the flesh when you get there and why?

 

As brutal as it sounds, I’d go back to Senlac Hill on that fateful day of October 14th 1066. On that day England was changed for ever, the old order swept aside to be replaced by a new ruling elite. England’s orientation was turned from a formally Scandinavian one towards one with mainland Europe, affecting our culture and language and establishing this island nation as a player on the European stage. It gave rise to a hybrid English and Norse culture which had an enormous and lasting affect on our language, literature, architecture and law. Perhaps this has always resonated with me partly because I am a half blood myself, having a Norwegian mother and an English father.

The Battle of Hastings itself was the culmination of events in which three great men had played their parts; The English king Harold Godwinson, Duke William II of Normandy and Harald (Hardrada) Sigurdsson (my favourite!). That October saw three great forces collide, Hardrada and Godwinson in turn suffering extraordinary misfortunes which left the Conqueror standing. There are so many ‘what ifs’ about those three weeks leading up to and including the great battle and they are questions I love to ponder over a cold beer. Somewhat more gruesomely, I’d like to witness the battle with my own eyes to know what really happened that day. There is something about a band of huscarls standing with their lord in that shield wall atop that hill, huge Dane Axes in their hands, that I find impossibly alluring. Brave, hard, loyal men doing their duty to the last. Just as Hardrada’s Norsemen had done three weeks earlier at Stamford Bridge. I’d love to meet these three men, though I think all three around one dinner table could spell trouble. But what a night that would be!

 

You recently did a trip to Norway where you and fellow historical fiction author Robert Low manned the oars of a replica Long Ship.
Did you come away with any new knowledge on travelling by Long Ship and do you think travel that way was faster or slower than expected?


It was the seaworthiness of the Viking ships, together with the Norsemen’s knowledge of navigation and seamanship, which made it possible for them to conquer the ocean. The Vikings’ relationship and understanding of the sea is reflected in the Old Norse language that has about 150 words for waves. Thousands of ships were built in the Viking Age and yet few have been found. In fact only 13 ship burials have been discovered in Northern Europe and these were found in pieces, often with large parts missing. Clearly, this sample is hardly representative of what the Vikings achieved in terms of shipbuilding expression and technology, and we must admit that we still don't know much about how the Viking ships were built, how they were sailed, how they were rowed or how they were navigated.

When we try to reconstruct a Viking ship today, we must rely on different interpretations. We look at archaeological material and examine what has been found (and what has not always been put back together as it would have been!) We can look at the Saga literature and other sources from Old Norse literature. We can pore over foreign contemporary sources from the Viking Age and we can study visual representations of Viking ships. One invaluable resource is traditional boat builders working today and, of course, sailors themselves. Though I believe there are only a handful of sailors in the world today with square sail experience.

The Draken Harald Hårfagre.

This is how I got involved with Draken Harald Hårfagre. Named after the king who is credited with uniting Norway, the Dragon Harald Fairhair is the largest Viking ship reconstruction of modern times. What the Sagas call a ‘25-sesse’ (a ship with 25 sections), meaning it has 50 oars, it comprises a hundred and fourteen feet of crafted oak. It is twenty-seven feet on the beam and displaces seventy tons. The great sail is thirty-two hundred square feet of pure silk. With two people on each oar it takes a crew of 100 to row it, but it can be sailed by only twelve.

But how is a ship of this enormous size rowed and sailed? Is having two people on each oar significantly more beneficial (faster), or would it make more sense to have two shifts, one lot rowing while the other lot rested? How well does the ship turn with only having a side steering oar rather than a central rudder?

I was lucky enough to be part of the crew invited to Norway to help the team behind the project figure all this out. For me, rowing a Viking ship in the same waters my ancestors rowed and sailed (my mother is Norwegian) was breathtaking. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life and it’s bound to colour future descriptions in my novels.

