New books by Julian Stockwin and Bernard Cornwell – historical fiction
Filed under: Bernard Cornwell, book news, historical fiction, Julian Stockwin
Two new, very interesting releases of historical fiction books:
Invasion: A Kydd Sea Adventure, by Julian Stockwin
A very interesting new release, to say the least! Link to order the book: Stockwin’s Invasion (Kydd Series) from Amazon US
The Burning Land (Saxon Chronicles, book 5), by Bernard Cornwell
Cornwell is releasing the fifth volume in the bestselling Alfred series. We are now at the end of the ninth century. Even though they have failed previously, the Danes still want to conquer Wessex. And now KingAlfred of Wessex is in bad health, and his heir has no experience. The Danes see a new chance. They are lead by a great warrior, Harald Bloodhair, a new leader of the Vikings. On the side of Alfred, Uthred, his very reluctant warlord, is perhaps the greatest asset. He is cunning and smart, and leads Harald into a trap defeats the Vikings at Farnham in Surrey. This is a major defeat for the otherwise victorious and proud Vikings, perhaps the greatest ever. The Burning Land is a well crafted novel which tells the story of how England survived the Viking onslaught, and a magnificient new tale from Bernard Cornwell.
Available for order at Amazon UK: The Burning Land
The Fight for Rome, by James Duffy
Filed under: book review, historical fiction, James Duffy
In this second novel in the Gladiators of the Empire series, which continues 
It is now AD 69, and it is the Year of the Four Emperors. Emperor Galba has been assassinated, and Otho is engaged in a fight against Vitellius for the throne. But Otho has too few soldiers on his side, and now gladiators are recruited as soldiers for Otho.
>At the same time, at a gladiator ludus in Africa, Quintus’ arch-enemy, the slave Lucius Calidius, gets a second chance. Julia, who is newly widowed and now sole owner of the Romanus shipping business, comes to rescue Lucius, and soon they find themselves in comfortable circumstances in Alexandria and Caesarea, courting Vespasian, the fourth contender for the Roma throne.
The Fight for Rome is a good and very entertaining novel. However, the plot is a little farfetched – as it places a gladiator in the center of the vast struggle for control over the Roman Empire. But if you accept the plot, this is a good, pretty well researched and very interesting novel. The fighting scenes seem very realistic and the relations among the characters are very interesting and well described. The Fight for Rome is a good historical fiction novel which I recommend.
>Praise:
“A well-written story of ancient Rome, comparable to novels written by Simon Scarrow and Michael Curtis Ford . . . an exciting portrayal of gladiatorial combat.”
— The Historical Novels Review
“Duffy combines a sure sense of character and narrative with an extraordinary knowledge of the world of the Roman arena. It’s an exciting, thrilling novel. I’m looking forward to more in the series.”
— John Maddox Roberts, Author,
SPQR historical fiction series
The Wicked Trade, by Jan Needle
Filed under: book review, historical fiction, Jan Needle, William Bentley
This is the second book in the continuing story of Midshipman William Bentley, in Jan Needle’s realist and grim naval saga. The story of William Bentley is set in the early 19th century. The Wicked Trade is 
William’s earlier experiences have stripped away his last traces of innocence, but his service in the London River-surrounded by corruption and greed-teaches him new lessons about the darker side of city life. When Biter is reassigned to combat the “wicked trade” of smuggling, Bentley and his fellow midshipman friend, Sam Holt, are soon drawn into a complicated conspiracy after two customs men are brutally murdered by a well-organized smuggling gang. Greed, corruption and betrayal reach high levels in the navy and the government, and the two midshipmen soon are way over their heads in a cesspool of savagery and duplicity.
The story is multithreaded, and mostly very well told. It is a book about smuggling, press gangs, whores, and love and class relations in England at the time. The books is not for the soft reader – it has some very brutal scenes (some nasty amateur dentistry for instance). As Jan Needle says, his project with this series of books is:
“What I am trying to do in my books is to get behind this myth, to show an age of desperate, ruthless struggle. In the eighteenth century, the British Navy carved out, with blood and violence, a huge portion of the world. The losses were enormous – but not from warfare, mainly. Firstly came disease, then accident: the peril of the sea.”
