A Dark Wood

CHECKMATE - Dorothy Dunnett

2009-07-20T06:21:00.000-07:00

The final novel in the Lymond Chronicles, this is the natural culmination of everything that has gone before. Rather than return to Russia, as he had intended, Francis Crawford returns to France. Here, years earlier, he made a fool of the entire French court, posing as an Irish troubadour (QUEEN'S PLAY). Now the French have asked (forced) him to lead an army against England. But as the glib and genius soldier-scholar shows his mettle on the battlefield, his origins becomes a subject of intense interest to forces in both the French and English courts. For whoever knows the secret of Lymond's parentage possesses the power to control him -- or destroy him.

The word checkmate comes from the Persian phrase Shāh Māt - "the King is Defeated" (or ambushed, or helpless. Often it is taken to mean "the King is Dead," but that is an Arabic, not Persian, meaning) Appropriately, this novel does indeed play out upon that highest of levels - a war between royals. The cast includes young princess Elizabeth and the astrologer Nostradamus, but it's the familiar characters from the series that are most wonderful - and awful. As the final part plays out, like the fatal game of chess in PAWN IN FRANKINCENSE, you both mourn for and rail against their fates. Yet there are typically astonishing Dunnett moments - the opening cockfight; the race of Lymond and Philippa across the whole of Paris, laughing as they elude death; the reuiniting of Lymond with his mother, who is determined to save his unwilling life; and the final scene - indeed, the final page, where all the secrets are revealed, and checkmate is fulfilled.

While the two middle books are my favorites from the series (and, indeed, PAWN is my favorite book inthe world), this novel is so complete, it is more like a feast. After all that had gone before, Dunnett had really set the bar quite high, but CHECKMATE clears it. It is emotionally brutal, but so utterly satisfying that you'll want to start the series all over again. Or, at least, I do. I've read through it three times, not to mention the many times I've picked up one of the novels to remind myself of a scene, a phrase, a beat. Dunnett is an author who will invade your blood, change who you are. You will remember the world differently once you've read her works. I can offer no higher praise.

THE RINGED CASTLE - Dorothy Dunnett

2009-07-04T08:37:00.000-07:00

The fifth novel in the Lymond Chronicles is arguably the weakest. Like CAPRICE AND RONDO, Dunnett's penultimate Niccolo novel, this whole book feels like a set-up for the final stage. In fact, this book divides neatly into two halves.

The first is in Russia, where, after the brutalizing events of PAWN, Lymond is reinventing himself yet again. This time he's the chosen man of Ivan the Terrible. Lymond sees in Russia a world fraught with possibility - the mad and ambitious ruler, the stark terrain, the manly atmosphere, the lack of sophistication - a world looking at the Renaissance from the outside, and longing to join in. Lymond sets up his company of mercenaries (which they are never called, but what they amount to), to bring Russia into the modern military age.

But in Scotland, people want him home - though few for his own good. One of those plotting to bring him back from this self-imposed exile is Phillippa, now nominally his wife. Having married her to protect her in PAWN, Lymond has begun the divorce proceedings in order to free her from what he imagines must be an intolerable encumbrance. But Phillippa's feelings on the matter are altogether different - convinced Lymond actually loves her mother, she is proceeding with the divorce because she imagines it's what he wants.

When the Tsar of Russia sends an unwilling Lymond as his ambassador to England, he is thrust back into the world he meant to leave forever - and into the presence of a woman he loves, whom he must protect from all things - but most importantly, himself.

Both halves are interesting, and have some typically indelible Dunnett scenes. But with the ship expedition she loses me, and nothing here works together in quite the way it should. Having set the bar so very high in PAWN, it's natural that there should be a brief lull before CHECKMATE. But when I reread the series, this is the book I find myself skimming.

A PAWN IN FRANKINCENSE by Dorothy Dunnett

2008-10-24T10:47:00.001-07:00

My favorite novel in the world.

I could argue, perhaps, for SLEEPING IN FLAME. Apples and oranges. But if I were on a remote desert isle and could have only one novel, this would be it. Dear lord, what a ride!

Picking up just weeks after the end of THE DISORDERLY KNIGHTS, Lymond embarks upon a hunt for the child who may or may not be his. In fact, there are two children, both in constant danger. One is Gabriel's incestuous child born of his dead sister, the other Lymond's. But Gabriel has engineered it so that no one - not even he - is sure which is which.

The children are used as lures, drawing Lymond across Europe and North Africa as he follows the trail of clues the malevolent Gabriel has laid for him. But Lymond is not alone in this. Others have interposed themselves into this very personal duel, some from the best intentions, some for their own gain. Friends die with alarming rapidity, enemies too, and the betrayals come in like floodtides. After watching the brilliance of the battle between Lymond and Gabriel range the whole of Europe, we find them come to their final blows at the glittering Court of the Ottoman Sultan Sulemain the Magnificent. Lymond must summon all of his courage and willpower to triumph in a game of chess with his friends and foes alike taking the place of the pieces. In this ultimate battle between the two men, the core of Lymond's character is revealed in the most brutal of settings, and at last we see the man the world has made of him.

When I say that I have never experienced a literary sucker-punch the likes of Dunnett's, I am referring to this novel. Nothing else comes close.