You can listen to me talking about the adventure here: http://www.historyextra.com/podcast/27th-june-2013-0

 

You have a new book in the RAVEN Series, Gods of Vengeance, that you are currently working on. It will be a prequel.
 What made you decide to do a prequel and without giving too much away, can you tell us anything about it?

 

Other than I receive an enormous number of emails asking when the next Viking book is coming, when writing the RAVEN saga I came to realize that I had a thing for Sigurd, the Wolfpack’s jarl. He seemed to become a favourite of the readers as well, which was great. I always intended to go back and finish the saga but I suddenly thought what would be enormous fun to write (and to read, hopefully) was the tale of Sigurd as a young hot blood in his first hall-burning days. I wanted to tell the story of how Sigurd becomes the man we see in the RAVEN novels, how he becomes someone who others will follow to the end of the sea road. The story is set in Norway around the islands where I rowed Draken Harald Hårfagre. It’s enormous fun bringing back from the dead characters I had killed off in Odin’s Wolves, the third in the RAVEN trilogy. They are old friends and I have missed them.

 

Your newest series which saw book two, Brothers' Fury, released in May this year, is set during the English Civil War.
 That is quite the leap forward from the RAVEN Viking setting.


What stirred you to write in this era and do you envision it to be an ongoing series? 

Bernard Cornwell hadn’t done it! Seriously though, it seemed to me to be under represented in fiction, at least in the kind of action adventure fiction that I write. I’ve always had a thing for the English Civil War, ever since I used to fence at a child. I think I saw myself as a dashing Cavalier, flashing my foil around and taking on all comers. So I started researching the subject and came across some wonderful anecdotal stuff that convinced me that the ECW would lend itself to fiction wonderfully well. Here are just four stories that inspired me:

Just before the battle of Edgehill, before all the carnage and death, the devout Royalist officer Sir Jacob Astley uttered the following prayer. 'O Lord, thou knowest how busy I must be this day. If I forget thee, do not thou forget me'.

Upon the outbreak of the war, knight marshal and hereditary bearer of the royal standard Sir Edmund Verney was a somewhat reluctant Royalist. ‘I do not like the quarrel,’ he remarked, yet nevertheless he remained true to his master and friend, King Charles. His eldest son Ralph joined the Parliamentary forces. For reasons we’ll never know, at the battle of Edgehill Verney refused to wear armour and his only weapon was the spear point of the ensign he carried. Perhaps the thought of fighting against his own son was too much to for him but either way it seems he was intent to lay down his life in the King’s service, (you’re always going to receive a certain amount of attention if you’re waving the king’s banner) and in the event his party was whittled away in frenzied fighting. Verney himself fought until the last breath, killing four men with his make-do spear. Legend has it that his grip on the ensign’s haft was so tight that the rebel who captured it had to hack off his hand to carry off the prize.

In 1643 Prince Rupert was besieging the Cathedral Close at Lichfield. After a failed assault with ladders the rebels captured several Royalist soldiers. They paraded one of these prisoners, attached by a noose around his neck, goading Prince Rupert to rescue the man, if he could, by shooting through the rope. Needless to say the poor man died hanging from the walls.

1649, the storming of Drogheda and one of the most vicious episodes of the ECW during which the garrison and many civilians were massacred. The Royalist commander Sir Arthur Aston, after agreeing to surrender, was bludgeoned to death with his own wooden leg. It is believed that Cromwell’s troops thought the Aston’s wooden leg concealed gold coins.

You just couldn’t make this stuff up! The 17^th century was a time of pirates, highwaymen, witch-hunters and Cavaliers. It was a time of regicide and revolution. If I as an historical novelist couldn’t find excitement and inspiration in this extraordinary period, and in the 17^th Century generally, then I might as well get a real job with a real salary.

