Cody C. Engdahl's Blog, page 2

Blurb Reveal for my FREE novella, The Underground Railroad Ball

A sheriff’s deputy is caught in the crossfire of duty, morality, and law when fugitives and slave catchers come to 1861 Detroit.

Chester E. Newman is a sheriff’s deputy in Detroit at the onset of the American Civil War. He wants nothing more than to gain his captaincy in the 2nd Michigan Cavalry. To do so, he must recruit a company of men, but all his plans are thrown into chaos when runaway slaves and slave catchers come to town. With the Fugitive Slave Act still in force, Newman must walk the fine line between his oath to the law and what’s right in his heart.

This novella is an immediate prequel to Rampage on the River: The Battle for Island No. 10. You don’t have to have read any of my books to enjoy this one. In fact, it’s a good place to start. 

What do you think?

This is a 21,000 word novella that I’m giving away to my email subscribers. It’s finished, we’re just working on the editing. We’re looking at releasing it in about a month. Want a copy? Subscribe to my email list and you’ll get one. Here’s the link: https://subscribepage.io/EngdahlHouse

In the meantime, check out my latest novel here:

Review of Flashman, by George MacDonald Fraser

Flashman pulls no punches…. 

…and is not for the faint of heart! By his own admission, Harry Flashman, the main character in this first-person narration, is a liar, a cheat, a scoundrel, a bully, a coward, and a rapist, and if you don’t take him at his word, he certainly demonstrates this in his deeds throughout the story. You can add racist and imperialist to the list as well, which may also scare off many of the overly sensitive. 

But Flashman is not a hero and is never presented as such. Even the character in his narration will tell you that. Rather, this is meant to be the memoir or perhaps confession of an octogenarian who no longer worries about the consequences of his deeds or the opinions of the people he’ll soon leave behind. What the reader gets is a riveting story of a deliciously scandalous cad that’ll have you snickering in delight, then hoping no one caught you laughing. Flashman is a parody, and all good parodies are a mirror to the society they reflect, and certainly Flashman bears all the bullheaded hypocrisy of the Victorian Age and the British Empire. Oh, what fun!

The concept of this novel is brilliant. Flashman first appeared in the 1857 novel Tom Brown’s School Days by Thomas Hughes. In it, he is a bully at Rugby School who’s eventually expelled for drunkenness. Author George MacDonald Fraser then picked up the character and published this novel, Flashman, in 1969. Fraser went on to write eleven more in the series using the “found manuscript” trope in which he pretends to have found Flashman’s memoir, which he claims was written somewhere between 1900 and 1905.

“Hughes got it wrong” are the first words we hear from Flashman. He goes on to admit that he had been kicked out of Rugby for drunkenness, but he didn’t mix drinking gin with beer, which he knew better than to do, “even at seventeen.” The rest of the novel is what he does after his expulsion, which is joining the East India Company Army and fighting in the First Anglo-Afghan War.  

Like all good historical Fiction, the novel has a cast of historical characters and stays true to real history, making Flashman a participant and a witness to events like the disastrous retreat from Kabul, the last stand at Gandamak, and the Siege of Jalalabad. The book also has a profound understanding of human nature, especially our dark side, which we can see in the words and actions of Flashman and perhaps in our own reflection in the mirror. 

Flashman is a witty, swashbuckling adventure full of thrills, laughs, and historical accuracy. I’m definitely in for more!

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Book Review of Tardy Bells and Witches’ Spells by Sarina Dorie

A love letter to every bit of adolescent fantasy that has ever made us dream as children. 

I should start by saying this book was not written for me. I’m a middle-aged man who mostly reads and writes military historical novels. I’m not even a Harry Potter fan. I was too old when it came out to appreciate the book or the movie. I only read and saw the first one. 

That said, I LOVED Tardy Bells and Witches Spells! It is young adult urban fantasy at its finest. I identified so much with the main character. I remembered what it was like to feel different, the embarrassment and angst I experienced in school. I remember wanting to believe that I was special, that I belonged to a different world that was full of adventure and excitement waiting to claim me.  This book filled me with nostalgia with all its references to the Lord of the Rings series, Dungeon & Dragons, The Witch in the Wardrobe, and so many other forms of escape I had from the cruel, mundane world.

I don’t know how I discovered author Sarina Dorie. It might have been on Instagram. I admired her marketing. I liked the cartoonish, clunky,  cute, and sassy art style of the covers.  I wanted to try one of her books for a while. So I leaped at the opportunity when the books 1-5 box set was on special. I bought it and threw it onto my to-be-read queue. I finally got around to it, and boy was surprised how much I liked it! It was better than I had imagined.

