Smashbomb

Search

Search results

All (962)

Content

David McK (3251 KP) rated The Loki Sword (Fireborn #3) in Books

Sep 18, 2022

I'm not sure why, but for some reason I haven't really connected with Angus Donald's 'Fire Born' novels, finding them to be the weakest of his three series that I have read (The Outlaw Chronicles and the Holcroft Blood series).

I don't know why that is; it's just one of those things.

However, I'll still read these novels, just not be in as much of a rush to do so as with the others.

This is the third in his FireBorn series (after both The Last Berserker: An action-packed Viking adventure and The Saxon Wolf: A Viking epic of berserkers and battle) and is also, for my money, the best of those three novels. That may be because of the nature of this - a band of travellers setting out on a quest, leading to a battle and a return home, with the author himself admitting the influence of the works of JRR Tolkien on this particular entry.

Kudos

The Man In Black

L.R. Liverpool

10.0 (1 Ratings) Rate It

Book

Naive dreamer Fenimore James runs from home and goes west to become a famous outlaw––Simon Shaw....

David McK (3251 KP) rated Robin Hood and the Caliph's Gold in Books

Mar 26, 2020

The 9th entry in Angus Donald's Robin Hood Outlaw series of books, although chronologically I think this is the third (set after Holy Warrior).

As such, this starts with Robin and his men trying to make their way back to England from the Holy Land, with the entire story told (as are all the others) in first person narrative, and from the point of view of Alan a Dale, the true protagonist of these stories (let's face it, Robin isn't always a very nice man...)

Shipwrecked on the way home, this sets off a series of circumstances and encounters that sees Robin and his men hatching a plan to steal the Caliph's Gold (it's all there in the title!), with many a ferocious battle and deeds of derring do throughout.

Having recently just having read one of Angus Donald's other historical works (the Blood series: last one I read was Bloods Campaign), I have to say: I think I prefer the medieval setting of these novels better, with Alan a Dale coming across as a more relatable character than Holcroft Blood.