However, my books are not about the English Civil War. Rather the war is the backcloth against which I tell my story. I found my tale, the heart and soul of it, wrapped up in one family, the Rivers, a family of Lancashire landed gentry who find themselves caught up in, and ripped apart by, civil war. Rather than deal with the political and religious struggles of the time I wanted to indulge in the personal struggles of Tom and Mun Rivers and their sister Bess, and my story is told through them. I wanted to explore the complexities of familial duty (and love) set against the pull of ideology, social pressures, or darker motives such as revenge. How far would my characters be prepared to go for a cause, for each other, for survival itself? How strong are bonds of blood amidst what must seem like the chaotic collapse of civilization, or even, as some believed at the time, the end of days as brought about by Man’s sin. I also based the family set up on my own immediate family so that I might try to imagine how we would deal with the situation. It made the writing really very emotional at times.

The books are very different from my Viking series, as you may discover if you decide to saddle up and ride with me. The Bleeding Land and Brothers' Fury have both been published and there is one more book to come.

What authors and books inspired you growing up to love history and want to write about it? And what books and authors inspire you now as an adult and an accomplished author? 

I have recently answered this one (in the back of Brothers’ Fury maybe?) so will borrow from there if I may. Although I hate to admit it, I wasn’t much of a reader as a child. Perverse, right? I played a lot of sport; rugby, soccer, fencing, swimming, and as for reading, well, I just wasn’t into it. In fact, I was made to repeat a year at school because I was always out of my chair and messing around distracting my classmates.

Then, when I was thirteen or fourteen, I suffered a bout of glandular fever and spent several weeks away from school. It turned out to be an auspicious event. I was home all day every day and bored out of my mind, so my mother bought me a book. There were warriors with axes on the cover and she knew me pretty well. That book was The Crystal Shard by R.A. Salvatore and it changed my life. There, in my hands, was the key to another world. This story of Bruenor the dwarf, Wulfgar the barbarian, Regis the halfling, and Drizzt the displaced dark elf, captivated me absolutely. It wasn’t just the fighting, the monsters and the magic that enthralled me. I think even then I was drawn in by the author’s skill at getting under the skin of the human condition. I found that I cared for the characters and lived every moment with them. Ok, it was the fighting, the monsters and the magic.

I went on to read Terry Brooks’ Shannara series: TheSword of Shannara, The Elfstones of Shannara and The Wishsong of Shannara, and I loved them. Eventually, of course, I got to The Lord of The Rings and I realized how much the Shannara books (though brilliant on their own terms) and other fantasy novels had drawn on Tolkien’s world. Of course, Tolkien drew on the old Norse sagas and the likes of Beowulf, but if you read the blurb for The Sword of Shannara it sounds like The Lord of The Rings just with different names…and a sword instead of a ring.

The Amazon blurb reads: Long ago, the world of the Four Lands was torn apart by the wars of ancient Evil. But in the Vale, the half-human, half- elfin Shea Ohmsford now lives in peace - until the mysterious, forbidding figure of the druid Allanon appears, to reveal that the supposedly long dead Warlock Lord lives again. Shea must embark upon the elemental quest to find the only weapon powerful enough to keep the creatures of darkness at bay.
The thing is that it doesn’t matter. Terry Brooks is brilliant and I have such fond memories of those stories and can still remember where I was when I read certain passages.

Then one day I picked up a Bernard Cornwell novel, one of his Sharpe books, and from that day on I’ve tended to read more historical fiction than fantasy. I’ve always been drawn to conflict. To make war is all wrapped up in what it is to be human and will always be. Unfortunately. I’m fascinated by conflict, horrified by it, and utterly compelled by it. In historical terms, I’m intrigued by warriors and great leaders, men who inspired thousands to fight and die for their cause; men like Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar, Napoleon, Nelson. These men must have had such force of personality. I imagine you would have felt the charisma coming off them. These characters also make great subjects for historical fiction authors. Valerio Massimo Manfredi’s trilogy on Alexander the Great is superb. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to read him since he changed his translator, which just shows how important your translator is.