The story is the first-person narrative of Clarissa Lawrence. She’s an awkward kid with red hair and freckles who’s obsessed with the make-believe worlds of Tolkien, Rowling, and the like. But Clarissa’s owl bearing her admission to a wizard school never comes. Her parents tell her that magic doesn’t exist and she must face the challenges of the ordinary world, like the transition between jr. high and high school. But the magical world won’t be denied as it pries its way into her teenage angst of bullies and boyfriends. 

Tardy Bells and Witches Spells is a sweet coming-of-age story with ripples of magic running through it. Sarina Dorie constantly teases us with whether magic really exists as it manifests under the surface of the story. The foreshadowing is excellent, drawing you deeper into the narrative. It was full of surprises, mysteries, twists, and turns. Buy it for your teenager, or better yet, read it yourself. It’s great fun!

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Book Review of Fletcher’s Glorious 1st of June, by John Drake

A head spinning whirlwind of an adventure

Book II of the Fletcher series has a lot going on. It picks up where Book I left off. Jacob Fletcher has left the Royal Navy and instead of claiming the enormous wealth left to him by a father he never knew, he’s determined to make it on his own. He buys into a merchant ship and sails off as second mate to make his fortune in the West Indies.  

But things never go as planned

Fletcher’s adventures will cause him to battle the Americans, his fellow Brits, and ultimately fight the French at the Fourth Battle of Ushant, better known as the Glorious First of June for which the book is named and of which Drake gives a riveting account for those of us who like a good bit of real history in our historical fiction.

But the foes Fletcher faces at sea are nothing compared to the enemies waiting for him in England. 

His stepmother, Lady Sarah Coignwood and her maniacal son Victor were knocked down at the end of Book I, but they’re from out. Together, along with her new henchman lover, they plot to clear their names, seize Fletcher’s inheritance, and send him to the gallows.

Like the first book, Fletcher’s Glorious 1st of June has two storylines: Fletcher’s adventures at sea, which is narrated by Fletcher in first person, and his stepmother story in third. The author claims, fictitiously I believe, that he had won Fletcher’s memoirs in an auction along with enough historical documents to flesh out his stepmother’s story. This switch in narrative voice and story swings back and forth, chapter by chapter, even into the third act where the two storylines combine for a spectacular showdown of a climax.

I have to say, the darkest-hour-of-the-soul part was truly dreadful. I really had no clue how Fletcher would get out of it. However, the resolution was heroic and imaginative. 

I really enjoy Drakes writing. The first-person narrative of the old salty sea-dog Fletcher is delicious. Drake’s depiction of historical events and even the mundane ins and outs of navel and maritime culture of the time are easily understandable for a landlubber like me. I feel like  I learn a lot with each of these novels as well as enjoy a great high-seas adventure. I’m excited about reading the next one in this series!

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Review of Sworn to God by Steven A. McKay

A tidy little thriller that’ll keep you turning pages to the end. 

A religious sect seems friendly enough, but when two members kill themselves after leaving their fortunes to its charismatic leader, Bailiff Little John, Friar Tuck, and Will Scarlet investigate. 

If the names seem familiar, it’s because they’re part of the Robin Hood legend so many of us grew up with. But unlike most depictions, which take place during King Richard the Lionheart’s absence during the Third Crusade, Steven A. McKay’s version follows the earliest mentions of Robin Hood in ballads, which place him in the fourteenth century during the reigns of Edward II and III. But Robin isn’t even in this story! 

Sworn to God takes place years after Robin’s “apparent death.” His band of outlaws have been pardoned. Now, Little John works as a bailiff for the sheriff. While out collecting fines, he learns of the strange deaths, and enlists his old buddies to help unravel the clues behind Lady Alice de Staynton and her “Disciples of God.” 

What ensues is a fun little mystery, which I did not know how it would play out until the very end. McKay brings depth to the well-known characters, making them flesh and blood: the irascible Will Scarlet, Friar Tuck’s struggles with self-doubt, and the jolly giant Little John. Together, they make an unlikely team of sleuths who strangely work well in these new roles and share great chemistry.

McKay has written a four-book set of novels about Robin Hood as well as several novellas that take place in and around those four books. Sworn to God is one of a few post-Robin stories in which Little John and Friar Tuck team up to solve mysteries. However, Sworn to God’s fifty-thousand-plus word count puts it more in the range of a short novel than a novella. 

However you want to classify it, it’s a tight and enjoyable read, which took me about a week to read but you could certainly burn through it in a weekend. Either way, it’s a fun story with plenty of action and suspense, which will keep you guessing.

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Review of Fletcher’s Fortune by John Drake

Fletcher’s Fortune has a fascinating premise, which I could not wait to see how it would play out. It’s as much of a mystery as it is an action-adventure story. 

It starts with an introduction in which the author claims to have won in an auction the memoirs of the “notorious” Jacob Fletcher, the main character of the series. He then claims he used these, plus boxes full of letters, articles, and other things to flesh out the novels in this series. I’m pretty sure this setup is also part of the fiction.

