Headline Review June 2015 |
Tintagel Book 1
The fate of Roman Britain appears
to be controlled by the meeting of two very different men. When Flavius Magnus
Maximus, a man of enormous charisma and courage, meets Caradoc Strong Arm, the
King of the Dumnonii Tribe, the conflict that exists between them is palpable and
even though ambitious plans drawn up between them attempt to unite the tribes,
what it does is reiterate the very differences which, ultimately, make them
enemies.
Inevitably, with the beginning of
any series of books, there is always an element of scene setting and the
introduction of central characters who will go on to play a major role in the
development of the story. I found that to be the case in this story, but am
pleased that the author had included a dramatis personae at the start of the
story which I found very useful as I had no idea who some of the people were, or of
their place in the history of the time. There’s also a glossary of place names
at the end of the book which, again, I thought helped enormously in placing the settlements
geographically.
I’m not overly familiar with
early Roman history and found myself floundering a little with the beginning of
this story and I had to keep back tracking in order to make sense, in my mind,
of where the story was taking me. I found the narrative quite technical and, if
I’m honest, a little bit long winded, but there is no doubting the author’s
research or her commitment to telling a good story. It’s evident from the
writing that the author is knowledgeable about this period in history and uses
this knowledge to good effect.
I’m not sure that I will commit
to reading any more of the series but am glad to have read this book and to, maybe,
understand a little more about the fate of Flavius Magnus Maximus, who I had
never heard of before reading this book.
My thanks to the team at Headline Review for my copy of this book
~***~
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for taking the time to comment - Jaffareadstoo appreciates your interest.