I loved David Anthony Durham’s Hannibal: Pride of Carthage. It’s a weighty tome but drew me in completely and I’ve always admired Hannibal Barca. Anyone who could unite disparate peoples and give Rome a run for its money must have been something special. Stephen Pressfield (Gates of Fire, The Afghan Campaign, Tides of War) is another author who writes conflict brilliantly. He knows how warriors think. He has the knack of showing how, although the way in which wars are fought has changed beyond recognition, the mind of the fighting man has not. Perhaps somewhat predictably though, my favourite author is Bernard Cornwell (and not just because he was kind enough to read Blood Eye and Odin’s Wolves and say good things about them) because in my opinion he is a craftsman who has mastered his art. His stories flow effortlessly and he weaves in rich historical detail with the lightest of touches. There are a great many wonderful historical novelists around these days, and largely thanks to the HWA (Historical Writers Society) I am lucky enough to call them friends. If you’re reading this, you know who you are.

Do you prefer ebook or paper?

Paper. No contest. I have books waiting to be read on my Kindle and I have a pile of real books three foot high and I always fetch one off there rather than picking up the Kindle. Of course there’s a place for ebooks, long holidays being one, but a paper book, particularly a first edition hardback, is to me a precious object. I love everything about them. Over a pint or two not long ago I told fellow historical author Anthony Riches that I’m not sure I’d want to spend years of my life writing novels if they were only going to be ebooks and never physically manifested. I think he was appalled, and maybe it does sound terribly snobby and old-fashioned of me. But for so many years I dreamt of being published and that meant seeing my stories become real books on real shelves in real bookshops. Those shelves and those bookshops may be fast disappearing but I’ll hold on to my ‘real’ books as long as I can. 



Thankyou to Giles Kristian for a wonderfully entertaining interview.
Giles on Twitter: https://twitter.com/GilesKristian
Giles on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GilesKristian

I would also like to thank Random House UK and Transworld Books for helping to promote this great interview.

- MM

  

Get Your Cannae On: HANNIBAL: FIELDS OF BLOOD by Ben Kane

Hannibal: Fields of Blood by Ben Kane

I had a decision to make when I received my copy of Hannibal: Fields of Blood for review. I had not read the first book, Hannibal: Enemy of Rome, although it had been on my hitlist for reading maybe this year, but I had been putting it off. I admit it. I had so many other books to get to, that sometimes it takes a publisher to send you a book for review, or a friend to force a copy on you, before you finally run out of excuses.

Being sent book two was the incentive I needed to get to this series and give it a try, only what was I supposed to do about book one? To get to Fields of Blood, I told myself, I should be reading Enemy of Rome first. Except life doesn't always deal you books in order does it? And after much deliberation I decided to skip book one and head straight into book two.

My plan was to review it through the eyes of the casual reader. The reader who picks up book two in the airport or bookshop 'because it sounds good and has a nice cover'. That person does not realise it is not the first in a series until they have been parted from their money. I wanted to review through that person's eyes. To give people feedback on how relatable this book is if you haven't read Enemy of Rome first. After all, it should be standard for an author these days to write each book in a series so that they can stand alone. To do otherwise is foolish indeed and it will lose you readers.

So, how relatable was it? I give it a ten out of ten on that. I did not need the first book to understand or get into the Fields of Blood story. The only place I perhaps felt a little let down on that score was in the physical appearance of Hanno, the Carthaginian.
There are three main characters in this series, Hanno – the Carthaginian, and Quintus and Aurelia – the Romans.
Naturally, being Roman, Quintus and Aurelia were easy to visualise, but Hanno was a complete mystery to me. Since Carthaginians can be of many shades of skin colour and ethnic appearance, I had no idea what he should look like and had to ask people who had read book one what I should be visualising.

What added to the confusion was the fact that, and this was a flaw I found in the book, most male characters came across as practically the same. Especially Hanno and Quintus. They read like the same person and since there was very little cultural imprint on the Carthaginians, they all sounded like the Romans and the Romans sounded like the Carthaginians.
While I had other smaller issues such as modern sounding dialogue from time to time (not all the time though) it was the cultural void that was my big issue with the book. A big black hole where the Carthaginians should be, but were present in name only.