The story runs in two tracks: Fletcher’s account in his own words and the story of a seemingly unconnected aristocratic family written in third person, assumedly from the boxes of letters and articles. 

The story starts with an angry father in a drunken rage, threatening to exclude his wife and two boys from the family fortune. Then there’s Fletcher’s story: A street-smart orphan picked up by a press gang and forced into the Royal Navy at the onset of the French Revolutionary Wars. The mystery lies in how these two stories are related. At some point, Fletcher not only has to worry about the French but an unknown enemy aboard his ship, who the reader can try to guess from the clues.

The narrative voice of Fletcher is fantastic for the time, place, and class. More than any other writer, I can hear the salty maritime English accent in every word. The author also gives in-story notes, as if adding context to Fletcher’s words from the 21st century, thus playing up the “found memoir” trope.

This book was a lot of fun. So often, I read authors who really want to tell you how awful everything was. I’ve always felt that being pressed into the Royal Navy was akin to going to prison or being sold into slavery. Certainly, the main character despairs at his fate but there’s a lot of joy as well as he makes friends and grows as a seaman and eventually even takes pleasure and excitement in it. 

There is a fine-line balance between maintaining historical realism, with creating escapist entertainment. Author John Drake walks it expertly. He also has a profound understanding of the ships, technology, history, and culture of the Age of Sail but never gets so lost in the details that it goes over the head of a neophyte like me.

I really enjoyed Fletcher’s Fortune. I bought the box set of the first seven novels of the series. I’m looking forward to reading through it. Drake has recently put out an eighth Fletcher novel and is planning two more at the time of writing.

So, if you want a long series of historical adventure on the high seas, Fletcher’s Fortune is a good place to start.

Check out Fletcher’s Fortune here:

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Review of Diamond Hunter by Paul Fraser Collard

A deeply textured look into the South African diamond rush of 1871 

…and a very different kind of adventure for Jack Lark.

This is the second book of the series I’ve read. I read Book One, The Scarlet Thief, a few years ago. So it was quite a leap to read Book Eleven. It was also an experiment to see if I’d be able to follow the story in Diamond Hunter, having skipped the other nine books in between. I’m happy to report that I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and whatever I needed to know was contained within its pages. 

That said, I’m aware that most, if not all Jack Lark’s stories are military adventures where he’s a soldier of some sort. So, it was interesting to see him cast in a new adventure as a diamond prospector.

The story (no spoilers, I promise) starts with Jack Lark arriving in Port Elizabeth, South Africa (Now Gqeberha) with his “salt-stained” carpet bag in his hand and his pistol at his side. There, he meets up with his companion, Anna Baker. Together, they must find passage four hundred miles inland to the diggings at Du Toit (Now Kimberly), buy a claim, and start digging. This is a long, arduous process, but just as things go well, everything goes terribly wrong, and Jack Lark must once again fight his way out of trouble.

The story has, what I believe, a deliberately slow start. We follow the two as they hire an oxen train, find fellow passengers to help with the cost, then make the month-and-a-half-long journey to the diggings. This is where we meet the rest of the cast and plant the seeds of the main conflict of the story. There’s the shady Australian, whom we meet in the midst of taking a beating for an alleged theft. There’s the sullen youth from London, the jolly, aptly named Mr. Goodfellow, and the pair of brothers whose mischief causes the first conflict with the standoffish Boers who are sharing their journey. 

Once at the diggings, author Paul Fraser Collard takes us through the grueling process of securing a thirty-by-thirty-foot claim and then digging and sieving, day after day, as the Jack Lark’s hands blister and bleed in the search of a diamond big enough to make it all worth it. I think it’s to impress upon the reader the sacrifice it takes to find success in this dusty, desperate place.

But that’s only half the story. 

Once the slow fuse finally meets the powder keg, everything goes to hell. All those characters and the subplots that have been building come to play for a nonstop, knockdown, drag-out, no-prisoners battle that’ll take up the rest of the book. It’s full of twists, turns, and surprises. At one point, I was like, “How much can this poor guy take?!”

Diamond Hunter is a great adventure, well worth the read. Collard is very descriptive of places like Port Elizabeth and Du Toit, as well as the workings of the digging. He has obviously done his homework. I especially liked the descriptions of the weapons and how they work. This is also an interesting look at the growing tensions between the old Dutch Boers, who had been in South Africa for generations, and the newer British Colonists, which eventually erupted in the famous Boer Wars of the late nineteenth century.

Having read and enjoyed the bookends of this series, I’m confident and excited about reading any of the other books in the interior. I think you could pick up any of Collard’s books and enjoy them on their own, but Diamond Hunter is certainly a gem worth digging into.

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Review of Stigmata by Colin Falconer

Far better than I even imagined. 