THE DISORDERLY KNIGHTS

2008-10-13T10:59:00.001-07:00

Here begins one of the greatest story arcs in the history of literature - I kid you not. The near friendship turned bitter enmity between our rascal hero, Francis Crawford of Lymond, and the noble, godly Knight Hospitaller Gabriel Graham Mallett is, to me, superior to any rivalry ever written - better than Holmes and Moriarty, Bond and Blofeld, Harry Potter and Voldemort, Robin Hood and Guy of Guisbourne - even King Arthur and Mordred pale in comparison to these two men.

Why? Because while we root for Lymond out of sheer familiarity, throughout this novel it is never clear who is the hero, and who the villain. For no one is a villain in their own mind.

This novel begins with a brief short story that takes place before the events of QUEEN'S PLAY. Then we leap to afterwards, as France and Scotland begin to wrangle over the fate of Lymond. Both nations have, by now, seen the value in having such a man working towards their interests, and both are keen to entice him.

But there is a third entity with eyes on Lymond - the Crusading Knights Hospitaller, and the leader of the Scottish faction within the Knights, Graham Mallett. Lymond is lured to Malta, just in time to face the attack of the Turk.

The battle lost, the Order all but destroyed, he returns to Scotland - with Mallett, who brings along his sister, the innocent and heart-breaking Joleta. Everyone tries to push Lymond into a marriage entanglement with Joleta, which would bind him to the noble Mallett, the ultimate goal of nearly all Lymond's friends. They see him as too wild, and believe he will settle under Mallett's steady hand.

This is, however, Dunnett writing, so nothing is as it seems - not Lymond, not Mallett, not even Joleta. After a string of seeming-accidents, and much debauchery by Lymond, the final confrontation occurs - and several characters meet their fate at once, in the church in Edinburgh's High Street, where pawns we never knew existed are brought into play. An amazing read, and a primer for the sequel, which is my single most beloved novel in the world.

QUEEN'S PLAY by Dorothy Dunnett

2008-09-23T04:35:00.001-07:00

The second of the Lymond Chronicles begins with a visit from the Dowager Queen and the child Mary (future Queen of Scots) to France, and a plot to murder the child. There's a lovely head-fake as to which character in the Irish delegation is the disguised Lymond, and which is real. Lymond, his status in Scotland restored, has been sent to protect the six year-old princess, and discover the identity of the assassin. In modern spy terms, he is a deniable asset - if caught, he will not be rescued. He is a true secret agent, with a cover identity, in the Tudor era.

Dunnett gives Lymond a new love-interest which, combined with a brief prophecy, are the only elements of ths novel that really push the Lymond story forward. If the first book was introducing the character, this one lays the groundwork for the massive arc to come. But, like THE GAME OF KINGS, this is a self-contained story, complete in and of itself. That will not be true of the rest of the series.

Perhaps that's the reason why, of all the Lymond novels, I remember this one least. It feels just a trifle out of place. Perhaps it's that Lymond spends so much time "method acting" in his Irish role that it's hardly a Lymond novel at all - though it is fun to watch his mete out cruel hilarity at the expense of the country that enslaved him for two years. Something is rotten in the flower of French nobility, and he does his damndest to expose it.

Also true that there are moments from this one that leap into my memory, but they're hazy, incomplete. Whereas with every other novel in the series, there are images, scenes, bits of dialogue, that are forever seared into my brain - a few I would be grateful to shake, many that still leave me breathless. This novel suffers, but only in comparison. In terms of Dunnett, and novels in general, it is excellent. The problem is, having set the bar so very high with her later books, one tends to ignore the deftness of the earlier ones.

13th Night, by Alan Gordon - Sherry's Review

2008-09-18T09:42:00.000-07:00

If you have not read Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night lately or Shakespeare is not your favorite author you will still love Thirteenth Night, the first of Alan Gordon's Fool’s Guild Mysteries. Gordon has extensively researched the formerly secret guild of fools. Jesters throughout the known world working, (when, possible in courts, much more lucrative) but anywhere there is an audience. The fools work for peace with the approval of the Roman Catholic Church or without. The guild loosely controlling and directing the network of spies, all of them foolish, all bent on preventing war among other atrocities.

Thirteenth Night continues the story of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, just from a different view. (Fraternal Twins, brother and sister, are shipwrecked neither knowing that the other has survived. The sister dresses as her brother and falls in love with her host. The brother is mistaken for his sister, and is accused of wooing a women and then denying it. Of course it was the brother who wooed and the sister who denied. The sister was being disguised as the brother therefore, the confusion. Since this is one of the comedies all end happily married, to royalty of course, presumably ever after.)

Sadly, ever after, according to Thirteenth Night, doesn’t last forever. We pick up the story when Viola (the sister), is suddenly widowed. Since Viola’s husband's habit has been to go off crusading, leaving her to run things, then returning and expecting her to drop everything, including all power. Thus Viola is not as broken up as might be expected at her husband's demise. Viola’s children will rule, not her, and in the meantime Viola doesn’t even get to be regent.

Enter Theophilos the Fool. Viola has met this particular fool before (albeit under another name) and so goes the story. There is some confusion as to what is historical and what is fiction. After all much of what Shakespeare wrote was based on history and through him we get some of our most famous historical fiction. Also the most inaccurate. This story is a mystery as well, adding yet another genre.