I expect every individual has their own favourites amoung the three main characters. These were mine.
Hanno was my favourite of the triumvirate. I always enjoyed getting back to his chapters. I had no interest at all in Quintus and felt nothing for him throughout the book.
The girl character Aurelia for the first half of the book was irritating me and her scenes were my least favourite. However, into the second half of the book as she started acting more like a woman and less like an annoying child, she became a character I could relate to more. I began to look forward to her scenes since they paid to break up the Hanno and the Quintus chapters. And since Hanno and Quintus sounded the same to me, I needed their scenes to be split up by the Aurelia chapters. Otherwise I would have lost interest.
Other than that though, this was an interesting and easy flowing story that rolled along under my eyes. I sat up late at night reading it and not many books can make me do that.

For the casual reader who has picked this book up and did not realise there was one before it, this is my feedback. Don't be concerned. It will all make sense and you will not lose anything by not having read the first book.

As for me, well, I felt it was not a bad book at all and I would genuinely consider reading the next one when it comes out. I think it stands alone perfectly well and the author has done a great job with that.

I liked the book and give the book 3 stars out of 5.

- MM

Thankyou to Random House Australia for sending me this book to read and review.

NB* Earlier this year I interviewed Ben Kane on this blog and he spoke a little about this book and the series: http://ancientandmedievalmayhem.blogspot.com.au/2013/02/blog-interview-with-historical-fiction.html

 

The Wind Thrums The Ropes Once More - CROWBONE by Robert Low

Crowbone by Robert Low

I won't pretend Robert Low did not throw me when I first found out #5 in the series was not going to be in the voice of his creation Orm Bearslayer. In fact thrown is an understatement. I had spent four previous books of this series inside his head - Orm's, not Robert Low's - and naturally there was some disappointment to discover Orm was not narrating Crowbone.
All was not lost though. There came a little thrill the closer I got to reading the latest instalment in the Oathsworn Series. Here would be a book that may spice the series up. Give the reader something new to chew on for a few years. A literary version of being slapped then kissed.
I am not averse to spicing things up in a series and I believe it worked with Crowbone.

Having now read it I have to admit that I can see exactly why Low did it. I can see that the author could have easily stopped writing the Oathsworn Series and gone off and started a whole new series. An author must go where his inspiration and creativity leads him, but there are the readers and fans to consider aren't there?
With Crowbone, Low found the middle ground. He found a way to please the fans and please himself at the same time. Another Oathsworn series that included Orm, but not in the first person. A book based on a character, but also not in the first person, that we met in child form in the previous books. I am of course speaking of Olaf Tryggvasson. To those who know him, Crowbone.

And here we find ourselves well placed to deliberate on Little Crowbone. Our protaganist. Our impudent scamp who sat on our purview in the first 4 books entertaining us from time to time with his stories and his distinctly cryptic and watchful bicoloured gaze.
In this instalment Crowbone is no longer the peculiar boy with a penchant for an axe kill. He has grown in attitude as well as stature and has become more unpredictable and erratic in his choices. But what more should you expect from an Orm and Finn child prodigy.
We all knew it was coming didn't we?

I had a borderline profound moment while reading the book. In the beginning Orm steps from the shadow, no longer the narrator, but for the first time ever, only a figure in the scene.
Seeing Orm through Crowbone's eyes was quite the experience for a fan of the series. Scarred, haggard, neither a youth nor a young man (by Medieval standards). I don't think that I would have seen Orm like that if it were not for Robert Low's change of tack from first person.

I will not reveal any of the story. I feel you must seek that out yourself through the pages of the book. Besides, the back of the book can give you the base if you want it. The rest will be better enjoyed if you unravel it slowly on your own.

Since this book, Crowbone, is such a change in style to the previous books, it is possible to read it without reading the first four books. But I would not recommend it. In my honest opinion the road that has been laid behind it is best journeyed first. You will surely enjoy Crowbone more and understand the characters more if you start with book one, The Whale Road.