And he does manage to get behind the myths. In many ways The Wicked Trade is an outstanding book, even though I thought the ending was somewhat lacking and much too “lucky”. I to some extent feel Needle should concern himself a little bit more with the plot and the story, and a little less with gruesome details. Also, the plot, while exciting, doesn’t have the gripping quality of the first book in the series. However, for the most part, the characters are strong, vivid and well drawn.
Overall, The Wicked Trade is an entertaining but gruesome swashbuckler, albeit without the glory of a Hornblower, the class of a Ramage or the naval action of the Alan Lewrie series. Instead Needle gives a thoroughly grim and accurate portrayal of naval existence and the life of the poor. Prepare to be horrified!
Post Captain, by Patrick O’Brian
Filed under: bestseller, book review, historical fiction, International bestseller, Jack Aubrey, Main character, Patrick O'Brian, recommendation
It is 1802. Post Captain is the second in Patrick O’Brian’s epic 20-volume 19th-century maritime series about the unlikely companions Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin. Finally 
He meets the Williams family and their cousin Diana Villiers. Jack courts Sophia Williams, but is also very attracted to Diana, and commences an affair with her. His approach to courtship leaves a lot to be desired, and creates problems for him left and right – both with his superiors and with his friend Stephen, to the point where the two friends even challenge each other to a duel.
However, he plans to marry Sophia Williams, but quickly finds his fortune in prize money gone – he has been ordered to repay a wrongly captured merchant ship and at the same time he has been embezzled by his prize-agent. So instead of being a rich man, as he thought he would be, he is now severely in debt and at risk of being imprisoned for it! He has to flee the country and plans to live with Maturin in Spain.
But the peace of Amiens did not last long, and even before Jack gets to Stephen’s estate in Spain, France declares war and begins rounding up English subjects. Jack and Stephen escape, and are able to make their way back to England from Gibraltar.
In England, Jack – constantly seeking to avoid his creditors – is restored to active service. He is given command of HMS Polychrest, a very strange experimental ship designed to launch a secret weapon. As it turns out, she is a very bad sailing ship, and on top of it, Jack’s patience is tried by a sadistic lieutenant. But in the end, Captain Aubrey is able to take her to battle and win a decisive victory – he loses the Polychrest but leads three boats to board the Fanciulla. And returning to England in the Fanciulla, he is finally posted captain. Afraid of being captured by his creditors, he asks for a temporary command and is assigned to HMS Lively.
As luck will have it, Lively is assigned to a squadron sent to intercept Spanish ships bring bullion back to Spain from her American colonies. The Spanish convoy refuses to surrender, but after a short battle where Jack Aubrey plays an important role, one Spanish galleon explodes and the other three surrender. The victorious captains’ share of the prize money will be enough to pay off Jack’s debts and make him a rich man!
Post Captain is a wonderful book. It is rare to find a book that has such a rich blend of various ingredients. O’Brian’s writing is crisp and spare. The characters are fully-developed human beings, the writing is full of O’Brian’s quirky humor, and the action is exciting. The book is very hard to put down.
Praise:
Master and Commander raised almost dangerously high expectations; Post Captain triumphantly surpasses them…a brilliant book.
– Mary Renault
Aubrey and Maturin compose one of those complex and fascinating pairs of characters which have inspired thrilling stories of all kinds since the Iliad.
– Iris Murdoch and John Bayley
More reviews of nautical fiction book series?
Gladiatrix, by Russell Whitfield
The main character is Lysandra, a Spartan priestess who is captured and sold into 
The tale in Gladiatrix begins with a very brutal battle between her and another woman in the arena. Lysandra is a skilled sword fighter, and manages to stay alive. She is then brought to the facility that trains women to fight. This is where most of the story takes place, and where we learn more about Lysandra and the other women held captive there.
