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The Secret War #1
La guerra secreta (La guerra secreta / The Secret War)
For thousands of years a secret war has been fought between Heaven and Hell. Daemons and angels, vampires and knights clash for the future of mankind, and as the two sides wage war across the world, innocent people are caught up in the conflict—men like Captain William Saxon and Lieutenant Kieran Harte, two great friends who have recently survived the horrors of the Battle of Waterloo. But now they face a greater struggle, against the daemonic forces of Count Ordrane, and the clandestine ambitions of the Vatican. They must try to survive assassination attempts, political machinations, epic battles on land and sea, and above all the power of a mysterious bronze pyramid—the Scarimadean—that brings everlasting damnation to all who come into contact with it. Their only allies are an old man, a fading secret organization in the Church, and an enigmatic warrior, who may hold the key not only to the friends’ fates, but to the fate of all mankind.
350 pages, Paperback
First published January 5, 2007
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66 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
January 24, 2009
This is the story of Captain Saxon and his best friend Lieutenant Harte.
They fight at Waterloo against Napoleon and then get in contact with supernatural beings.
The story started promising. But after a while you mention that it is a bit different compared to the blurb. It is not a pure fantasy story.
The rhythm of the story is wavelike.
That means action parts alternate with more describing parts. There is no real climax at the end.
Anyway way I will pick up the sequel The Hoard of Mhorrer
They fight at Waterloo against Napoleon and then get in contact with supernatural beings.
The story started promising. But after a while you mention that it is a bit different compared to the blurb. It is not a pure fantasy story.
The rhythm of the story is wavelike.
That means action parts alternate with more describing parts. There is no real climax at the end.
Anyway way I will pick up the sequel The Hoard of Mhorrer
May 26, 2019
Following the battle of Waterloo, two British officers find there is another war going on, that between good and evil. Recruited by a team in the Vatican they undertake a mission leading a bunch of warrior monks to rid a region of evil. Throw in enigmatic warriors, Angel like fighters, political games in the Vatican, and betrayal.
It’s a solid premise, a kind of daemon fighting Sharpe but it also feels like a first novel. The dialogue is slightly stilted and the narrative does not flow as easily as one might hope. So I would say it was “okay” but I will not bother with the next in the series.
It’s a solid premise, a kind of daemon fighting Sharpe but it also feels like a first novel. The dialogue is slightly stilted and the narrative does not flow as easily as one might hope. So I would say it was “okay” but I will not bother with the next in the series.
March 30, 2018
In books, stories of vampires and demons fighting men have been done over and over again and it's tough for a new writer to find a different slant to put on events. The same can be said of war stories, particularly in film and TV versions, where the focus has switched away from the fighting itself and more towards the human aspect, with some having the war as a background character rather than a focus. What M. F. W. Curran has done with "The Secret War" is combine both to great effect.
The recently promoted Captain William Saxon and his closest friend Lieutenant Kieran Harte are survivors of the Battle of Waterloo. For both of them, the victory comes with a cost. William lost many men under his command and carries the guilt that he was no able to do more. Kieran has been injured and is recuperating in the Belgian town of Gembloux where he has found love and is considering leaving the army to stay behind when his colleagues return home.
Neither of them realise that there are worse battles to come, against an enemy not so easily defeated as the French were. They soon find this out, though, as a mysterious artefact stolen from the body of a dead French soldier proves to have the power to raise a daemon. This daemon ravages the town of Gembloux, killing soldiers and civilians alike, including Kieran's lover. Reluctantly, they return home only to find there are others who are interested in the artefact. Death follows them until they meet a man called Engrin who leads them to Rome and introduces them to a secret part of the Catholic Church that is fighting a battle against these daemons and worse.
The story starts a little slowly, given that we don't actually see any action from the Napoleonic War, although we do get some in flashback a little later on. Instead, we get an introduction to the relationship between the Kieran and William. But before things can get bogged down, they have their first meeting with a daemon and suddenly the story becomes all action and remains that way more or less throughout. It does slow a little when they return home, reflecting the far slower pace of life they lead when not on the front line, but even at this point the action I'd become accustomed to by this stage wasn't far away.