- MM

Please NB* I read Crowbone when it first came out and seeing as I did not have this blog then, I felt this is a review that I would want to share as Medieval Mayhem now. I hope you enjoy it. Even if it took a while to get here.

I'll Have What She's Having! Why You Never Agree On Books And How To Fix It

I have been around the block. Done my time in the world of the reader and reviewer. Observed and expressed and defended opinions on books. Moderated arguments, debates and tantrums between readers, and between readers and authors, and between authors and authors.
Had a couple altercations myself over the years.

Thinking about it lately, it makes me want to talk about it on my blog. And so I blog...

 

I have been a member of the book review site Goodreads for over four and a half years (as of July 2013). That is a lot of time with thousands of people, looking at thousands of books, being involved in or reading thousands of discussions, seeing thousands of reviews and their thousands of responses, and along the way I have witnessed a plethora of attitudes, but what I always note with interest is the evolution of attitude changes. These are the most interesting to me and, as a head moderator of a growing Historical Fiction book group on the site, if I can help with attitude shifts and changes in that genre I feel I, and my fellow moderators, have helped the historical fiction book community - readers and authors - in a positive way.



You speaketh lies! Now take it back!

Over the years I have observed some pretty rotten and churlish behaviour by people who have an opinion on a book or an author and can not cope with the idea of another person not agreeing or seeing what they see.
  
For example, picture this scenario: One person will give a book 5 stars (out of 5) and rave about the book and then someone they know will give the book 1 star (out of 5) and leave a negative review.

The person then takes a defensive posture. Exhibiting some kind of learned instinct to accuse the other person of not 'getting' the book. Or being 'a snob'. Or just 'being picky'. And using disdain or a sneering tone to make the other person feel like the blame for not liking the book lays with the person and not with the book.

In the circles I move through in the online reviewer culture, this can be a fairly common attitude and in certain genres there really are some hot headed and aggressive displays going on on a daily basis. I steer clear of that scene. Which is made easier by the fact that they are genres I am not involved with and do not read. It has always mortified me though and for a long time have taken the stance that nobody is wrong, everybody is right.

It is just not possible that everyone will read the book the same way. No reader is at fault for not liking a popular book. No author is at fault for not appealing to every reader. The fact is, and I will only speak here of the genre I specialise in, that people read differently, have different attitudes, different educations, different emotions and, yes, even different hormone levels. Different life experiences, senses of humour or lack there of, varying degrees of intelligence, varying abilities to deconstruct and use a critical eye. Different wants or needs. Different interests in history and historical settings. And we all, day by day, week by week, month by month, experience a rollercoaster of moods.

The voices of narratives and characters are different in everyone's heads. We read in our own voices and that alone changes the 'sound' of a book and the way it is read. Some stop for punctuation, some do not. This can play a much underrated role in the way a person evaluates the way a book reads.

For the record, I include them all when I read. I yell dialogue (in my head of course) if it has an exclamation mark, and if an exclamation mark comes at the end of dialogue unexpectedly, then I will go back and read the line again with the proper emphasis.

I stop for fullstops, pause for commas. Pause to change pace for dialogue. It makes me a slower reader, but I think it makes me a more refined reader. It is easier to pick up flaws in an author's writing when you are using all the author's own directions on pausing, stopping and expressing.
 

In my book group, (which many of you know since it is stated in my Blog profile) Ancient & Medieval Historical Fiction Group , myself and my assistant moderators are never shy to mention to people that all viewpoints are welcome. That members should not be shy to say what they feel about a book and that we will defend their right to do so. It is so important that a reader should never feel bad for not liking a book and in turn, a reader who then goes on to review should never feel bad or be made to feel bad for leaving a negative review.

Allowing for diversity of opinion and not oppressing it makes for a better environment for reader and
author.
The reader gets to be open and unafraid that their honest views will put them at risk of rebuffs and insults.