The training is hard and at times brutal. The rivalry between the women as well – and as they come from all parts of the Roman empire – there are lots of conflicts among the women, both based on differences in background and in differences in status. Lysandra is both beautiful and arrogant, and makes enemies left and right. As well, her beauty attracts unwanted attention from the male trainers.
Lysandra is an intriguing character. Being Spartan, she frequently reflects on the superiority of her own intelligence, education and upbringing. She considers everyone else her inferior. Her physical prowess is extraordinary. Her primary weaknesses are her complete lack of empathy and her startling tactlessness and her aloof pride.
It is an interesting tale, of gladiatorial training, bloody and brutal fighting, of life as slaves, of violence and humiliation, as well as of courage, love, sex, and relationship. It is a very violent tale. There is a great deal of killing in the book, as well as some very violent rape scenes. There is also a lot of eroticism and sex in the book, including some lesbian love scenes. And the language is very blunt. So this is an explicit, colorful and tough book.
Despite the rough edges of the book and its toughness, I liked the book. Gladiatrix is a thrilling first novel, well written, and combines fascinating historical detail with blistering action. Readers who like Bernard Cornwell and Simon Scarrow will find much to enjoy in Gladiatrix.
(For more about gladiators, see also Sand of the Arena, by James Duffy.)
Praise:
“A great debut that shines an entirely new light on the glory and the bloodshed of the Roman arena…It’s exciting stuff, with well rounded characters, nail-biting duels to the death and vividly depicted settings. Gladiatrix makes Gladiator look very tame indeed!”
–Simon Scarrow, author of Under the Eagle
The Whale Road, by Robert Low
Filed under: book review, historical fiction, Robert Low
The Whale Road is the first volume in a series of historical fiction novels by Robert Low entitled The Oathsworn. Low is a 
The adventure begins in A.D. 965, when 15-year-old Orm Ruriksson—aka Orm the Bear Slayer—joins the Oathsworn. They are a band of raiders, sailing a Viking ship called the Fjord Elk, which includes his father, Rurik, and is led by the ruthless Einar the Black. After hearing a tale about a mountain of silver that once belonged to Attila the Hun, the band sets out to find it, accompanied by a madwoman who claims to know the treasure’s location. The young Orm must improve his skills and become a real warrior quickly is he is to survive.
The Oathsworn, like other Vikings, fight hard, drink hard, and always defend their own. But it quickly turns out that they are not alone in seeking the treasure. Their foremost competitor is Bluetooth, the King of the Danes and the Norwegians, who wants the treasure for himself.
This is also a time of changing loyalties for the Vikings – the old Norse Gods are on their way out and the followers of the mysterious “White Christ” are gaining power across Europe. With the religious dimension added, the rivalries among bands of raiders are now stronger than ever.
The action in The Whale Road takes place all over Europe, from Norway to Scotland through the Baltic and on to Istanbul. And Robert Low mixes history, archeology andmythology into this fast-moving adventure tale. The weakness of the book, to my mind, is that the characters are a little flat, and perhaps also that it is a little too slow at times. Apart from that, it is very good — the author is very knowledgeable and has developed a good plot and is a good writer, and the book has lots of exciting fighting scenes. It is a debut book that holds promise for the forthcoming books in the series. The Whale Road is a very interesting historical fiction book, full of action and adventure.
Praise for The Whale Road:
“A company of warriors, desperate battles, an enthralling read.”
—Bernard Cornwell“A stirring Viking series of blockbuster battles and religious intrigue.”
—Publishing News“Action-packed and evocative.”
