A Cruel Fate

by Lindsey Davis

Martin Watts, a bookseller, is captured by Royalists. Jane Afton's brother Nat is taken too. They suffer inhumane treatment as prisoners-of-war. In Oxford Castle jailor William Smith tortures, beats, starves and deprives his helpless victims. Can Jane rescue her sick brother before he dies of neglect? Will Martin dare to escape? Based on real events in the English Civil War, Lindsey Davis retells the grim tale of Captain Smith's abuse of power in Oxford prison - where many died in misery though a lucky few survived.

Part of A Quick Reads 2014 series, an organisation which commissions authors to write short books to appeal to adults who traditionally find reading difficult or intimidating.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Historical, War, Fiction

112 pages, Paperback

First published February 3, 2014

About the author

Lindsey Davis, historical novelist, was born in Birmingham, England in 1949. Having taken a degree in English literature at Oxford University (Lady Margaret Hall), she became a civil servant. She left the civil service after 13 years, and when a romantic novel she had written was runner up for the 1985 Georgette Heyer Historical Novel Prize, she decided to become a writer, writing at first romantic serials for the UK women's magazine Woman's Realm.
Her interest in history and archaeology led to her writing a historical novel about Vespasian and his lover Antonia Caenis (The Course of Honour), for which she couldn't find a publisher. She tried again, and her first novel featuring the Roman "detective", Marcus Didius Falco, The Silver Pigs, set in the same time period and published in 1989, was the start of her runaway success as a writer of historical whodunnits. A further nineteen Falco novels and Falco: The Official Companion have followed, as well as The Course of Honour, which was finally published in 1998. Rebels and Traitors, set in the period of the English Civil War, was published in September 2009. Davis has won many literary awards, and was honorary president of the Classical Association from 1997 to 1998.

Reviews

[Fiona Hewlett-parker · Rating 1 out of 5]

I knew nothing about the horrors of the English Civil war and this quick Read book has given me the urge to read more on the subject. I really did not like they style of this book, but now I understand it was written for people who have not learned to love to read. with that in mind it is simply told, and a good story.

I love Lindsey Davis, but will stick with Falco from now on...

[Liesl de Swardt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would love for this to have been developed as a long work. Davis is a brilliant writer and handles her subject masterfully.

[Ruth Ellis · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a quick read it's historical but it didn't hold me that's why I gave this 3stars😕

[KL Caley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Premise: Martin Watt’s is a bookseller who has never stepped foot out of line, is captured for being on the wrong side of a war he didn’t care much about. This short novel follows his story as a prisoner of war and the treatment and brutality received. The novel also contains the story of Jan Afton whose brother has also been captured during the turmoil. Jane being regarded as a spinster to her family is sent to find out what has happened to her brother and retrieve him.

I really enjoyed this short story and was pleased to find a historical fiction novel within the quick reads series. the “quick reads” collection which I have begun looking through lately. The idea of this collection is exactly as it says on the tin (or should that be cover), a shorter than normal book by world leading authors. One of the things I quite like about these books is that they force the authors to cut out a lot of the waffle that sometimes goes on in books. This keeps the stories quite fast paced with a lot happening in less time. This seems to be what has jarred other readers (the use of simpler language) but I didn’t find it detracted from the novel at all. I'm proud of authors who take on the challenge of writing these books so that they can be enjoyed by all even those who aren’t keen readers.

Here is a brief extract so that you can see a sample of the writing yourself:

Men of humble birth will sometimes become officers, but Nat Afton will never be a captain. He will not aspire to it. He wants to lie low. It is a great surprise to Jane that he has even been taken prisoner.

One of the things I particularly enjoyed about this novel was that multiple viewpoints were captured in its short number of pages and all the characters were really engaging (you liked who you were supposed to like and hated who you were supposed to hate). Not an easy task I imagine with so few words. I particularly liked the ending.