The one danger that this approach can bring is that fighting the same kind of enemy over and over can get a little repetitive sometimes, such as happened in Karen Miller's "Empress". Curran, however, has mixed things up wonderfully. Whilst the main story is about the fight between the Church and the daemons and vampyres, there is enough variation within this to keep it interesting all the way through. As well as the background to help you get to know the characters, Curran introduces us to the Church's army of monks and their training and the political intrigue going on within the Vatican which may cause the war to be lost. Add to this the changing scenery between France, Belgium, England and Italy and even a battle at sea and the mixture of places and circumstances really helps to keep things interesting.
However, the aspect I most enjoyed was the characters themselves. Curran's writing isn't especially visually descriptive, meaning you don't often get a clear picture of characters or places themselves, but he is a great writer of personality. Even when all the monks are in their matching uniforms, you can easily tell them apart by the way they act and their motivation for doing what they do. The relationships between all the characters are vividly described and it's almost impossible not to share the guilt that some of them feel for either past or present actions and the love they feel is tangible at times.
This is also a great help in ensuring you know which side you're supposed to be on. As compared to the personalities of the men, the daemons are mindless killing machines and the vampyres, whilst human like in appearance, are cold and emotionless. There is never any sympathy for the forces of evil as Curran doesn't allow the reader to generate any feeling for them whatsoever. It's one of the clearest lines I've seen drawn between two sides of a war in a book in some time and it's quite subtly done, without having to resort to descriptions of the acts of horror the least likeable side may commit to turn your sympathy against them.
When a writer takes on an old idea, there has to be something new involved to make it stand out, or it has to be very well written to make it worth reading. Here, Curran has achieved the latter with a good use of pace and a great use of the characters' personalities. This is impressive for any writer, but considering this was his debut novel, this makes it even more worthy of note. It is a testament to both his skill as a writer and how much I enjoyed the story that, having a copy of the second part of the story immediately to hand, I did not hesitate for a moment before diving straight in at the end of this first part.
This review may also appear, in whole or in part, under my name at any or all of www.ciao.co.uk, www.thebookbag.co.uk, www.goodreads.com, www.amazon.co.uk and www.dooyoo.co.uk
The recently promoted Captain William Saxon and his closest friend Lieutenant Kieran Harte are survivors of the Battle of Waterloo. For both of them, the victory comes with a cost. William lost many men under his command and carries the guilt that he was no able to do more. Kieran has been injured and is recuperating in the Belgian town of Gembloux where he has found love and is considering leaving the army to stay behind when his colleagues return home.
Neither of them realise that there are worse battles to come, against an enemy not so easily defeated as the French were. They soon find this out, though, as a mysterious artefact stolen from the body of a dead French soldier proves to have the power to raise a daemon. This daemon ravages the town of Gembloux, killing soldiers and civilians alike, including Kieran's lover. Reluctantly, they return home only to find there are others who are interested in the artefact. Death follows them until they meet a man called Engrin who leads them to Rome and introduces them to a secret part of the Catholic Church that is fighting a battle against these daemons and worse.
The story starts a little slowly, given that we don't actually see any action from the Napoleonic War, although we do get some in flashback a little later on. Instead, we get an introduction to the relationship between the Kieran and William. But before things can get bogged down, they have their first meeting with a daemon and suddenly the story becomes all action and remains that way more or less throughout. It does slow a little when they return home, reflecting the far slower pace of life they lead when not on the front line, but even at this point the action I'd become accustomed to by this stage wasn't far away.
