Annabel Fielding's Blog, page 5
January 29, 2018
Book Review: The Last Light of the Sun by Guy Gavriel Kay
The Last Light of the Sun is a splendid, sumptuous novel that’s equally great for fantasy lovers and for those looking for some Viking historical fiction. Like Kay’s other novels (I’ve reviewed Sarantine Mosaic, Lions of al-Rassan, and Children of Earth and Sky before), the plot is set in a secondary world with a clear...
January 23, 2018
Conditori La Glacé: The oldest patisserie in Copenhagen
Conditori La Glacé (Skoubogade 3) is, as the post title implies, the oldest patisserie in Copenhagen, and it really looks the part. I adored their Fortnum&Mason-like window display, the paintings decorating the walls and the brocades softening them, the quaint uniforms and the glittering silverware. This is where I decided to start my day with...
January 17, 2018
Book Review: Revolutinary Ride, by Lois Pryce
Revolutionary Ride: On the Road in Search of the Real Iran is probably one of the best travel adventure books I’ve read this last year, and certainly one of the most original ones. The author, Lois Pryce, has already published two books about her motorcycle-propelled adventures in Africa and Latin America, and now she took...
January 12, 2018
My day in Copenhagen: rain or shine
My journey to the exploration of what to see in Copenhagen in one day was rather convoluted. I entered Finland the way familiar to all Russian tourists embarking on budget-friendly road trips – namely, by car, fueled by the achingly sweetened coffee from neon-blinking petrol stations, and pointing my GPS navigator strictly at Helsinki. I...
January 7, 2018
Book Review: Apprentice, by Rebecca Gable
I haven’t planned to continue the theme of medieval historical fiction I started with World Without End. However, after picking up Rebecca Gable’s Apprentice (now a full-cast, Audible Original play!) I never regretted it. The official blurb says the following: ‘This Original multicast drama blends history with fiction to tell the story of Jonah, a...
December 28, 2017
Book Review: The Hills Of Adonis, by Colin Thubron
This is a great travel memoir of the author’s months-long, exhilarating and perilous journey through Lebanon. Written in 1967, it captures a nostalgic snapshot of a (comparatively) safer, more innocent age, when serious Muslim/Christian conflicts still lay far in the future, and Beirut was called the Paris of the Middle-East. The author doesn’t dwell on ...Continue Reading
December 23, 2017
Book Review: World Without End, by Ken Follett
I finally got around to reading this doorstopper masterpiece of medieval historical fiction. As tradition would have it, let’s start with the official blurb: ‘On the day after Halloween, in the year 1327, four children slip away from the cathedral city of Kingsbridge. They are a thief, a bully, a boy genius and a girl ...Continue Reading
December 9, 2017
Book review: Sappho’s Leap, by Erica Jong
Part historical fiction about the Ancient Greece and part a mythological tale, this novel tells the story of one of the most celebrated poetesses of all times – Sappho of Lesbos. I started to explore the world of antiquity with the Feast of Sorrow, and now I decided to sail from the gorgeous Roman banquet ...Continue Reading
December 2, 2017
Book Review: A Place of Greater Safety, by Hilary Mantel.
And here I will review a novel about the French Revolution to end all novels about the French Revolution. I’ve talked about Hilary Mantel’s celebrated Wolf Hall; this is an earlier novel of hers, a grander and a more sweeping one. And a longer one. Oh, so much longer…
Let’s start with the official blurb:
‘Georges-Jacques Danton: zealous, energetic and debt-ridden. Maximilien Robespierre: small, diligent and terrified of violence. And Camille Desmoulins: a genius of rhetoric, charming and handsome, yet also erratic and untrustworthy. As these young men, key figures of the French Revolution, taste the addictive delights of power, the darker side of the period’s political ideals is unleashed – and all must face the horror that follows’.