This novel is set during the second English Civil War when Royalist and Roundhead butted heads, pikes, cavalry and cannon across the Country for supremacy. Mostly describing the situation inside Oxford Castle Prison. I think the author did a really good job of describing both this time period and the setting. The descriptions of the treatment of the Royalist prisoners (I suppose any prisoners from the time), has actually intrigued me and I would be interested in reading more about the period.

A fantastic novelist! Cannot wait to read many more of her works.

Please leave a like if you think my review/feedback of the item was helpful to you. Alternatively, please contact me if you want me to clarify something in my review.

[Agnesxnitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the Quick Reads series issued as part of World Book Day, these short novels are aimed at people who don't have time for long reads or who struggle with the written word or for whom English is not their first language. QR realise that to get people 'into' reading requires the proper temptation, so have got a wide range of writers and well known celebrities to join the scheme.
I am enjoying reading Lindsey Davis' Roman Detective, Marcus Didius Falco, who is a bit like Bogart but before the fall of Rome. He's such an engaging character, despite or maybe because of his flaws!
This novel is set during the second English Civil War (a side note - how many people have I spoken to realise we have had two?! See Cadfael for more details on the first...) when Royalist and Roundhead butted heads, pikes, cavalry and cannon across the Country for supremacy. Neither side was innocent of atrocities, and as I live in Cromwell Country (Huntingdonshire) perhaps I am too much leaning to the side of the rebel forces who fought for religious freedoms and the voice of the common man (women not getting the vote until the 20th Century and therefore not taken into consideration). However women feature strongly in this story - the fact the authorities treat them as mere inconveniences works to their advantage.
A really good read - took me about 45 minutes to read cover to cover, but I am a quick reader!
A library book so will be returned this weekend.

[Owen Townend · Rating 3 out of 5]

I never realised just how brutal the English Civil War was. Not only were there staggering battlefield casualties but apparently there were a lot of fatalities during captivity as well. Davis writes about the torturous practices of William Smith with vivid detail that had me hooked from the moment non-royalist civilians were first forced into Oxford Castle.

However I was more than a little disappointed at the telling. For a story about confinement and isolation, we only spend a small amount of time in the head space of the chosen prisoner protagonists. Proper dialogue doesn't start until just under halfway through the book.

This being another Quick Read, I'm afraid I can't see any adult reader developing a newfound love of fiction from it. If A Cruel Fate had been nonfiction then I'm confident that it would be very effective. Also I'm not sure how it compares to Davis' Falco series. I would certainly hope that there was more story there to counterbalance the facts.

That being said, I still recommend A Cruel Fate to any reader looking for an accessible and engrossing entry point to the ground level horrors of the Civil War, albeit not for its fictional elements.

[Judi Mckay · Rating 3 out of 5]

The descriptions of the cruel treatment given to Royalist prisoners were really interesting (& appalling!) However the way it was written, to me, was off putting. It’s part of a series intended to help people discover the joys of reading for pleasure and if I’d been a non reader and picked this up, it would have turned me off reading. It reads to me like a voice over for one of those history documentaries where the events are depicted as someone relates the events; not as a story to get lost in. I selected it as I was interested to see how a well known writer handles the novella and in this case, she’s failed.

(653)

[Lou · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little slow to get into as it read more like a nonfiction tile, once it got going this quick read book was absorbing and emotional. Depicting the lives of two civil war prisoners, their different backgrounds the same fate, it is based on true events, which I immediately now want to find out more about.

[Lindsay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Being a Quick Read I was expecting an easier read, given the intention of this range, however this book is almost like it's gone a couple of steps too far, the sentences are short but are quite stilted.
The content, as you might expect, being in times of war and the era, is awful, in fact it's just plain brutal and horrific! There is hope and a slither of romance but mostly it's horrid!

[Eden Gruger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interetsing historical read

[Mrs Gail P Madeley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quick Read - Not enough content

[Vera Arantes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written Enjoyable Well researched

[Jaione · Rating 4 out of 5]

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[Samantha Luke · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't enjoy this book at all. It is set during the English civil war & simply it falls into a genre I don't enjoy reading.

