Book Review: The Tournament by Matthew Reilly

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Move over, Cornwell, Stockwin, Sidebottom and Iggulden and any other writers of historical dramas/fiction that are out there, a 'new kid' has firmly arrived on the street... Matthew Reilly has continued his blockbusting cinematic writing style of contemporary novels with his latest novel, The Tournament set in the Middle Ages.

He has taken 13 year old Bess along on  a journey, accompanying her teacher and Royal Court attendant, Roger Ascham, with Mr Giles, the latter, King Henry VIII's choice of representative in the worlds first Chess Championship to determine who truly is the best Chess player in the world......

The Tournament is invitational only to be held in the Ottoman capital of Constantinople at the invite of 'His Exalted Majesty Suleiman The Magnificent, Caliph of the Sons and Daughters of Allah, Sultan Lord and Ruler of All That He Surveys".

Thirteen year old Bess, if you haven't read the clue above, is the daughter of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII and will eventually rise to become Queen Elisabeth I of England. Ensconced in Hatfield House, away from Court she is under the tutelage of Roger Ascham a Cambridge Scholar and a firm believer that a good 'education' is not something to be trifled with, even if his methods sometimes bring down the wrath of the King!

It would be difficult to review the story of this book without giving away many spoilers, so in broad terms only, Suleiman The Magnificent has issued invitations to the main and upcoming rulers of the day in all known Christendom.  Contained within that invitation is a secret message and all are instructed to send their own chess champions along with a 'gift' for the Sultan.

King Henry consults Ascham as to his friend and fellow Cambridge teacher, Gilbert Giles, as to whether he is 'the best chess player' in the land.  Ascham confirms that it is his belief that he is, and so Giles, accompanied by Ascham, Bess and the Ponsonby's, chaperones for Bess, set off across Europe for Constantinople.  Bess is also allowed to take a travelling companion and chooses Elsie Fitzgerald who around 5 years older than Bess and much more worldly, and a very interesting character, finds herself in a whole heap of trouble.

However, notwithstanding Elsie's liaisons, there is much more trouble and intrigue in the Royal Palaces of Topkapi and Hagia Sophia in the heart of Constantinople.  The city is being terrorised before the tournament by a murderer who once the murder has been committed , then skins the lower jaw of his victims leaving the skin, jawbone and teeth exposed and then leaves the bodies on display.

On the opening night;s ceremony's Bess leaves the banquet hall to get a better view of a fireworks display and is met with the sight of Cardinal Farnese, an envoy accompanying the Holy See's player and an outspoken opponent of Allah and the Moslem faith, dead, in a courtyard pool, with a disfigured jaw!

All in all there are 6 murders over the remaining pages and after the first The Sultan tasks Mr Ascham with finding the killer after hearing from Michaelangelo - did I mention that this book is sprinkled with many famous characters from history, yep Michaelangelo of Sistine Chapel and other famous works of arts and invention, and an old friend of Mr Ascham's -  that he has some detective skills.

That's all I can really tell you without giving the whole thing away, suffice it to say Mr Ascham does on more than one occasion come close to losing our future Queen in the most terrible of circumstances....

Matthew Reilly writes big descriptive scenes, he lays it all out there like a cinema screen and you are visualizing these scenes in your minds eye as you race through this book and it does become a race as he writes so intelligently and with a fluidity that makes it difficult for you, the reader/ watcher,  to stop turning pages.

He has done some marvellous research both on Chess, and the period of history described, that he almost convinces you, like those fine authors mentioned in the opening paragraph and in their historical pieces, that the events unfolding in front of you, DID REALLY OCCUR.  He weaves true events into the story line and informs us that even some of the maladies of our own time started even before the setting of this tome and continue to vex as now as they did then and we realise, that just maybe, there are no solutions to the ills of man and religion so long as 'faith' has followers and the predilections of the weak willed are covered up by their unswerving following and adherence to that 'faith'..

This really is a marvellous read and your reading enjoyment will only be increased by adding this to your TBR pile, but when you start it, you wont be able to stop. I should warn you though, that this book, like most of Mr Reilly's other published works, is not for the faint hearted.  The descriptions of priests, and others,  and their 'use' of young boys and others, could offend and there are, through Elsie Fitzgerald's descriptions, some 'racy' sexual encounters too.

At the end of the book Mr Reilly informs us of the material he used for reference and also reproduces an interesting interview he gave on the subject of the book 

Editing for Kindle /iPad: 5 out of 5
Reading Enjoyment: 5 out of 5
Page length on kindle /iPad: Not given, but about 432 pages in length
Plot: 5 out of 5
Overall Rating: 5 out of 5

Foot Note.  If you want to get a taste, FOR FREE of Mr Reilly's writing and of Mr Roger Ascham then I recommend his little FREE prequel to the Tournament, Roger Ascham and the King's Lost Girl The whole thing is about 88 pages in length with only about 25 of them a very short and interesting tale of murder in Cambridge, introducing us to the analytical mind of Ascham.

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Book Review: The Pagan Lord by Bernard Cornwell

On a recent visit to hospital I was advised that as well as having cancer I have a heart condition, such is life, and then I settle down to read the latest Bernard Cornwell offering, 'The Pagan Lord' featuring Uhtred of Babbenburg and Cornwell nearly kills me off along with the hundreds of Danish horde that his creation Uhtred dispatches throughout this latest in 'The WARRIOR Chronicles' as my heart is pounding almost from the opening paragraph to the very end. Dear Lord Sir, but you can write!