So, if you like mysteries you should like this cleverly written book whether you care about middle ages or not. If your interest in Shakespeare is that of a fanatic, read it, if only to search for inconsistencies. If Shakespeare is not your bent, read it for the richness of the history but read it. Whatever your motive, you won’t be disappointed.

Reviews by Sherry

2008-09-17T11:30:00.000-07:00

I've asked a few people to pitch in on the reviews in this dark wood. One of them is Dr. Sherry Murphy, an old friend and mentor of mine. She reads just about everything, but for our purposes, she'll be reviewing mostly mysteries. As it so happens, her first review is of a novel I've actually read, published by my publisher and edited by my editor. That was total chance, and quite amusing.

So, enjoy another voice calling from among the trees, and I'll be up with more reviews of my own toot sweet.

DB

MASTER OF VERONA - Post 2

2008-09-16T10:41:00.000-07:00

For the second post honoring today's release of THE MASTER OF VERONA in paperback, I thought I'd let the press department at St. Martin's speak for the novel:

In the tradition of Bernard Cornwell, a sweeping historical novel of adventure, conspiracy and star-crossed romance…

THE MASTER OF VERONA

David Blixt

“A debut historical novel peopled by Dante and other Italian Renaissance figures, along with reimagined Montagues and Capulets…Intricate plotting, well-staged scenes and colorful descriptions enhance head-spinning but lively entertainment.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“[a] rollicking historical debut…intricate plot, taut narrative, sharp period detail and beautifully realized characters.”
—Publishers Weekly

Every story has a beginning, and Shakespearean actor and director David Blixt has long wondered how the famous feud in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet began. What started the bad blood between the Capulets and the Montagues, which led to the deaths of the play’s star-crossed lovers? Now, in his debut novel, THE MASTER OF VERONA (St. Martin’s Griffin, October 2008, 0-312-30203-0, 608 pages, $16.95), Blixt draws on history, the poetry of Dante, and the plays of Shakespeare to create a sweeping novel of adventure that explores the mystery behind one of the most famous feuds of all time.

Set in Italy in the year 1314, THE MASTER OF VERONA follows Pietro Alaghieri, son of the exiled poet Dante. The Inferno has just been published as father and son reach the city of Verona, the rising star of Lombardy. The city’s ascension is due solely to one man, Cangrande della Scala, the Master of Verona.

Trying to step out of his father’s growing shadow, Pietro is swiftly drawn into two conflicts—the first, a duel between his two close friends, Capulletto and Montecchio, over a woman who is betrothed to one and in love with the other. The second, a plot against Cangrande and his chosen heir, a bastard son born under the sign of Mercury. Swordplay and horseplay, philosophy and astrology, warfare and feuds, all lead to a final confrontation that will determine the fate of the child, and of Verona itself.

Inspired by events in the Bard’s plays, Dante’s poetry, and the history of Italy at the brink of the Renaissance, THE MASTER OF VERONA opens a door to an age when families and friendships and even cities could fall through the power of star-crossed love. attention.

DAVID BLIXT is a Shakespearean actor who has appeared at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, the Goodman Theatre, CityLit, Northlight, and the First Folio Shakespeare Festival, among many others. He lives with his wife and family in Chicago, Illinois.

MASTER OF VERONA - Post One

2008-09-16T10:22:00.000-07:00

Instead of writing about my own novel, I thought I'd do a double post today. Here's the first: links to a bunch of other reviews and interviews on THE MASTER OF VERONA. It seems fitting to let other people speak about the novel, as I have a decided conflict of interest.

Reviews
Kirkus Reviews
Publisher's Weekly
Historical Novel Society
Peter Tremayne
Christopher Walsh
Enduring Romance

Jonathan Abarbanel at PerformInk

The Shakespeare Blog

The Shakespeare Geek

Tuscon Citizen (scroll down)
Suite101

And, of course, the Amazon and Amazon.uk reviews

Interviews

Reading The Past - Part 1
Reading The Past - Part 2
Historical Boys
Ann Arbor News
Miranda Magazine
Michelle Moran
Author's Den (part of a piece comparing play and novel writing)
St. Martin's Press Interview
NPR Interview

Pause for a Product Placement

2008-09-15T13:49:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, September 16th 2008, my first novel, THE MASTER OF VERONA, is released in paperback by St. Martin's Press. It's quite a smashing read, and I'm not the only one who says so. The day after, I shall return with reviews of other books, but for one day I'll be plugging my own.

THE GAME OF KINGS

2008-09-10T01:00:00.000-07:00

As an author of historical fiction, there is no author I love so much as Dorothy Dunnett. Bernard Cornwell, Patrick O'Brian, Colleen McCullough - wonderful. But Dunnett is at a remove, one step above. Her plotting, her research, her fearlessness.

You have to want Dorothy Dunnett. Really want her. Because she doesn't make it easy. She throws quotes at you in Greek and Latin and French and German and Italian and Spanish and doesn't supply you with translation. Which makes the first 100 pages of this book a bear. Bear with the bear, though, because once you're in, you're in for six books and the most wild, romantic, painful, exciting ride of your literary life. I have never felt an emotional punch the like of hers. In comparison, everything else is hollow and tawdry.