A Place of Greater Safety paints a meticulous picture of these legendary leaders’ rise and fall, from their provincial childhoods to their trip to the scaffold (I hope this is not going to be a spoiler to anyone?). My emotions towards the novel are rather complex: on one hand, it’s undoubtedly brilliant. On the other hand, unlike Wolf Hall, it’s not a novel you would set out to re-read. The more famous Cromwell trilogy is better-paced, and also benefits from a tighter viewpoint. Actually, normally I enjoy multiple POVs (like in Kay’s Sarantine Mosaic novels, for instance), but here they seemed to swell and blur the narrative a bit.
Okay, now onto the good things. The book is immensely subtle, erudite, complex – and, oh boy, it’s so dark. If in Wolf Hall Thomas More’s execution is a painful, swelling conclusion, a singular tragedy, A Place of Greater Safety depicts the world where executions of political enemies (or people suspected of sympathizing with those) became a routine industrial process. The darkness isn’t only expressed in actual deaths; it seems to be poured in the air – the fevered, poisonous air of what came after the Revolution.
Here, Mantel’s talent to make even the bloodiest characters in history sympathetic and human really shines through. Whatever they did, or allowed to be done, it’s hard not feel crushed as the gregarious, sensuous, unbeatable Danton is transported to his death, beaten at last. It’s hard not to sympathize with the fickle, fey Camille Desmoulins, as he is bending over backwards to win his old father’s approval.
Finally, the usually-forgotten women of the French Revolution are drawn as carefully as their male counterparts. There is Gabrielle Danton, a resilient housewife, and Lucille Desmoulins, a firebrand who doesn’t wear much in the way of an underwear when celebrating the fall of the Bastille. There is Anne Theroigne, an actress/courtesan turned revolutionary fighter, and Manon Roland, a cold intellectual who is the real power behind her husband the Minister’s throne.
Oh. But, in context, the titular ‘place of greater safety’ means grave.
The post Book Review: A Place of Greater Safety, by Hilary Mantel. appeared first on History Geek in Town.
November 25, 2017
Book review: Swordspoint, by Ellen Kushner
And here I’m going to share my thoughts on one of the best historical fantasy series out there.
Let’s start with the official blurb:
‘On the treacherous streets of Riverside, a man lives and dies by the sword. Even the nobles on the Hill turn to duels to settle their disputes. Within this elite, dangerous world, Richard St Vier is the undisputed master, as skilled as he is ruthless- until a death by the sword is met with outrage instead a of awe, and the city discovers that the line between hero and villain can be altered in the blink of an eye .’
Ellen Kushner’s Riverside trilogy (or Riverside series, now that we have a proper prequel added to the three classic novels) is more than simply good books; it has basically invented the whole ‘non-magical fantasy’ sub-genre. I’ve already mentioned it here; now it’s the time for a proper review.
The novels are set in a nameless City. I would have called it a recognizable Georgian London (though the titular Riverside district has a lot in common with the Shakespearean Southwark), if not for two significant changes. First of all, the monarchy has been overthrown centuries ago, the country is ruled by the Council of Lords, and the local equivalent of the 5th of November includes the burning of a straw king. Second of all, there is a class of professional swordsmen for hire, in case you are incapable (or unwilling) to fight your own duels.
Richard St.Vier the protagonist is one of the best in this dangerous trade. However, working for the rich and powerful has its drawbacks, and one day he stumbles into a murderous political intrigue, crossing several ambitious men – and one very dangerous woman. At the same time, his brooding boyfriend Alec nurses some secrets of his own…
Now, you must have guessed by the introduction, that I have absolutely loved this novel. More than anything, I adored the worldbuilding. The setting is such a vivid, vibrant city, with its bookshops and its gutters, its coffee-houses and its theatres, the fencing schools where retired swordsmen teach eager youths, the elegant mansions where society ladies discuss politics…
The post Book review: Swordspoint, by Ellen Kushner appeared first on History Geek in Town.