—Herald (Glasgow)
, amazon UK, and amazon CAN
. Link to more historical fiction about the Vikings.The Forgotten Legion, by Ben Kane
Filed under: Ben Kane, book review, historical fiction, military fiction, recommendation
The Forgotten Legion is the debut book of Ben Kane. It is, as the name indicates, a historical fiction book set in the age of the Roman Empire, during the
The tale is about two gladiators, a soothsayer and a prostitute that all seek freedom and revenge. They are all common people, far distanced from the doings of the nobility and with much more modest and simple goals. While Julius Caesar, Pompey and Crassus struggle for control of Rome, Romulus and Fabiola, the illegitimate children of a slave raped by a nobleman, run afoul of their master and are sold off. Romulus is sold to a gladiator school and Fabiola to the city’s most fancy brothel.
Romulus is trained by Brennus, a fearsome huge Gaulian gladiator whose family was slaughtered by the Roman army. And, meanwhile, across the Forum, Fabiola, soon a favored courtesan of the social elite, vows to save her brother from certain death and to destroy the man who fathered her.
Then, after a fatal accident outside the brothel, Romulus and Brennus flee the city, joining up with Tarquinius, an Etruscan warrior who can glimpse the future. They enlist in Crassus’ army as they prepare to invade the Parthian Empire. As we know, Crassus failed miserably, and thus a legion of Roman soldiers was lost. The rest of the book is mostly their story.
The Forgotten Legion tells a great tale, and the descriptions of the battles, be they gladiatorial or army battles, are extremely well described. And the scenes of the life of the gladiators, in the brothel, and in the military, including the battles Crassus’ Roman legions fought against the Parthians, seem plausible and are very interesting.
The Forgotten Legion is a very good historical novel with several good twists and a unique and interesting perspective. Kane clearly knows the history of the period pretty well, and his story is rich in historical detail. The characterizations are not quite as good, but more than passable. His book, which reminds me a lot of Conn Iggulden in writing style, is a very welcome addition to the literature about this era.
Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, by C.S. Forester
Filed under: bestseller, book review, C. S. Forester, historical fiction, Horatio Hornblower, Main character
Lots of new historical fiction book reviews!
Naval fiction:
The Horatio Hornblower Saga, by C. S. Forester
Alan Lewrie series, by Dewey Lambdin
Richard Bolitho series, by Alexander Kent
Lord Ramage series, by Dudley Pope
Kydd series, by Julian Stockwin
Frederick Marryat
Charles Edgemont series, by Jay Worrall
Nathaniel Drinkwater series, by Richard Woodman
Richard Delancey series, by C. Northcote Parkinson
The Fury series, by G.S. Beard
Other historical fiction:
Genghis Khan, by Conn Iggulden
Emperor, by Conn Iggulden
Gladiators of Empire, by James Duffy
Mr. Midshipman Hornblower is actually the sixth book in the Hornblower saga, even though it is the first in terms of chronology. The first book C. S. Forester wrote about this 
In Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, young Horatio Hornblower is introduced to nautical life in a rather undistinguished fashion, as he arrives wet and a little seasick to the warship HMS Justinian while it is still in harbor! He is a painfully shy lad, and he soon falls under the power of one of those sadistic bullies the Royal Navy seemed to have so many of.
Midshipman Simpson, age thirty-three, has failed his examination for lieutenant too many times to ever expect promotion. He is said to be “diabolically clever at making other people’s lives a burden to them”. And as Hornblower outshines him in the required mathematical studies on board, he soon receives Simpson’s special attention.
Hornblower is desperate, and even briefly considers desertion and suicide. Then the bully accuses Horatio of cheating in cards – one of Hornblower’s great passions, and something which he excels in. This gives him an opportunity for an honorable escape from the bullying: Hornblower challenges him to a duel. However, as Hornblower is neither a great fencing master nor good with a pistol, he devices a smart scheme for the duel which will equalize the chances for him: The duelists are to have one loaded and one unloaded gun, and chose guns randomly. They are to fire at one another at a distance of on step. This, he considers, will give him an “even chance.”