This novel is the introduction to Francis Crawford of Lymond - scoundrel, rogue, and wit. He typifies everything that is bubbling in the Renaissance - a restless spirit, trying to find a new way through the world. Outlawed from the word go, we're never sure what side he's on, which is as it should be. He is his own man. A man any of us would loathe, and yet follow into Hell.

Lymond begins this book as an outlaw, and right to the end one is never certain of his motives, or his innocence. For one thing he is not, is innocent. Nor is he a hero. He is a rogue, a devil, a joyful monster with his own code, and a rough sense of practical honor - his honor is his own, and he is careful of it. But how he is viewed by other men, he cares not at all - or does he? Why is he even back in Scotland, when to return means certain death?

Almost as remarkable is his mother, and their sparring is heart-breaking, for one can sense the desperate hope underneath thatthey one day might be able to forgive each other. For what? That takes the whole series to discover.

If Dunnett had never written another novel, this would stand alone just fine. But as an introduction to the best series I've ever read, it blows the doors off of any library - including yours.

ANTONY & CLEOPATRA

2008-09-09T08:38:00.000-07:00

The final novel in the MASTERS OF ROME series. Now, we've heard that before, of course. But, in a sad twist for an author (and her readers), Ms. McCullough is going blind. Part of me feels that is the reason this book is - less than the others. I wonder if, after the success of HBO's ROME series, her publisher pushed her to add another novel to her series. This one feels rushed, incomplete, choppy. The research is there, but relied upon more heavily than the characters.

It's Antony's novel, and Antony isn't so interesting as Caesar, Marius, or Sulla. Brute force does not replace intellect. I'm ashamed to say, I did not even finish this novel. Halfway through, I set it down, and have not picked it up again. Why? I simply did not care - all the elements were set up in previous novels, even the appearance of young Herod. Nothing here is new. Her facts lack her brilliant inspiration.

I will revise this entry whenever I do go back and force my way through ANTONY & CLEOPATRA. Until then, I will keep rereading the first six novels, which I love.

OCTOBER HORSE

2008-09-06T08:37:00.000-07:00

What was intended to be the final novel in the series, THE OCTOBER HORSE is an excellent novel - if taken in a vacuum. Compared to the earlier novels in the series, it falls sadly short. Which is a shame, if only because these are the events we are most familiar with - the assassination of Caesar and the battle of Phillipi.

Yet, at always, the story comes to life through a combination of her magnificent research and the intuitive leaps McCullough makes from the research to her sparkling characters. The early part of the book is the end of the civil war, with Caesar's long diversion in the arms of Cleopatra, and the war he wins for her to assure her of her throne. We also get Cato's long march to Utica, and his dramatic and dreadful suicide.

When we return to Rome, we get to see into Caesar's mind, and understand the choice of young Octavius as his heir. She postulates that Antony was in on the plot to kill his uncle, which makes so much sense when you know what really followed - no great oratory, no riots upon Caesar's death. Shakespeare's play leads one to believe that Brutus and the other conspirators were run out of town on a rail. Truth be told, it took several months, and they each kind of vacated the city of their own free will to get on with their careers. There were more military dramatics between Octavius and Antony than anyone else.

The novel ends with the final stake in the heart of the Republic, with the head of Brutus, the last heir of the founder of the Republic, sinking to the bottom of the Mare Nostrum. The old ways are dead, deader than Caesar. Imperial Rome has finally been birthed.

Caesar is dead.

Long live Caesar.

CAESAR

2008-09-05T08:36:00.000-07:00

This novel was not originally entitled CAESAR. It was called LET THE DICE FLY HIGH. As someone who has had plenty of novel title fluxes, I understand the change. But I also lament the loss of the title, because it is so perfect. We think of Caesar grimly quoting Menander when he crosses the Rubico river: "The die is cast." But in Greek, the translation is very different. It's much more a laughing embrace of a gamble. "Let the dice fly high!" I prefer that Caesar by far.

Like Caesar's career, this novel can be divided neatly into two parts - before the Rubicon, and after. Before he was forced - yes, forced! - to abandon legality, and after. For this is the book that tells of Caesar's great deeds - indeed, the tales told by Caesar's own pen in his commentaries on both the Gallic and the Civil war. It's Allesia on the one hand, and Pharsalus on the other. It's the absolute devotion of his men, and the mutiny of one of his most trusted legions. It's Caesar the general, and Caesar the dictator.

It begins with Caesar leaving Britain, the one place on earth where Caesar's fabled luck failed him. To mark that moment forever, it is here that he learns of the deaths of both his mother and his daughter. This latter blow is devastating, made worse by the fact that he now has no control over Pompey the Great, who is beginning to notice that he is no longer the greatest general in the world.

Really, the novel is about pride, and the foolish divorcement from reality that pride can bring. Unlike its predecessor in the series, it is chock-full of battles and has nearly no sex at all. For very little of this book takes place in Rome. These are events on the world stage, great and terrible deeds that shaped the world for the next five-hundred years - and more.

Not the best written of the series, it is nevertheless a solid novel with great dialogue and characters that by now are more than familiar - they're family. Pity the poor rabbit Cicero, shake your fist at the indominitable Cato, and laugh at the foolishness of Antony. In the end, though, it's tears for both Caesar and Pompey - neither wanted the battle they came to fight, and not only because the outcome was inevitable. That Caesar was unable to bend, and Pompey wanted so much to be such a man, meant that they came to blows. These men, who had once been family, and almost been friends.

