Cornwell’s no-fail mix of historic tidbits and good-humored action makes the usually gloomy ninth century sound like a hell...
A dispossessed Northumbrian gets a military education from the Danes before reluctantly signing on to serve the humorless Wessexian king, he who will eventually become Alfred the Great (849–99).
Opening yet another series, Cornwell, who turns out about two high-quality historicals a year (Sharpe’s Escape, 2004, etc.) without breaking a sweat, examines, through the eyes of a reluctant vassal, the career of the only English king to rate a Great. Born Osbert, younger son of Uhtred, ealdorman of Bebbanburg, on the coast of Northumbria, robust, war-loving Uhtred got renamed on the death of his older brother, killed by the Danes who, on a later raid, seized the lad and, admiring his spunk, kept him as a sort of pet. And Uhtred loves the Danish life. Back in Bebbanburg, his father and grumpy stepmother had been trying to have him educated by Beocca, a too-serious, too-Christian monk, but Uhtred wasn’t interested. (And Uhtred’s greedy uncle wanted him dead.) Ragnar, the warrior Dane who spared Uhtred’s life, seeing real soldier potential in the boy, taught him the fine points of disemboweling, decapitating, etc., in a blissfully wild childhood on the land the invaders had seized from the very disorganized English. Besides loving the warrior life, Uhtred finds rowdy fatalistic paganism infinitely more sensible and appealing than the morose and, well, wimpy Christianity his countrymen cling to. The one glitch in his new life is the lifelong enemy he makes when he interrupts the prepubescent sexual assault on Ragnar’s daughter by Sven, son of Kjartan, one of Ragnar’s lieutenants. Sven and Kjartan will eventually be the death of Ragnar, forcing Uhtred and his wild English girlfriend, Brida, to move south, reluctantly resuming their British identities and drifting into the camp of Alfred, the only king on the island who hasn’t capitulated to the invaders.
Cornwell’s no-fail mix of historic tidbits and good-humored action makes the usually gloomy ninth century sound like a hell of a lot of fun.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-053051-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2004
A mildly entertaining smoke-and-mirrors tale that teases more than it delivers.
A leisurely mystery set in 19th-century Istanbul, the second in a series which began with The Janissary Tree (2006), winner of the 2007 Edgar Award.
Providing continuity is Yashim, the eunuch and investigator who worked for the sultan. Now it’s two years later, 1838, the sultan is dying, and Yashim has less clout, though he’s still a confidant of the Queen Mother. The story starts with a bang when George, a Greek, is almost killed next to his vegetable stall. We’ll find out much later that his misadventure is merely a red herring. Someone of more consequence is Max Lefèvre, a shady French archaeologist with a passion for Greek antiquities described in a book he hides in Yashim’s apartment. Lefèvre is being pursued and begs Yashim for help; the eunuch gets him a berth on an Italian vessel, but next thing you know Lefèvre is found dead, his face eaten away by dogs, outside the French embassy, and Yashim finds himself under suspicion. Who was pursuing the Frenchman? Could it have been the Hetira, a super-secret organization pushing for a new Greek empire? Its name keeps cropping up, then fades away in a story that proceeds by fits and starts. There are more puzzling murders (an Albanian waterman, a Jewish moneylender) but they’re over in seconds, leaving plenty of time for Yashim to indulge his first love, cooking, and Goodwin, a British historian, to fill us in on Istanbul’s fabled past and exotic present. The large cast includes a Greek banking family and the English doctor who attended Byron at Missilonghi. Nobody is quite who they seem, there may or may not be valuable relics above ground or below (there are two scenes in Istanbul’s maze of tunnels), and through it all glides Yashim, a gentle presence, who will fight only when he must.
A mildly entertaining smoke-and-mirrors tale that teases more than it delivers.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-374-29935-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Sarah Crichton/Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2007
The Holy Roman Empire is the setting for another historical romance from Tarr (Throne of Isis, 1994, etc.), this one focusing on the Byzantine princess who ruled the empire from 983994 as regent for her son, Otto III. Theophano, daughter of the Byzantine Emperor, doesn't seem to have much of a future: Her father murdered, her mother set aside by the new emperor, the best she might hope for is a quiet life in a convent. So when ambassadors arrive from the west, seeking a wife for the heir to the Holy Roman Empire, Theophano sees her escape. Accompanied by Aspasia—her aunt, mentor, advisor—she leaves Constantinople for Rome and weds Otto II. Meanwhile, Theophano's training as a queen, her mother-in-law troubles, and peregrinations around the Empire are chronicled by Aspasia, who describes herself as plain but seems regularly to draw the attention of men—among them Moorish physician Ismail, who becomes her clandestine lover, a dangerous alliance in a Christian empire. As Otto's rule is threatened by his cousin Henry the Quarreller, Theophano's power increases: Her mother-in-law is banished for supporting Henry's claim to the throne, and Theophano is entrusted with Otto's heir, Otto III, and with the court. Then, after word comes that Otto is dead in Rome, three-year-old Otto III becomes emperor, and the battle for his regency ensues. It's awarded to Theophano, and Henry responds by laying siege to Cologne and kidnapping the child- emperor from Aspasia and Ismail. The race to line up military and ecclesiastical support for Theophano is punctuated with theological musings by Aspasia—but the peace that she brokers between Henry and Theophano is more successful than any she'll find between her culture and her lover's. A strangely stolid tale, relieved by attention to cultural detail and rescued by the fictional characters. (2 maps, not seen)
Pub Date: April 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-312-85819-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Forge
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
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