Horatio Hornblower is very intelligent, but he is also an awkward neophyte, both socially and nautically speaking. However, he learns fast, does not do the same mistake twice, has a strong will, and a willingness to learn. His superiors quickly recognize him as a man who will accomplish great things. And, through a series of challenges and adventures both in and out of combat, Hornblower discovers he is actually talented in both seamanship and leadership.
This first novel in the series is packed with action, and C. S. Forester is the grand master of naval action scenes. The storytelling is wonderful. As well, the book has lots of fascinating incident and detail. While certainly not the best in the magnificent Hornblower saga, it is a book you must read. The question is whether to do it sooner or later, but not whether or not.
A King’s Cutter, by Richard Woodman
Filed under: book review, historical fiction, Main character, Nathaniel Drinkwater, naval fiction, recommendation, Richard Woodman
Ten years have passed since we last met Nathaniel Drinkwater (in An Eye of the Fleet). He is now married, but he has not been promoted, 
More historical fiction book reviews!
Naval fiction:
Alan Lewrie series, by Dewey Lambdin
Richard Bolitho series, by Alexander Kent
Lord Ramage series, by Dudley Pope
Kydd series, by Julian Stockwin
Frederick Marryat
Charles Edgemont series, by Jay Worrall
Nathaniel Drinkwater series, by Richard Woodman
Richard Delancey series, by C. Northcote Parkinson
The Fury series, by G.S. Beard
Other historical fiction:
Genghis Khan, by Conn Iggulden
Emperor, by Conn Iggulden
Gladiators of Empire, by James Duffy
Thus Nathaniel Drinkwater returns to the Royal Navy with an appointment to the twelve-gun cutter Kestrel commanded by the old and inscrutable Madoc Griffiths. Together they undertake a series of secret missions into France, now under the shadow of the French Revolution.
And as war thickens of the European continent, Kestrel is drawn into the struggle for the Channel, and Drinkwater for the first time encounters his arch enemy, the sinister and extremely devious French Captain Edourd Santhonax. He is, as usual, engaged in activities that attracts a lot of attention from the British government.
Eventually Drinkwater, to some extent by accident, uncovers a grand intrigue which results in mutiny in the Royal Navy, and which then, subsequently, permits the extremely bloody confrontation between the English and Dutch navies at Camperdown, one of the larger battles in Navy history.
In The King’s Cutter, we meet a Drinkwater that is older, smarter, and better equipped for a career in the Royal Navy. Even so, Richard Wood does not allow his hero to be promoted nearly as fast as some of the other heroes in nautical fiction series.
This book is definitely among the best of the books in the Drinkwater series. A King’s Cutter sees Drinkwater doing duty as an acting lieutenant and sailing master in the years 1792 – 1797. It is very well researched, and excellently written. The stories are great, and very interesting to read.
Snarleyyow or The Dog Fiend, by Frederick Marryat
Filed under: book review, Frederick Marryat, historical fiction, naval fiction
This book tells the strange tale of Captain Cornelius Vanslyperken, his dog Snarleyyow and the sailor Smallbones. The hero is the half-starved sailor Smallbones. 
It is to a large extent a book about power and evil, betrayal and revenge. Captain Vanslyperken tries vainly to kill Smallbones while Smallbones tries to get even by attempting to kill the captain’s hated dog, Snarleyyow. And the attempts in either direction are plural: drowning, bashing on the head and hanging. But they all fail. As well, the story has both seafaring intrigue and high political double cross.
Snarleyyow is a very macabre farce with lots of dry wit, where one crazy situation follows another. The action is constant and entertaining. The characters are, to say the least, unusual. There is not a redeeming character anywhere.
Marryat is known for his sea stories and there are the realistic views of seafaring life plus a creditable adventure story, but the humor makes the novel special. In addition to plenty of cannon fire, battle strategy, peril, and passion—liberally sprinkled with wit and fine turns of phrase—Marryat’s real-life naval experiences lend his novels a truly remarkable authenticity. Snarleyyow or The Dog Fiend is a special and somewhat strange story well worth reading.
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