The next novel is THE OCTOBER HORSE.

CAESAR'S WOMEN

2008-09-04T08:35:00.000-07:00

CAESAR’S WOMEN is a far more intimate novel than the previous entries in this series, and it benefits from the change. With one exception, there are no prolonged scenes set outside of Rome itself, as McCullough now traces the career of Julius Caesar for the decade between his return from Spain to his departure for Gaul.

In spite of the title, or perhaps because of it, Caesar himself is the focal point of this story. But, as we quickly learn, Caesar’s personal life is made up almost entirely of women: his mother, his daughter, his lovers, those who wish to be his lovers, his wives, and eventually his charges, the Vestal Virgins.

There is a great deal to love about this novel, as Caesar finally comes into his own. After years of formative events, we see the man at last entering upon the stage and striving to do great things. He stands for election as aedile, preator, and consul, climbing his way up the Cursus Honorum – the ladder of honor. But already his desire for perfection is causing envy and hatred in his fellows, as he campaigns successfully to be voted into the top slot in every election. Like Homer says of Oddyssus, his life’s thread was so strong that it frayed all those it touched.

There are scandals galore, most amusing/terrifying is his decade-long affair with Brutus’ mother, which is made public at the most inopportune moment. Doubly troubling, as their children are engaged.

A fantastic novel, one I flip open often to random scenes. But then, that’s true of the earlier entries in this series.

FORTUNE'S FAVORITES

2008-09-03T08:33:00.000-07:00

FORTUNE’S FAVORITE begins with a leap of a few years, after Sulla has defeated (but not killed) King Mithradates and returns to once again put Rome to siege. If THE GRASS CROWN broke my heart, the beginning of this one took the pieces and scattered them. Sulla’s beauty gone, his exterior now reflects his soul.

Here I pause for an anecdote. There are two authenticated busts of Sulla in existence. One is in Germany, and I saw it when I was 22 and on tour through Europe. It’s how Sulla appears at the start of this novel – toothless, wizened, and with a wig so bad that the sculptor took pains to show the thin wisps of his subject’s real hair coming out the sides. It is, truly, pathetic.

A month later I was in Rome, visiting the Vatican. While seeing the Laocoan and the Prima Porta Augustus was cool, I had a very specific goal in mind – seeing the bust of the young Sulla, in his prime. But that room was closed (it happens often, it seems. Too expensive to keep docents in all the display rooms, so certain rooms are only opened at certain times). I did not let that deter me, however. I snuck past the guards and into the balcony level of the room containing Sulla’s bust. But it was below me, on the main floor, and I couldn’t see it properly. So, taking my cheap camera, I used the pathetic zoom feature to look closer. But it still wasn’t good enough. So naturally I did the only thing a sane, fanatical lover of all things Roman would do – I swung my legs over the balcony rail and hung by my knees, upside-down, just above the bust.

That was how the Michelangelo guards found me, dangling with a camera in my hands. I have no doubt that today I would be arrested. But in the mid-90s they only escorted me from the premises. Thus bestowing upon me the unique honor of having been both thrown out of the Vatican and blessed by the Pope (a story for another time).

Back to FORTUNE’S FAVORITES. While the final years of Sulla’s life are tragic, as much for his self-abnegation as for the horrors he perpetrated while putting Rome back on her feet, the second half of the novel is almost halcyon. There are enemies, but there is also hope. Young Caesar, now grown to manhood, promises such greatness that one cannot help but block the years to come from one’s mind and enjoy the picture McCullough paints of him. Handsome, brilliant, daring, wise – he really was everything a man should be. No wonder his peers hated him.

In this novel, too, are the great campaigns against Sertorius and Sparticus, ending in the joint consulship of Pompey and Crassus, in which the nucleus of the first Triumvirate is formed.

The novel isn’t as structurally satisfying as the previous two, but history rarely is. Her choice of end-point is excellent, as it allows the reader to have faith in Rome once more before it is dashed by the inevitable future. Despite the dual deaths that close this novel, it ends on a hopeful note. Rome is righted, Caesar is off to his first command and, like the end of FIRST MAN, the days ahead seem bright and full of promise.

THE GRASS CROWN

2008-09-02T08:30:00.000-07:00

At the end of THE FIRST MAN IN ROME, McCullough has her two leads, Marius and Sulla, laughing at the imagined possibility that they could ever be rivals. “What a battle of the Titans that would be!” But both agree that the gap in their respective ages – some 17 years – would keep that from ever happening.

The very first moments of THE GRASS CROWN gives us quite the reverse – a glimpse into that coming Titanic struggle. It’s only a couple of years later, but a rift has formed. Not yet great, yet their shared pride and ambition makes their old friendship look like an expedient, not a genuine bond. They cannot forgive minor slights, see the other as a hindrance. At this point one sees it only in conversation, but in time it will be war. One of them will not survive this novel.

