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CLASH OF EAGLES

Name: CLASH OF EAGLES
Author: Alan Smale
ISBN: 978-0-8041-7722-1

From the Clash of Eagles Trilogy series , Vol. 1

by Alan Smale ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 17, 2015

Gaius is in limbo after the Iroquas' near destruction of the Cahokian city, which promises more adventure in the Hesperian...

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Smale debuts with an intriguingly original alternate history supposing that the Roman Empire never collapsed.

It’s A.D. 1218. Pax Romana extends from the Indus to Hispania. After Rome captures a Viking pirate ship packed with riches found across the great ocean, Imperator Hadrianus decides to send "scouting parties into New Hesperia." Praetor Gaius Marcellinus, a veteran warrior, leads the 33rd Legion from Mare Chesapica across Appalachia to the great river called Mizipi, "a grueling trek with hunger, discomfort, and danger." Smale’s thesis, grounded in solid research into Roman history and pre-Columbian native societies, has a believable foundation, at least until he sails toward the fantastical. The Iroqua—"a confederation of five tribes: Seneca, Caiuga, Onondaga, Onida, and Mohawk"—and their enemies, the Cahokian Mizipi mound-builders, have aircraft. Think modern hang gliders made of deer hide from which warriors rain liquid fire. The Romans are bombed from the air by guerrilla Iroqua in Appalachia, and then the legion’s wiped out in a set piece air/land battle with the Cahokians. That tribe’s Catanwakuwa clan flies 12-man Thunderbirds and single-pilot Hawks. The legion’s sole survivor, Gaius, is captured, with Smale craftily outlining how Cahokian curiosity allows him to integrate the Latin language and Roman technology into Cahokian life. The author’s best work comes with descriptions and characters, both in legion life, "a bit of muscle and the willingness to shed blood were crucial in keeping an Imperium strong," and Cahokian society, "the calmest and most pragmatic people he had ever lived among." Romance looms as Gaius becomes smitten with "the most magnificent woman he’d ever known," Sintikala, all "liquid flame, a razor sharp ax, a Coliseum lioness."

Gaius is in limbo after the Iroquas' near destruction of the Cahokian city, which promises more adventure in the Hesperian Trilogy’s next volume.

Pub Date: March 17, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-8041-7722-1

Page Count: 416

Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine

Review Posted Online: Jan. 7, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2015

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
EAGLE AND EMPIRE
by Alan Smale

- BOOK REVIEW
EAGLE IN EXILE
by Alan Smale

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BETWEEN SISTERS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

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Sisters in and out of love.

Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.

Pub Date: May 1, 2003

ISBN: 0-345-45073-6

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE WOMEN
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE FOUR WINDS
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE GREAT ALONE
by Kristin Hannah

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THE ALCHEMIST

by Paulo Coelho & translated by Margaret Jull Costa ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 1993

Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.

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Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.

The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.

Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.