Uhtred is in trouble from the beginning, again when he sets of with son number two and a small band of warriors to retrieve son number one who has become mixed up with the Christians, them Christians will be the death of poor Uhtred one of these days.... Only to find that son Uhtred has converted to the faith and has become a priest.   

In trying to retrieve his son from this folly Uhtred inadvertantly, for a change, kills of a Bishop and disowns his son renaming him Judas and promoting son No 2 up the ranks to be henceforth called Uhtred........

On returning to his hall he finds it burning and Sigunn his woman gone. Cnut Ranulfson has visited to exact his revenge, and while he and Uhtred are sworn enemies, on this occasion Uhtred has no idea what he has done, this time.....

Cornwell goes on to describe Uhtred's criss crossing the country and the seas to Frisia.  It starts off on horseback crossing these green, pleasant and wonderful lands, at a trot and then into a full canter before galloping across blood filled fields and streams and rivers with Uhtred and his small force of loyal men attempting to reclaim his home of Babbenburg.

Once again and to save the Christians he so loathes but time and again saves from destruction giving them England from the massed armies that Cnut Ranulfson has been building,  to finally take over Wessex and Mercia to once and for all create a Daneland and to consign the English to what they deserve, Slavery and Death.

No spoilers from me here suffice to say that Cornwell really is a master story teller spanning the 20th and 21st Centuries and his characters and stories pull you in from page one and get you turning page after page into the wee small hours gasping for air as another wave pounds over the longship as she fights the storms or gasping for breath through the blood and snot and sweat as you take up position in a shield wall with the blood lust screaming from every pore as you wait to kill or be killed ....   you become part of the story, you are involved and you have a vested interest in it's eventual outcome.  Cornwell has clearly mastered the art of making the reader feel all these things, making you cry out in despair when you get to the end and find that there is still more to come and you are left hungry waiting in anticipation for the next stanza in this epic tale of the birth of England and it's rescue from the Danish hordes.

Editing for Kindle: 5 out of 5
Reading Enjoyment: 5 out of 5
Plot: 5 out of 5
Overall Rating: 5 out of 5
Chapters: 13 (in 4 parts)
Page length: 321 but again not evident on Ipad or  Kindle devices, sort it out folks for goodness sake

Book Review: Betrayal by Julian Stockwin

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Betrayal, 13th in the Kydd series and not at all an unlucky number and, like the previous 12, a stand alone read. I read this in hard cover format and while I do love my Kindle proper and kindle app on the iPad, it really was a delight to get back to print and doubly so when you know you are in for a great read...

Stockwin doesn't disappoint. He is not troubled by the problem some other authors suffer from in writing a series with continuing characters and in trying to keep them engaged in interesting story lines that will draw the reader in to the world the characters inhabit. Writing 'historical fiction' and drawing on real events to give us a lesson in British history. It is a history, that we may not always be proud of, but what there can be no doubt of, is that there were men of valour and bravery who went out, on behalf of their country and King, and did what was needed of them to protect and extend the 'empire' and who fitted into their time perfectly.

Kydd and the crew of HMS L'Aurore, a thirty two gun Frigate were one such band of men, men who were fiercely loyal to their Captain, their ship, their shipmates and their Country and when called upon to do their duty, would do so with guts and dorryng do....

Having won the battle to wrest the Cape from the Dutch as told in Conquest Kydd, along with the rest of the fleet and indeed the Army, find themselves in a bit of a hiatus with little to do when Commodore Popham puts to him a plan to sail to the South American continent and take the Spanish colonies from Spain.  There are no orders for this and if they embark on the mission they could face a Courts Martial for leaving their post, but, if they do and they can pull it off, the riches to be gained for the country which is still reeling from the cost of the Napoleonic wars, could save them and the country.  Can it be done or does the title of the book suggest failure....?  Do you know your history, I had no idea that we had invaded the Southern American countries , but we did and not just once, and this is the wonderful thing about Mr Stockwin, he takes our history and gives it back to us in almost, I am sure, as dramatic a fashion as it occurred at the time.  People coming up with fantastical ideas, knowing that they are going to be outnumbered and with no supply lines for material, food or reserve forces, and then leap across the world in sailing ships to put the plan into action.

This was another page turner from a Sailor who knows his craft both in terms of Sailing ships of old and in storytelling.  His introduction of characters both old and new is eloquent and enlightening, you end up checking wikipedia and other sources, not to catch him out but because he, through his story telling just ends up making you want to know more about those times, and the people who forged our history for good or for bad it is our history and brought to us in a most enjoyable way.

Editing for Kindle: Read in Hardback
Reading Enjoyment: 5 out of 5
Plot: 5 out of 5
Overall Rating: 5 out of 5

No of Pages: 365 plus 2 page Glossary*
Chapters: 16


* I note in the hardback that the Glossary is at the end of the book, which I fully understand, in print, is where it normally is, BUT, as I am forever pointing out if this is in the same place on the Kindle edition - NOT GOOD.  It should be at the front of the Kindle edition for the simple reason of, if the reader is reading it and refers to the glossary at any time the device will always revert to the Glossary if the reader loses his/her place and utilises the 'go to last page read' option to find where they left off. Irritation beyond belief then kicks in for the reader!

You can connect with Mr Stockwin at: http://www.julianstockwin.com/ and on twitter @julianstockwin