At the same time HBO was giving us the best season of Game of Thrones, Starz was airing the second season of Outlander, based on Diana Gabaldon’s best-selling time travel novels set in 18th century Scotland. Both are fantastic shows, and it’s too bad they have to air around the same time, leaving us in a…
These days, it’s quite rare when I agree to do a book review. The problem is time. There’s just not much of it given my job and my writing. But David’s pitch for his novel The Conjurers caught my eye, and I’m glad I read it. The subtitle of The Conjurers is “A Gritty Fantasy of…
It’s been eight weeks since the surgery on my ruptured patellar tendon, and between trying to get on my feet again and trying to get back to work full time, I’ve unfortunately had very little time to focus on the blog (or much else when it comes to writing). But I did want to say…
This week, I’m a little late to the blog, largely because I’m recovering from knee surgery. But this unfortunate development has offered some time to catch up on my reading. Recently, I finished A Plunder of Souls by D.B. Jackson, and here’s my review. A Plunder of Souls is a welcome and worthwhile edition to…
Saint Patrick’s Day is one of my all-time favorite holidays, so today I’m re-posting an article about Stephen R. Lawhead’s Patrick: Son of Ireland. I had little appreciation for the story of Saint Patrick until I began my research for Enoch’s Device. That novel begins in Derry and tells the story of two Irish monks who try to prevent…
“God didn’t love that man enough to make him Irish, lad.” – Brother Donall mac Taidg in Enoch’s Device. Irish monks drinking to Enoch’s Device! As in prior year’s the Kindle version of Enoch’s Device is going on sale for seven days starting today, all in honor of Saint Patrick’s Day! Here’s a short summary of…
I loved the season premiere of Vikings on History last week. But after the episode, I began thinking: Has Vikings started to mirror Norse Mythology? How close is Ragnar to his own Ragnarok? For anyone who’s seen the show, Vikings often makes reference to Norse Mythology, which was a primary religion for Scandinavians before their…
Winter of 2016 is promising to be a fantastic year for historical and fantasy-themed television. Season 3 of Black Sails is right around the corner, followed by the debut of Season 4 of History’s Vikings. And, in perhaps the most unexpected new addition, MTV, of all networks, has already brought us a surprisingly good adaptation…
I did not expect this, but the final episode of Da Vinci’s Demons, Ira Deorum, was a true series finale in every respect. Leonardo’s pseudo history came to a fitting end, and Lucrezia’s character arc was finally complete, as was Riario’s – though his was the final twist. Not all questions were answered, but I’m…
When I published my post titled 5 Questions Going Into Season 3 of “Da Vinci’s Demons,” I never thought I’d receive a tweet from Tom Riley, who plays Leonardo Da Vinci on the show. Commenting on my post, he wrote: “You will actually get decent answers to all of these.” Heading into the penultimate episode…
For months I’ve been meaning to post my review of Fin Gall by James L. Nelson. Guest reviewer Bill Brockman first reviewed the book here. My take follows this image of the book’s cover. Fin Gall turned out to be a wonderful surprise. I was expecting a book focused on Vikings, but Nelson’s novel is…