Make sure you are holding ground for all the right reasons

And the author? If the discussion on their book is diverse and open and honest then they are put in a unique position that authors rarely get to be in. Like a fly on the wall, only they are allowed to contribute and see, first hand, readers' spontaneous reactions to their books.

They get to see how readers, all from such varied walks of life and interests, discuss their books. Outside of the Goodreads website. Whether their books are being read amoung friends and discussed in a coffee shop, or in a library book club, or between a father/mother and son/daughter as the book is handed around, what the author can be assured of is that through the eyes of a group of few in an online Goodreads book club, the author will be able to see samples of what all those private conversations might be like. Not every one of those people in a coffee shop or library is going to be positive about the book. And nor should they be in an online book club.

It is a terrific opportunity for authors to see total disclosure by readers and in turn, it is a good atmosphere for the readers to be involved in.

Otherwise, if everyone is saying yes, yes, other readers who want to say no, no, never will. This leads authors to think they do not have to improve their writing process and leads readers to read books based on popularity and when they decide they don't like it, are too timid to admit it.
 

So, if you have never assessed how you react to others not liking the same books or authors as you, or ever scoffed at someone for not liking a book that is very popular or if you have used the old "well everyone else likes it" type comments to some poor unsuspecting soul who didn't like it, or perhaps you are an author unused to seeing negative feedback in the public arena, then please remember this. Stow it away in your mental folders. A quote of George S. Patton, which also happens to be our book groups motto:

"If everybody is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking"

Makes sense doesn't it?

- MM

Rank and File Romans: WOUNDS of HONOUR by Anthony Riches

                                                       

Wounds of Honour by Anthony Riches

Please excuse my foul mouth as I make my point.
If I was to define Wounds of Honour? Like Andy McNab meets the Second Century AD only with twice the cumstains and a cock jockey or two.
Yes. You read right. It is what I said. Cumstains and cock jockeys. Two words that appeared in the book and that I feel should not have appeared in the book. And  yet they help me make my point, because it is from within those cumstains and cock jockeys that springs my compatibility issue with this book. The modernity of the dialogue. The slang, the swearing, the modern colloquialisms and the pressure of a modern military setting compressed into an historical one.

I appreciate that there are readers who enjoy this series and this book in particular. That is fine. We all have different likes and dislikes. Some of my dislikes in historical fiction happen to be the prevalence of our modern slang words, swearwords and mannerisms.
I can deal with one every now and then, but when it is too often and too much it sounds modern and I don't read historical fiction to feel like I am down the Angler's Arms Pub pulling kegs on a Darts Premier League finals night.

The other dislike I have with historical fiction is when the author forces our modern military culture into the book. Where you feel at any stage you will turn the page and a Roman soldier will be humping to an overwatch position, or asking for a Sit Rep or pulling out a bag of nuts and calling it an MRE.
If I wanted that feel in my books I would read an Andy McNab type modern military or thriller novel, although I have only read one McNab novel  and it didn't have as much British squaddie in it as Wounds of Honour does.

For all my dislikes, I concede that people read books for different reasons. I am not a fan of this style of historical fiction, but so many others are and apart from criticisms about modernity and giving an ancient culture the loud scarlet wash of our modern culture, there is still plenty the book has to offer readers.
The writing is not awful, except for the dense use of modern words and mannerisms, I thought it was pretty good. The plot is not too deep and presents as fun to most no doubt, even I was enjoying the story for the first 80 pages or so and was able to overcome my aversions.

The book is far from being pulp fiction rubbish. There is plenty of skill and research within it. The author has put a lot of effort into this book and for that reason I would never condemn it to anyone. If anyone were to ask me, I would explain that it is a just a case of being incompatible.
Then I would recommend the book to them because in my experience the majority are going to like it. I have seen this first hand as I read the book with others and I know others who rave about the series all the time.

I will always be honest if I think a book is awful and have given it two stars because of it. However, in the case of Wounds of Honour I am not giving it two stars for that reason. I am giving it two stars because it is not my kind of book. Simple as that.

- MM