This week it’s my pleasure again to feature a guest review from historical fiction aficionado Bill Brockman, a frequent contributor to the blog (you can read more about him here). In April, he reviewed Blood Eye by Giles Kristian, Book 1 of the Raven Trilogy. This time, Bill takes on Book 2 of the trilogy, Sons of…
I saved this review until after the finale of season 4 of HBO’s Game of Thrones because there is no way to discuss A Feast for Crows without spoiling the most shocking part of the final episode. So, if you haven’t seen Season 4 of Game of Thrones or haven’t read A Storm of Swords,…
My meandering series on The Magic of Medieval Fiction moves into the Seventh Century, an era that is squarely within the Dark Ages as far as historical novels go. In fact, attempting to even identify novels set in this century proved to be a huge challenge. But maybe there’s a good reason for this. The…
When last I left my series on The Magic of Medieval Fiction, we were in the Sixth Century – the age of Beowulf, the subject of one of England’s most famous epic poems. The tale was the inspiration for Michael Crichton’s Eaters of the Dead, and has spawned numerous films, both live and animated. I…
It’s been a few months since my last post in this series, largely due to a crazy summer work schedule. But as life returns to normal, I’m trying to get this series back on track. I had left it at The Age of Arthur in the late Fifth Century, including posts on The Hallows of…
Reading J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fall of Arthur reminded me of another work of Arthurian fiction that’s related to Tolkien and has been stuck in my the back of my bookshelf for years. That work is Tolkien’s translation of a fourteenth century poem titled Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The famous poem is the work…
While I was writing a series of posts of the Magic of Medieval Fiction and the Late Fifth Century and the Age of Arthur, this little gem fell out of the sky: J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fall of Arthur. Needless to say, I dove right in, and my review follows after this image of the book’s…
After a brief hiatus, I’m returning to my series on the Magic of Medieval Fiction, where we have been lingering in the late Fifth Century and the Age of King Arthur. One of the stories from that time period that I neglected to mention previously was the tale of Tristan and Iseult. This story has…
In my reviews of Bernard Cornwell’s The Winter King and Enemy of God, I noted how the character of Merlin is obsessed with recovering the Thirteen Treasures of Britain, which he believes can restore the power of the old Celtic gods. These treasures, which are sometimes called the Thirteen Hallows, feature prominently throughout Cornwell’s The…
In the midst of my series on the Magic of Medieval Fiction, which is currently focusing on the Arthurian age of the late Fifth Century, a treasure falls into my lap – The Fall of Arthur by J.R.R. Tolkien is being released tomorrow! I purchased an advanced copy on Amazon last night. Here’s an excerpt from…
Enemy of God is the second in Bernard Cornwell’s series The Warlord Chronicles. Its protagonist is still Derfel Cadarn, who is now near thirty years old and one of Arthur’s lords. The book begins immediately where The Winter King ended, after the battle among the British kings at Lugg Vale. Arthur is trying to keep…