Honestly, I was constantly surprised at how much I was enjoying this book. Colin Falconer masterfully captures the time and place of early thirteenth century France with rich textured details and well-rounded characters.

Stigmata follows a young woman blessed and cursed by strange abilities, a knight returned from the Middle East who’s lost everything, and a priest haunted by his sins and desire to do right. Their stories converge as the Cathar Crusade comes crashing through southwestern France, burning heretics and laying waste to cities and villages. 

Ultimately, this is a love story full heroic moments and plenty of surprises all the way to the end. It includes historic characters like Abbot Arnaud Amalric and real events like the Massacre at Béziers. 

Stigmata has short chapters making it an easy read that’s hard to put down. It’s one of the fifteen stand-alone novels that makes up Falconer’s Epic Adventure Series which span from ancient world to post World War II Saigon. I’ve read two so far and if the rest are this good, I look forward to exploring more of Falconer’s Epic Adventures.

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Review of Sharpe’s Command by Bernard Cornwell

Another Exhilarating installment in the Richard Sharpe saga.

Bernard Cornwell reminds us once again why he’s still the master of military historical fiction.

The setup is simple: two French armies have a river keeping them from uniting and destroying a British Army that’s intent on driving them out of Spain. Major Sharpe and his green-jacketed riflemen must reconnoiter the one bridge that could bring those French armies together into an unstoppable force.

But nothing can ever be simple for Sharpe. Treachery and his own hotheadedness turn a simple reconnaissance mission into a desperate fight for his life.

Sharpe’s Command is the twenty-fourth novel in the Sharpe series. But chronologically, it’s book fourteen. The story lies between the Sharpe’s Company and Sharpe’s Sword novels. The book centers around the historic Battle of Almaraz in Spain during the Napoleonic Wars in the Spring of 1812. It features real historical characters like General Hill and Lieutenant Love, among others.

Cornwell published the first several books of the series in chronological order in the early eighties, but has since written novels that take place earlier, later, and even, as with Sharpe’s Command, in between previously published books. That’s more easily done because the Sharpe novels are more episodic than serialized, meaning each book is a self-contained story that can be read out of order, like watching a TV episode of The A-Team. Even though I’ve already read novels about Sharpe’s adventures at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 and after the war, I could still enjoy this story, which takes place years earlier in his career. Cornwell gives you all you need to know in each novel as if it’s the first of the series you have read, instead of forcing you to do homework and read everything prior.

Sharpe is the embodiment of class struggle. He’s a bastard son of a long-dead prostitute. He was raised in an orphanage and promoted from the enlisted ranks. He has an anti-authority chip on his shoulder that causes him to rail against slights,real and imagined, from upper-class officers. He soothes his self-conscious impostor syndrome with crassness, disobeying orders, and diving headlong into fights with brutal savagery. This causes him plenty of problems.

But Sharpe is also fair-minded, heroic, and sometimes even kind, making him a hero we can root for. This book is full of intense action sequences, some of which had me gripping my Kindle with white-knuckled anticipation. Cornwell is a master of writing battle scenes as well as foreshadowing, leading you through the narrative page by page. Cornwell also deftly explains many technical aspects of early nineteenth-century warfare, like the advantages of British rifles over French muskets, the seven-barreled volley gun, and the heavy cavalry saber.

Sharpe’s Command is an action-packed romp which I plowed through with reckless abandon. I can hardly wait for the next installment!

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Review of Fire in the East by Harry Sidebottom

Rich, complex, and deeply textured with a cast of well-rounded characters.

Ballistra is a German-born Roman officer sent by the two emperors on an impossible mission to shore up the defenses on the eastern outskirts of the empire against the rising Sassanid threat. He’s surrounded by enemies from outside and within who want nothing more than to see him fail. As the great battle looms, Ballistra must navigate a maze of spies, saboteurs, and murderers if he’s to survive and save the city of Arete from the overwhelming Persian horde.

I really enjoyed Fire in the East. I found out that Harry Sidebottom is first, a historian and college professor who has published several nonfiction works on ancient Rome and ancient warfare. It certainly shows in this novel with its depth of understanding of Roman tactics, weapons, and siege machines. I learned quite a bit, which is always a goal for me in reading historical fiction. Sidebottom follows up the narrative with a historical note in which he lists his sources, some of which are his own scholarly works. There’s a glossary and a list of characters that denotes the ones who are historical. The action sequences are riveting and diverse like a navel battle against pirates, cavalry charges, artillery duels, covert night missions, and all-out siege warfare. I was sucked in immediately with the opening sequence.

Fire in the East is book one of the Warrior of Rome six-book series set in the tumultuous third-century Roman Empire. If the rest of the novels are as good as the first, this looks like an exciting and well-researched series. So, if you’re looking for authentic Roman adventure, put on your helmet, strap on your sword, and jump into the Fire in the East!

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