The one danger that this approach can bring is that fighting the same kind of enemy over and over can get a little repetitive sometimes, such as happened in Karen Miller's "Empress". Curran, however, has mixed things up wonderfully. Whilst the main story is about the fight between the Church and the daemons and vampyres, there is enough variation within this to keep it interesting all the way through. As well as the background to help you get to know the characters, Curran introduces us to the Church's army of monks and their training and the political intrigue going on within the Vatican which may cause the war to be lost. Add to this the changing scenery between France, Belgium, England and Italy and even a battle at sea and the mixture of places and circumstances really helps to keep things interesting.
However, the aspect I most enjoyed was the characters themselves. Curran's writing isn't especially visually descriptive, meaning you don't often get a clear picture of characters or places themselves, but he is a great writer of personality. Even when all the monks are in their matching uniforms, you can easily tell them apart by the way they act and their motivation for doing what they do. The relationships between all the characters are vividly described and it's almost impossible not to share the guilt that some of them feel for either past or present actions and the love they feel is tangible at times.
This is also a great help in ensuring you know which side you're supposed to be on. As compared to the personalities of the men, the daemons are mindless killing machines and the vampyres, whilst human like in appearance, are cold and emotionless. There is never any sympathy for the forces of evil as Curran doesn't allow the reader to generate any feeling for them whatsoever. It's one of the clearest lines I've seen drawn between two sides of a war in a book in some time and it's quite subtly done, without having to resort to descriptions of the acts of horror the least likeable side may commit to turn your sympathy against them.
When a writer takes on an old idea, there has to be something new involved to make it stand out, or it has to be very well written to make it worth reading. Here, Curran has achieved the latter with a good use of pace and a great use of the characters' personalities. This is impressive for any writer, but considering this was his debut novel, this makes it even more worthy of note. It is a testament to both his skill as a writer and how much I enjoyed the story that, having a copy of the second part of the story immediately to hand, I did not hesitate for a moment before diving straight in at the end of this first part.
This review may also appear, in whole or in part, under my name at any or all of www.ciao.co.uk, www.thebookbag.co.uk, www.goodreads.com, www.amazon.co.uk and www.dooyoo.co.uk
April 14, 2009
When I saw this book I thought great a horror story set just after the Napoleonic wars, my kind of period and it features soldiers from my Grandad's regiment in a sort of sharpe meets Buffy type tale.
Unfortunately what I got was the story of two wishy washy gentlemen officers who in the aftermath of Waterloo find a pyramid that unleashes a demon when it gets spashed with blood.
Now without wanting to give too much away the pair end up in a secret order of warrior monks at the Vatican who are assigned to tackle a renegade French officer who is leaged with the villainous Count Ordrane of the Carpathians.
While derivative of Alan Mallinson's Matthew Harvey tales in terms of the main character, there are also elements derived from Sharpe (Irish best friend) Moorcock in the very Melniboneon descriptions of the vampyres and angels (black braodsword, pale skins and an albino) and worse still the Hugh Jackman Van Helsing movie (vatican secret order of kung fu fighting monks with special weapons)
The battle scenes are a bit implasable and Curran relies too much on the intervention of supernatural beings to get his heroes out of trouble. The sea battle is really quite poor and Curran really has no idea about how to fight a sea battle, the rating of royal Navy fighting ships of the time or their layout and armament. Particularly ludicrous was the idea that a few sailors could carry a ship's cannon up a deck to fire on the boarders with a bag of nails, does he have no idea how much one of those guns weigh? Perhaps when he researches the next one he should read some Hornblower, Patrick O'Brian or Richard Wodman.
Now given that this is the first part of a series he also makes the mistake of killing off virtually all of the incidental characters, something Cornwell or Woodman would take several books to do in keeping with the high mortality of the times, but allowing readers to build familiar reference points and relationships within the canon. The female characters seem to be there either to mother or admire the males and consequently are even more one dimensional than the heroes.
Also
Unfortunately what I got was the story of two wishy washy gentlemen officers who in the aftermath of Waterloo find a pyramid that unleashes a demon when it gets spashed with blood.
Now without wanting to give too much away the pair end up in a secret order of warrior monks at the Vatican who are assigned to tackle a renegade French officer who is leaged with the villainous Count Ordrane of the Carpathians.