[Clare · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very nice short read telling a gripping tale of historic wrongs. Despite the simpler language, I didn't feel talked down to.

[Hannah · Rating 1 out of 5]

The English Civil War has begun, and has been raging for months. Michael Watts, who fights with the Roundheads, is taken prisoner and forced to walk for days to get to Oxford, where he is locked in the Saint George’s Tower, along with hundreds of other sick and dying prisoners. Meanwhile, Nat Afton is taken prisoner too, and, whilst thousands of others in his village change sides to support to the King to go home, he doesn’t. He stays. Gets himself locked up, leaving his sister Jane to make a dangerous trip to the city to find out what happened to her brother.

Okay, I’m going to do a basic structure for this review: good things, bad things, and a recommendation. To begin with, I really like historical fiction so this book was perfect for me! The Civil War was, most definitely, a brutal time in British history, and this portrayed I well, especially with the treatment of prisoners of war. There was no Geneva Convention then, so there was no obligation for the prisoners to be treated well, or even as living creatures (I refuse to say ‘human beings’, as I believe animals deserve many of the same rights).

Secondly, I liked the characters Nat and Martin, who were polar opposites but thrown into the same turmoil. Nat was my favourite character of the whole novella, even though he was rather fickle. He made me chuckle because of this, however, and I think that if I knew him in real life I would be unable to stop myself giving him a big hug. To me, he really was Jane’s cute little brother. Which, coincidentally, brings me onto the things I liked about Jane – her loving nature, the reaction to Michael and her devotion to her brother.

However, now we move onto the things I didn’t like. Firstly, the structure of the story. There didn’t seem to be a specific chapter about Michael, and then one about Nat, then Jane. It was just kind of clumped in one, and with random, intermittent splits changing from character to character. Bleugh. I prefer much more organised writing, thank you very much. Also, the chapter headings basically told you what happened in the chapter, so I ended up overlooking them. It’s rather like Homer’s Odyssey in that sense.

Secondly, the sentences and lexis. I do understand that Quick Reads are for people who don’t read as often as I do to begin to read again, or be introduced into the world of literature. However, I think even late bloomers in the reading front would find the patronising tone Davis seems to portray irritating. Especially how she defines ‘Roundheads’ during the book, after doing it at the beginning, and how she spells things out I preferred to infer myself. The sentences were primarily short and gave a staccato feel to the novella, which I really disliked. Sentence structure and lexis were the aspects of the novella which I disliked the most, and mainly what gave it it’s extra-low rating. I don’t feel like I could have read an entire novel like this.

Thirdly, there wasn’t much dialogue. This was fine, if the description was more energetic. It was description – that is, it described everything around. A little more action was probably needed also. And, this is going back to the character of Jane – she was a bit 2D, didn’t appear to do too much until close to the end, and I felt she was a bit wet, to be honest. Not the best creation possible, she needed a bit more character, ironically, and I also hated her sisters. If you’ll pardon my language, I felt they were complete bitches!

All in all, I would recommend this book for anyone interested in the English Civil War, and the tagline on the front of the book really is relevant: “As long as war exists, this story will matter.” And, despite this scathing review, I think I will try a couple of Davis’ other works, and see if they differ, because I did enjoy the story and the idea. Just not much else.