THE GRASS CROWN is the struggle between Marius and Sulla for supremacy, starting off as allies in the Italian War and ending in enemies in the Civil War. But theirs is not the only tragic tale in this novel. As usual, McCullough paints an extravagantly detailed yet unvarnished account of ever major happening and person in Rome at this time. But whereas her previous novel had much that was amusing and light-hearted, here history gives her darker material. The rise and sudden demise of Marcus Livius Drusus; the affair of his sister, leading to the deaths of every woman in the Drusus household; the death of Sulla’s son, smiting his heart for all time; the death of Scaurus, just when his wisdom was needed most; the massacre of a hundred thousand Romans and Italians at the hands of a foreign king; and the young Julius Caesar, who suffers a betrayal so complete that anyone else would have been broken.

Worst of all, we witness the fall of a hero - Marius. Sulla, never a hero, briefly rises above himself to be noble, while Marius, ever a hero, slowly goes yet irrevocably mad. But their roles are fixed for all eternity – Sulla was the villain, and Marius the hero.

The most important historical element is the education of young Caesar, as he takes all kinds of lessons, both good and evil, from his two uncles.

This is a heart-breaking novel on so many levels. Yet I’m hard-pressed to say which of these two novels is my favorite. One builds Rome, eternal. The other shows all too plainly why it was destined to fall.

Returning to the Wood

2008-08-30T01:00:00.000-07:00

It has been an age since I last posted on this site. My excuse is excellent: I’ve been busily working on my novels, a graphic novel, and some scripts for Shanghai Low.

But, as was once explained to me by David Doersch when I arrived late to a rehearsal, “Excuses are like farts: everyone has them, no one wants to hear them.”

For the next couple months, I plan to post much more frequently. I have also drafted three others to add their reviews to these pages, to bulk up the body herein and make it a must-read for reviews. I have imposed no limits on the others, and over time their choices will define them. However, I will focus on reviews of historical fiction novels that I have loved, and have shaped both my writing and my knowledge of history.

Monday we will begin with THE GRASS CROWN, the sequel to THE FIRST MAN IN ROME, which I reviewed months ago.

So, off we go! Like Hansel and Gretel, following a breadcrumb trail of books into Dante's dark wood.

THE FIRST MAN IN ROME

2008-02-28T12:16:00.000-08:00

is the first of seven novels by Colleen McCullough dealing with the period we call the end of the Roman Republic. A masterful blending of historical fact and conjecture, rife with period details and amazingly vivid portrayals of the Roman mind, this novel is the gateway to understanding the rise and fall of Julius Caesar.

Indeed, the novel begins with Caesar's grand-father, also named Gaius Julius Caesar. We meet the impoverished noble family, august in lineage but poor in purse, as they journey on New Year's Day to see the inauguration (literally, augurs are involved) of this year's consuls. Two other men in the crowd, unknown to each other, are Gaius Marius and Lucius Cornelius Sulla. They are a study in opposites, from temprament to background. Marius, an Italian New Man with no noble Roman ancestors, is the quintessential military man. He has made a fortune through warfare, and has scrabbled up Rome's political ladder as far as an Italian-born man would ever be allowed.

Sulla, on the other hand, is one of many men from a noble line who lacks the funds to follow the career his blood entitles him to. Instead he associates with the dregs of society - actors, mummers, professional pretty-boys. He ends up murdering first the heir to his step-mother's fortunes, then his own mistress, and finally his step-mother, earning him enough money to enter the Senate and fulfill his birthright. Both men are embraced by Fortune, and their lives come together, uniting them to stop an invasion of barbarian Germans. As a reader I became enamored of them both, and lacking the knowledge of the history I didn't have even a hint of foreboding until the very end of the novel.

This book also gives us the Saturninus riots and the birth of Julius Caesar. She lays the groundwork for Caesar's career here. I have deep feelings for each novel in this series, loving nearly all of them for very different reasons. This is the novel that shows why Rome was great - and also why it would someday fall. The seeds are sown in this novel of the change from Republic to Empire. Each constitutional change was necessary at the time for Rome's survival, though most would not have been necessary had the Senate and People of Rome had a little foresight, and curbed the hubris and greed of the first class.

Parallels, anyone?

I have never read THE THORN BIRDS, so my introduction to Ms. McCullough was this novel. Actually, I first encountered it on a road trip home from college as an audiobook, read by the inimitable David Ogden Stiers. As an overview, it's fantastic. The novel is even better. (Snails, anyone?)

A fantastic read, the first of several.

Arthurian names

2008-01-23T13:32:00.000-08:00

Having just reviewed the best King Arthur books I've ever read, there are two matters of nomenclature in the Arthurian myths that I'd like to address. The first is Excalibur. Now, I don't know if there's an author who has made hay of this, but if you reduce the sword's name to it's latin roots, it becomes EX CAL LIBER: "From the Stone Made Free." I'd like to see someonedo something with that.

The other bit of bizarre trivia comes to us from Scotland. I was visiting Holyrood in Edinburgh almost a decade ago, and looking at the tall hill behind it, I noticed on the map it was entitled "Arthur's Seat." I turned to a guard and said, "Not King Arthur, right? I didn't think his myth made it this far north." The guard shook his head at my stupidity and sighed. "No, he didn't. And he wasn't real. No, laddie, it was named for the Saxon god of thuder. When they came north they saw it and decided it was Thor's throne."

Arthur = Ar Thor, or Of Thor.

Now when looking for the root of Arthur's name, most scholars and authors point to Artoris, latin for "bear." But wouldn't it be cool if Arthur was a name earned in battle, given to him by his enemies out of respect? "That warrior is magnifient! He fights like Thor himself!"

