Review ~ The Bleeding Land by Giles Kristian

 Published April 26th 2012 by Bantam Press

Transworld

The Bleeding Land

by

Giles Kristian

1642 – A family torn apart – A war that will change England forever.

In The Bleeding Land, Giles Kristian has brought to vivid life the bloody effects of a war against its own people. The English Civil war was a battle of men against men; brother fighting against brother, and father pitched against son. Both sides thought that God was with them, but when the canons roared and the muskets fired, the only side that mattered under God, was the winning side.

Sir Francis Rivers knows that the King, Charles I, needs all the men he can muster, and as he and his eldest son, Edmund take up arms with the King, they both realise that their allegiance to the crown, will demand a high price. The violent and irascible younger son, Thomas, fleeing his own personal tragedy, takes up arms on the opposite side, where his need for bitter revenge sees brother pitched against brother, as King and Parliament fight for power.

The Bleeding Land is a skilful and graphically depicted account of the English civil war. In the gore and mire of the battlefield, the massacred English fell, and lay as if the very earth was bleeding. The author’s brutal depiction of a family tainted by treachery, allows a realistic glimpse into the doctrine and dogma that led to a nation being divided by the very principles which once governed its belief.

And in the loathing of its surrender, the anguished cry of those who were left behind, mourned the loss of a proud nation.

I was gripped by this story from start to finish, and when the last page was turned I was overwhelmed by what I had read. Very few authors can conjure time and place so perfectly, but without doubt The Bleeding Land makes you feel like you actually travelled back in time to a dark and dirty place, where the stink of battle and the wild cry of horses mingle with the sound of human despair.

5*****

My thanks to NetGalley and Bantam Press / Transworld

 for a digital copy of this book

Book Two ~ Brothers Fury is due to be published by Bantam on May 23rd 2013

It is already on my wishlist.