[Tchipakkan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was really disappointed in A Cruel Fate.
I liked the idea of the quickread books; I love books and think that it would be great if more people realized how wonderful they are. I love Lindsey Davis, and figured anything she'd written would be great. I expected a short, well written historical novelette with great characters, humor, and plot twists, and since I could get the ebook for less than a buck and read it immediately, how could I lose?
The best thing I can say about it is that I only wasted 99 cents, and not much time. I was sadly put in mind of proofreading high school fan fiction (with historical rather than pop culture characters). Given that it's Lindsey Davis, I assume the research was good. The events on which it was based were gripping.
However, I cannot imagine something less likely to convince people who don't like reading to read books than attempting this one. The sentences may be short and the words simple, there's even gripping human drama: fighting, torture, escape, love, true history (to paraphrase William Goldman), but somehow it was still boring, more like notes and outline for a story to be written.
Perhaps Davis shouldn't have attempted to "dumb down" her writing? It's not that the potential wasn't there. The book burning, abuse of prisoners by William Smith, Jane trying to rescue her brother Nat, the English Civil War, it all has so much potential. I was excited to get another Davis book, however short, to read while waiting for Deadly Election to come out, but we would do better to go back and reread her other books.

[Alanpalmer · Rating 1 out of 5]

It is a short read so don't expect too much. Even so. I have read some of Lyndsey Davis before and heard some dramatisations but this was so unlike anything before. Ok so it is English Civil War not Ancient Rome but that is not my criticism. The writing style is like. A slightly gifted 13 year old. Little characterisation. The only description is of the truly awful nature of prisoner incarceration, although it does make emergence to the practice and custom of war. Before Haig and Geneva conventions. The story is very basic plot, although it is a short read I have read Graeme Green , Isaac Asimov and Frank Herbert short stories far better than this.
It really is not worth the read

[Tia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is one in a series called Quick Reads (http://www.quickreads.org.uk/what-are...), a UK program designed to encourage adult literacy with short stories told in simple English by real, really good authors. I loved Davis' Falco series and wanted to support the program, so I ordered 'A Cruel Fate'. I found the simple English a bit distracting and jarring at first, but I mostly got used to it. Being a short story, it naturally lacked much of the depth that draws me to novels, but I think it was well done.

[Joanna McDarby · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Lindsey Davis' stories and while this one was written in much simpler language, it lost none of the gritty reality of the events that she was portraying. The characters were engaging and the book lost none of her style. However I did feel that the ending was a bit rushed.
I can see the value in books like these for people who want to improve their reading skills, and I'm proud of authors who take on the challenge of writing these books so that they can be enjoyed.

[Annette Gisby · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this book at the library, thinking it was a self-contained short story. I've since discovered that it was aimed at people who are new to reading. That explains the simplicity of the writing, which was a bit jarring at first. Everything was a bit too simple so it felt like it lacked depth. There was a lot of telling, rather than showing, and there was sparse dialogue. It read a bit like a skimmed down textbook rather than a story.

[Caroline · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Lindsay's writing, so picked this up at the library in the hopes of a quick fix before the next Flavia Albia book comes out. I hadn't realised that it was written for those who aren't really readers and in fact it reads a bit like a staged reader for someone who is learning English. The sentences are short and simple and it feels a bit like a history lesson in places. Good story, just a bit over-simplified for me.

[Dianna Rostad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful little short about a spinster who goes to rescue her brother from the Oxford prison during the civil war. The despicable treatment of the inmates by Captain Smith will keep you on edge. Gruesome and apparently true.

[Erika · Rating 2 out of 5]

The sentences are too simple even for me, as English learner. Almost all in simple present. It was like as somebody retold a film in simple words. I'd read quite a lot of Quick Reads books, because they are nice for English learning, but this was the worst book from this series, I've read.

[Carl Heinz · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting perspective on the British Civil War.

[Wilde Sky · Rating 2 out of 5]

Prisoner abuse during the English Civil War is described in this book.

An interesting story, but I found it so badly written that it killed any real enjoyment.

[Marcie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great insight into a historical period I don't know much about... yet!

[Zoe Obstkuchen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simply written for emergent readers this tale of the suffering of prisoners of war during the English Civil War was interesting

[Markie Jones · Rating 1 out of 5]

You can find my review for this book here:

http://thescarletviolin.blogspot.co.u...

[Stella]

Bookclub read for November - will grade later