Just passing thoughts.

EXCALIBUR

2008-01-22T07:45:00.000-08:00

is the third and final novel of the "Warlord Trilogy" by Bernard Cornwell. As with all Arthurian tales, the most heart-breaking. For of course it has to end with Arthur's defeat, setting in motion the inevitable fall of Britain to the Saxons.

But first we must deal with the great battle, the one that Arthur was actually known for - the Battle of Mount Badon. Arthur makes a deal with a Christian king - reinforcements will be available to Arthur, if Arthur's army will carry the sign of the cross into battle. Ever the pragmatist, Arthur agrees. With that one act, Merlin sees how the Christian god will now be able to claim that the victory is due to Him. This is the passing of the old ways. Merlin becomes reconciled to it, but his disciple Nimue, Derfel's former lover, does not.

Derfel Cadarn fights bravely, and has his final battle with Lancelot. He also discovers his Saxon heritage, leaving him to face his own father in battle. Then, with the Saxon menace ended, all should be well. But a terrifying alliance between Nimue and king Mordred threatens to swallow Britain, and Derfel must fight one last time at Arthur's side.

There are several brilliant moments here, but the best is the redemption of Gwenhwyfar. In the old legends, Arthur was married twice, both to women named Gwenhwyfar. Cornwell reconciles those old legends beautifully. Also lovely is the understanding that Christ and Mithras, the god Derfel worships, are born from the same tale. While Britain descends into horror, these moments offer a vision of the world that was lost.

So ends the Warlord Trilogy, in blood and sweat on the sands of Britain and Arthur, fallen, sails away to a farther shore. But it's Derfel's fate that one hungers to know. And Cornwell resolves the whole tale in a satisfying, if painful, fashion. Since Derfel is the narrator, we know he lives - but how, and why, remain to the final pages.

ENEMY OF GOD

2008-01-21T09:00:00.000-08:00

is the second of Bernard Cornwell's "Warlord" trilogy, now called the "Arthur Books." It is also the best.

We begin after the battle that has assured Arthur the leadership of a fractious Britain. Derfel Cardarn, our narrator, is caught in a cleft stick. He has sworn to join Merlin's quest for a holy relic (the pagan version of the Holy Grail), and also to fight in Arthur's army as they push back the Saxons. Merlin facilitates Derfel marrying the woman of his dreams, Ceinwyn, which creates exacerbates an already simmering hatred between Derfel and Ceinwyn's other suitor - Lancelot.

This novel has the grail-quest, the first major battle with the Saxons, the Tristan-Isolde tale, and the great Lancelot-Gwenhwyfar betrayal. But each take is astonishingly fresh and genuine. Whereas Richard Sharpe will always be Cornwell's greatest creation, Derfel Cadarn is his most human, most sympathetic, most complex character. His family life, his struggle with the clashes between honor and friendship, his love for Ceinwyn and Arthur - these are what make this story great.

The best part has to do with the betrayal of Arthur by his friend and his wife. This is not a French romance. This is about power, and the willingness to use it. Especially by a woman determined to be a queen. The characters are astonishingly well-drawn, and painfully human.

As a humorous aside in the middle of the novel, Cornwell addresses both the Round Table and the idea of Camelot. The mythic table was in reality simply a novelty at a party Arthur threw, that by the end of the day was cracked and vomited upon. Camelot was a phrase later attributed to the gathering, not something they ever called themselves. As I often say about theatre, I like flouting an audience's expectations. That's what Cornwell does here. He gives us not myths, but a plausable root to those myths.

There are also few books that made me weep. This one did it twice.

THE WINTER KING

2008-01-20T06:09:00.000-08:00

Bernard Cornwell is probably best known for the Sharpe series. But I maintain, and he agrees, that his King Arthur trilogy is his best work. Beginning with The Winter King, then moving on to Enemy of God, and ending with Excalibur, the series follows a little-known character from early Arthurian myth, Derfel. Rasied by Merlin and fighting for Arthur, he is constantly drawn into the intrigues of both their worlds.

THE WINTER KING is a first-person narrative told from the point of view of Derfel Cadarn, a Saxon-child who survived a murderous raid by the Britons on his tribe, only to be adopted by Merlin. Raised as a Briton, he is one of the most steadfast, loyal, perseverant characters it has been my pleasure to follow. Since he has none of the magic Merlin hoped he would, he trains as a warrior. Thus Derfel has a foot in both camps, Arthur's warrior realm and Merlin's magic one.

When I say magic, we learn that most of it is parlor tricks and whatnot. Merlin is a master manipulator, a genius at moving men to do his will. His goal is the return of the old gods and a removal of Christianity from Britain's shores. This is the counterpoint to Arthur's goal of uniting Britain's various kingdoms against the Saxons. Arthur, the illegitimate son of King Uther, has been disavowed by his father in favor of Uther's legitimate grandson Mordred. Arthur is made to swear to uphold Mordred's position as High King, and Arthur's strong sense of honor and oath prevents him from ever attempting to usurp the throne. Arthur becomes betrothed to a princess, a symbolic union that will unite the kingdoms. But on the eve of his wedding he meets Gwenhyfar, and the whole thing unravels. It turns into a massive British civil war, one that must be won before they can turn back the Saxons.

