The Great Magician (2011)
Movie
In the years after the Revolution that overthrew the Qing Dynasty in China and established the...
The Empire's Bladesmen: Forbidden Relics
Book
Captain Shao Lian, a battle-hardened veteran of the Ming Dynasty’s imperial army, had become a...
historical fiction historical fantasy
With One Look (A Sisters Duet #1)
Book
CHERYL HOLT dazzles readers once again with her new two-book SISTERS duet! It’s two fun,...
Historical Romance Regency
Conquist
Book
Capitán Cristóbal de Varga's drive for glory and gold in 1538 Peru leads him and his army of...
Historical Fantasy Magical Realism Incas Conquistadors
David McK (3801 KP) rated Rebellion (Eagles of the Empire #22) in Books
Apr 4, 2024
Which, like the French with Napoleon at Waterloo, if you knew nothing about British history you might be forgiven for thinking she won (she lost).
The majority of the novel is taken up with the impact the Rebellion had on the Romans in the south of England and (in particular) in London, with Macro and Cato still separated at the start of the novel and with the former in captivity amongst Boudicca's army following the fall of the veterans colony in the former novel, and facing quite gruesome execution.
I have to say, I was actually surprised how little of this novel was spent on the final pitched battle between the Romans and the Britons, with more of it spent on describing the sense of desperation and the breakdown of law and order (well, that's what the Romans would have said) as Boudicca's horde descends on London.
Home for the Homicides
8.0
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Book
It's Christmastime in Army retiree Tessa Treslow's small Idaho hometown of New Oslo, but someone is...
Sword Brethren (The Northern Crusader Chronicles)
Book
1242. After being wounded in the Battle on the Ice, Richard Fitz Simon becomes a prisoner of Prince...
Historical Action Adventure Medieval
Death at the Sign of the Rook
10.0
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Welcome to Rook Hall. The stage is set. The players are ready. By night’s end, a murderer will...
Detective fiction
It’s set in a world that we all know a little about. A Covid-19-type virus, except far more severe, breaks out and social panic ensues. Society goes ion to lockdown, hospitals are unable to cope with the sheer volume of cases, and the army is drafted in to keep order. Shops are looted, food is rationed, people die horrifically.
Edith Harkness looks back on her life as she prepares to enter the last stages of Long-Nonovirus. It’s a much more serious version of Long-Covid, where the affected person dies. Edith looks back on her life, from her childhood where she lives with her brain-damaged mother, to her years of study and consequent art prizes, and then her time in lockdown with her lover, a Bulgarian Turk.
It’s a book about love, sex, desire, illness, caring, family and grief. Those are some big topics for a slim book, but it’s beautifully told.
Now I need to read some more Sarah Hall books.
David McK (3801 KP) rated Monstrous Regiment: (Discworld Novel 31) in Books
Mar 31, 2023
I wonder how this was affected by Pratchett's 'embuggerance'?
Original 2011 review
Not one of the strongest of Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld books, this is only loosely - even more so than normal - connected to any of his other books in the series. Loosely connected, but not to the level of ""Small Gods"" (which is set centuries before the rest of the series), or "Pyramids".
In "Monstrous Regiment", Pratchett introduces a whole host of new characters - none of who have yet, been heard of again - as well as some new nations, with Commander Sam Vimes (from the City Watch books) and William De Worde (from "the Truth") only really having cameos in the story. He also exaggerates, to comic effect, the famous stories of women secretly joining the army, with this providing the basis for his plot.
As I said at the top, this is not one of the best of Pratchetts works, but even a below-par Pratchett is miles above any other author in the same genre