While derivative of Alan Mallinson's Matthew Harvey tales in terms of the main character, there are also elements derived from Sharpe (Irish best friend) Moorcock in the very Melniboneon descriptions of the vampyres and angels (black braodsword, pale skins and an albino) and worse still the Hugh Jackman Van Helsing movie (vatican secret order of kung fu fighting monks with special weapons)
The battle scenes are a bit implasable and Curran relies too much on the intervention of supernatural beings to get his heroes out of trouble. The sea battle is really quite poor and Curran really has no idea about how to fight a sea battle, the rating of royal Navy fighting ships of the time or their layout and armament. Particularly ludicrous was the idea that a few sailors could carry a ship's cannon up a deck to fire on the boarders with a bag of nails, does he have no idea how much one of those guns weigh? Perhaps when he researches the next one he should read some Hornblower, Patrick O'Brian or Richard Wodman.
Now given that this is the first part of a series he also makes the mistake of killing off virtually all of the incidental characters, something Cornwell or Woodman would take several books to do in keeping with the high mortality of the times, but allowing readers to build familiar reference points and relationships within the canon. The female characters seem to be there either to mother or admire the males and consequently are even more one dimensional than the heroes.
Also
April 20, 2012
This was one of those few books that I picked up and actually could not force myself to finish. The first chapter was possibly the most gory description of the aftermath of Waterloo that I have read thus far (I am suitably educated) but by the time I reached the third chapter, I realized that nothing had really changed. The characters were now actually fighting (a slight improvement) but it was still a somewhat senseless gore fest with characters I had no particular interest in.
The only character I had begun to like from chapter one was summarily ripped in half in chapter two and her brooding boyfriend just got even more depressed and vowed to 'get his revenge' which involved more people being variously ripped, decapitated etc.
I realize I am probably not this book's target market, and if you are really into gory books with an underlying supernatural theme - and don't care too much about extremely slow character development - then this may well be a very interesting and rewarding book. The author certainly doesn't shy away from describing the nastier sides of warfare.
NB: I read the English version, but I couldn't find it here on Good Reads.
The only character I had begun to like from chapter one was summarily ripped in half in chapter two and her brooding boyfriend just got even more depressed and vowed to 'get his revenge' which involved more people being variously ripped, decapitated etc.
I realize I am probably not this book's target market, and if you are really into gory books with an underlying supernatural theme - and don't care too much about extremely slow character development - then this may well be a very interesting and rewarding book. The author certainly doesn't shy away from describing the nastier sides of warfare.
NB: I read the English version, but I couldn't find it here on Good Reads.
April 6, 2010
I read the first page in the bookshop and it flowed well enough, and sounded interesting enough, to persuade me to part with money. How misleading can a first page be?!
For me, the story was formulaic, the characterisation thin and the dialogue, at times, excruciating. The ending also left me fearful that a sequel was planned.
I finiished it, but I won't be re-reading it; this is charity shop fodder waiting to happen.
For me, the story was formulaic, the characterisation thin and the dialogue, at times, excruciating. The ending also left me fearful that a sequel was planned.
I finiished it, but I won't be re-reading it; this is charity shop fodder waiting to happen.
December 31, 2010
After reading a number of bad reviews of this book I was a little worried about my choice (I based it on enjoying the first couple of pages in the book store). It ended up that I had no need to worry as it was an enjoyable book. Whilst the main characters could have had more depth to them it was a good read and a good first book. I'm looking forward to reading the follow up.
May 7, 2011
It started really slow, I was verging between 2 star or 3 star all the way til the last few chapters.
It was good, ended well but I did find some of the writing either repetitive or little too much.
It was good, ended well but I did find some of the writing either repetitive or little too much.
August 10, 2009
For November HNR
December 19, 2010
Interesting premise, but the follow through sucked.
March 27, 2014
Enjoyed the book. It got better as it went on and by the end was left wanting more.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews