Here Be Dragons by Sharon Penman

 

Rating 3.5⭐s

You Can Buy Here Be Dragons...Here

About The Author...Here

• The Blurb...

Thirteenth-century Wales is a divided country, ever at the mercy of England's ruthless, power-hungry King John. Llewelyn, Prince of North Wales, secures an uneasy truce by marrying the English king's beloved illegitimate daughter, Joanna, who slowly grows to love her charismatic and courageous husband.

But as John's attentions turn again and again to subduing Wales – and Llewelyn – Joanna must decide where her love and loyalties truly lie.

Beginning the medieval trilogy that includes Falls the Shadow and The Reckoning, Here Be Dragons brings thirteenth-century England, France, and Wales to tangled, tempestuous life.

• Our Review...

As a proud Welshman I have always been a little perturbed by my lack of historical knowledge of my people. When I was a child we were taught history from England's viewpoint, Longshanks and all. I did a little research and now the GCSE curriculum focus in Wales is on Wales, eg The Lord Rhys, Owain Glyndwr  and it's place in European and world history e.g. Wales in The Civil War. This awareness of OUR history is nice to see and long may it continue. I have recently seen in the UK Black History Month in addition to South Asian Heritage month on sky. While these are worthy promotions I despair that in Great Britain we do not have a Celtic Heritage/History month concentrated through BBC/ITV/Sky. The media of Tv, films and indeed books have a huge part to play in keeping a nations heritage alive. Before the flawed but exciting epic Braveheart I guarantee not may people outside of Scotland had heard of William Wallace. 

I enjoy historical fiction so I decided to go for two birds one stone approach. Fun and educational.. Here Be Dragons is the fictionalised Biopic (Biobook?) of Llewellyn the Great, one of Wales favourite sons. Here again the story of Wales is heavily influenced by England. The focus of the book is actually Llewellyn's wife Joanna. The illegitimate daughter of KIng John (yes the bad guy from Robin Hood!) Both Llewellyn and Joanna are coerced into a political marriage which by all accounts went very well...until it didn't (no spoilers but the marriage encounters a big bump in the road!)

I found the book really hit the spot in feeding my quest for historical learning. I could really place myself in the room with Llewellyn and Joanna and developed a far better understanding of the timeline than I would if i had just read a straightforward dry non-fiction. When I read an historical fiction novel it ceases to be history, I am transported to that time and place and the history spontaneously evolves into something more akin to current affairs.

The author does have a nice way with words and  smooth style. The focus of the tale, I felt, was more from Joanna's point of view, so affairs at court took precedence over affairs on the battlefield. While I realise most readers are female, I being a Welshman would have liked more emphasis on Llewellyn. A little more Bernard Cornwall a little less Gregory for me would have been my sweet spot. Again this is purely subjective. I suppose there is a subtle difference between male and female historical fiction. You pays your money and takes your choice. This slight caveat aside I did enjoy this book and I will no doubt at some point delve into the author's Biobook of the greatest Welsh hero Owain Glyndwr. 

• Selected Quotes...

They say a Welshman’s word is worth spit in the wind. And they are right, lad. An oath given to an enemy is made to be broken; we understand that. We use what weapons we have available to us, and when we fight, we fight on our terms, not theirs.

I do not mean to offend you, but the Welsh have been given little reason to love the English.” Joanna had never thought of herself as English; in fact, to one of Norman-French descent, that qualified as an insult. She did not quibble at Adda’s inaccuracy, however, realizing that to the Welsh, the distinction drawn between Norman and Saxon was irrelevant.

it would be a drawn-out, bloody, and brutal war. Wars with the Welsh always are. They disappear into inaccessible mountain retreats, phantom foes we cannot find. But they have no trouble finding us, my liege; they excel at ambush, at surprise attack and counterattack upon the morrow. There is no glory in wars against the Welsh, only blood-spattered rocks and shallow graves, and once you win, you find precious little for the plundering.

A scar signifies past pain, a wound that did not heal as it ought. But it testifies, too, to survival, breila

• If You Liked This Then You May Like...

The Greatest Knight by Elizabeth Chadwick

Katherine by Anya Seton

The Bruce Trilogy by Nigel Trantor

Devolution by Max Brooks

 

Rating 3.5⭐s

You can buy Devolution...Here

You can find out more about the author Max Brooks...Here

• The Blurb...

As the ash and chaos from Mount Rainier's eruption swirled and finally settled, the story of the Greenloop massacre has passed unnoticed, unexamined . . . until now.

But the journals of resident Kate Holland, recovered from the town's bloody wreckage, capture a tale too harrowing - and too earth-shattering in its implications - to be forgotten.

Kate's is a tale of unexpected strength and resilience, of humanity's defiance in the face of a terrible predator's gaze, and inevitably, of savagery and death.

Yet it is also far more than that.

Because if what Kate Holland saw in those days is real, then we must accept the impossible. We must accept that the creature known as Bigfoot walks among us - and that it is a beast of terrible strength and ferocity.

Part survival narrative, part bloody horror tale, part scientific journey into the boundaries between truth and fiction, this is a Bigfoot story as only Max Brooks could chronicle it - and like none you've ever read before.

• Our Review...

To our readers in the UK this novel is not about the domestic politics of the Celtic countries of the UK (thank goodness!) It is about the opposite of evolution i.e. the notion that species can revert to supposedly more primitive forms over time. 

Our story is told in epistolary fashion in the form of a recovered journal and notes from interviews. This is a clever framework for this novel as it adds a touch of realism to what is in essence a myth. The method is akin to "filming the Blair Witch Project on a shaky hand held cam." It adds a ring of authenticity.

The scene is set early on. The backdrop is a small, very middle class, eco-friendly community of Greenloop in the wilds of the North-Western USA.  The dynamic within the group is very structured. The smiley, rich, engaging people at the top and the not so rich, not so smiley, not so engaging lower down the totem pole of life. 

However, double disaster strikes. A volcanic eruption cuts off our community with no hope of rescue over the winter and said eruption triggers a migration of starving Bigfoots, or should that be Bigfeet, straight into our cotton wool enclosed bunch of softees. 

This part reminded me of the first half of Jaws where power resided with mayor and his politically focused actions but when the shit hits the fan, the most powerful person in the town is the crazy mad bastard fisherman. Human hierarchies are irrelevant when faced with death on a large scale. When that happens we need warriors not wordsmiths.

 

The changing dynamics within the human group under duress were the hook for this book. At times it didn't really matter what the external threat was. As for the external threat., the author is renowned for his work in the zombie genre and has even lectured to the USA military  on unthinkable threats. Could this book have been better if a more credible threat eg wolves, bears been the looming enemy. Possibly, possibly not. So does Kate (our journal author) survive the Bigfeet feeding frenzy? I will say the outcome for Kate is unusual...

This is a fascinating cautionary tale about nature and how we have cocooned ourselves from it. We have lulled ourselves into a false sense of superiority and security. The author suggests that not being content with placing a barrier between us and nature, we have taken the ultimate step and actually forgotten that nature is dangerous and terrifying. 

• Selected Quotes...

You can’t ask people to give up personal, tangible comforts for some ethereal ideal. That’s why communism failed. That’s why all those primitive, hippie, “back to the land” communes failed. Selfless suffering feels good for short crusades, but as a way of life, it’s unsustainable.

It’s great to live free of the other sheep until you hear the wolves howl.

Siri, what can I eat here?” I don’t know what made me feel worse, that I suddenly didn’t have the world’s knowledge in my pocket or that up until that moment, I’d always assumed I was entitled to it.

Injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you. That’s why most weapons of war are designed to injure instead of kill. Wounded are more of a drain than the dead.

Like a tree in the forest, America doesn’t hear foreign suffering.”

They all want to live “in harmony with nature” before some of them realize, too late, that nature is anything but harmonious.

• If You Liked This Then You May Like...

Jaws by Peter Benchley

Alien by Alan Dean Foster

Day Of The Triffids by John Wyndham

• About the Author...

As a best-selling author, Max Brooks is credited with helping propel zombie-lore from niche sub-culture fascination to mainstream pop-culture obsession. While Brooks has published three massively successful zombie-themed books—The Zombie Survival Guide, World War Z, and The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks (all of which are now considered the definitive tomes for the genre)—Brooks’ ultimate goal was to challenge old ways of thinking and encourage mental agility and flexibility for problem solvers and leaders.  Brooks’ unique, unconventional thinking depicted in his books has even inspired the U.S. military to examine how they may respond to potential crises in the future.  World War Z was read and discussed by the sitting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and Brooks has been invited to speak at a variety of military engagements—from the Naval War College, to the FEMA hurricane drill at San Antonio, to the nuclear "Vibrant Response" wargame. Adapting to adversity has been the enduring theme in all of Brook’s works. From the true story “The Harlem Hellfighters” which chronicles the heroic African American unit in the trenches of World War 1, to the fiction “Minecraft: The Island” the first official novelization of the 100,000,000+ videogame franchise, Brooks continues to explore what drives us to succeed in a hostile world. His new comic book, “Germ Warfare: A Graphic History” tells the long, painful story of humanities’ battle with microbes, and how those microbes have been used to battle each other. Today, Brooks balances his work as a novelist and speaker with his dual fellowships at the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security and the Modern War Institute at West Point. As an analyst and columnist, Brooks has written about national security subjects such as automation, weapons procurement, and cyber-warfare just to name a few. Together with his colleagues from the MWI, Brooks has co-edited two books on teaching military science through science fiction: “Strategy Strikes Back: How Star Wars Explains Modern Military Conflict” and “Winning Westeros: How Game of Thrones Explains Modern Military Conflict”.