What I love so passionately about this series is that it deconstructs the flowery Arthur myths. This is the fifth century, not the twelfth. No jousts, no pageants, just warfare and survival. Shield walls, spears, barefoot warriors with rings on their hands and beards forged from enemy weapons. Cornwell has returned Arthur to his Welsh roots, but he gives nods to all the various elements we expect to have from an Arthurian legend.

Some of the things I like best:

- Arthur is never a king, he's a warlord. This correlates to the earliest mention of him as a Dux Bellorum, a Duke of War.

- Arthur's goal is fending off the Saxons. This is what he was famous for in the first place, but it has seemed to hold no interest for any author in the last eight hundred years. They're much more interested in his lovelife. That's here, too, but it ties into the Saxon warfare.

- Lancelot was not in the original tales, he's a French invention. But no Arthur story is complete without him, so Cornwell completely subverts him. Lancelot is a cad. His great reputation for bravery comes from the bards, whom he pays to sing of his prowess. His kingdom is, appropriately, in Brittany, where Arthur has been fighting for years, and where Derfel goes at Arthur's orders to hold up a failing kingdom.

- Arthur is a pagan who doesn't care at all about religion until it stands in his way. He wants to unite the Christians and the pagans, and honestly cannot understand the passions that are inflamed between the two religions. He sees the kingdom as more important, not the afterlife.

- Merlin isn't hunting the Holy Grail. He's a pagan, so he's after a pagan cauldron!

These are just a few of the elements I enjoy. I once tried to get the rights to adapt it to the stage. My wife, Jan, wrote a script for the first novel. But when Cornwell read our draft he cheerfully said he thought we'd been too faithful to his book. After that, the rights were granted to the Welsh National Theatre, or Clwyd Theatr Cymru. I had drinks last year with the CTC artistic director, Terry Hands, who told me how the project was progessing. It makes me sad that so much has been changed in their drafts. Cornwell's novel caused Jan and I to see the action staged just as it was written.

Nevertheless I want the play to be a huge success. And I keep buying the first book for people. Everyone should be aware of this version of the classic tale.

-DB

SLEEPING IN FLAME

2008-01-12T08:44:00.000-08:00

For my first review, I have chosen one of the best novels I have ever read, a book I have forced on so many people, given as a gift so many times, one would think it was my own.

SLEEPING IN FLAME, by Jonathan Carroll (1988)

Set in Vienna in the 1980s, it's a first-person narrative told by Walker Easterling, a recently divorced American ex-pat living in Austria. Early on, Walker meets Maris York, a quirky artist who needs help escaping a bad relationship.

This book was first given to me by a woman who said I write like Carroll (it is patently false - there was something else entirely going on there). Because of those undercurrents, I was wary of this novel until I got to page eleven, and this line:

Having an affair is like trying to hide an aligator under the bed. It is much too dangerous and big to be there, it sure doesn't fit, and no matter how carefully yoy try to conceal it, some part of the beast inevitably sticks out, is seen, sends everyone running and screaming.

From there I was pretty well hooked by the writing alone.

The most wonderful thing is that Carroll captures what it is to fall in love. All the excitement, the awkwardness, the need to exchange information. In essence, the desire to breathe the other person in.

There's a bit where Walker, to cheer her up, takes Maris to his three favorite places in Vienna - a barbershop, a pet shop, and a mountain view. It's his way of showing who he is, and trying to figure out who she is, and sharing and showing off all at once.

I was in Vienna a dozen years ago, and I called Mr. Carroll from the train station and asked directions to those three places. Sadly the pet store no longer existed, but I went in and got a haircut, then climbed the very steep hill to look down over the city while having a picnic. The greatest part was that the view was neither greater nor less than Carroll's description.

The second most wonderful thing is that once Maris and Walker do fall in love, which takes up only a third of the novel, Carroll makes a left turn and the story becomes something else entirely. I don't want to say what it becomes, because discovery is joy, but it has roots in dark literature and darker themes. Just fantastic. I don't think the last page is really necessary, but because it's both fun and foreboding I go back and forth.

The best thing is that you feel the author giving in to inspiration. "Well, why not have that happen?" he asks again and again. The answer is always, "I can do whatever I want!" This was the novel that taught me, as a writer, that writing is free. A story goes where it goes, and the person holding the pen needs to be willing - to dare - to follow it.

Entering the Wood

2008-01-12T07:01:00.000-08:00

Midway through the journey of our life
I came to myself in a Dark Wood...

Hello there. My name is Dave, though around Shanghai Low I am apparently called either the History Czar or (unfortunately) Blixty.

What is ShanghiLow Theatricals? Composed of theatre artists such as myself, Steve Pickering, and Kevin Theis, we move classic literature from the page to the stage.

I have been instructed by the Project Czar to create a space for my Shanghi'd thoughts. For a week now I've wrestled with a theme - the Literary Czar has chosen politics, something to which I am also addicted. But as I hate redundancy, I won't follow in his footsteps. Instead I will embark on the most despicable of endeavors - I will become a reviewer.

My reviews will mostly be composed of novels, with an eye to turning them to the stage. But the occasional film or tv show might sneak in, depending on what I'm obsessing over this month.

So much for introductions. On to joy.