Review ~ Sword and Scimitar by Simon Scarrow

Headline
25 April 2013

It is 1565, and Sir Thomas Barrett is haunted by the memories which have forced him into exile, and so with nothing to lose he takes up arms in defence of Malta. Although he is a disgraced Knight of St. John, Barrett is sworn to defend the Christian faith against the might of the vast Ottoman army. What then follows is the story of the Great Siege of Malta and the ensuing battles of both on land and at sea are recounted in great detail. Barrett must seek to restore his own good name, whilst at the same time he must also discover the hidden secrets which seek to threaten the very throne of Elizabeth I.

Overall, the story is a historically accurate version of this troubled period in history. The battles are well explained and often quite brutally depicted, but if I'm honest I found the book to be quite lacklustre and only really persevered with it because I was given the book to review. It’s not that the writing is bad, it’s more that the characters lack any real depth and so I had no emotional involvement in the story, nor did I really care about what happened. The book is also over long and could have been cut back to a more reasonable length which may have gone some way to making the story rather less one dimensional.

My thanks to Real Readers for the opportunity to read and review this book