Swordland

by Edward Ruadh Butler

A tale of war, death, lust, and scheming, set in the starkly beautiful landscapes of medieval Ireland and Wales.

Robert FitzStephen is a warrior down on his luck. Arrogant, cold, but a brilliant soldier, FitzStephen commands a castle yet although his mother was a princess his father was a lowly steward. When a Welsh rebellion brings defeat and a crippling siege, his highborn comrades scorn him, betraying him to the enemy. A hostage of his cousin, Prince Rhys, FitzStephen is disgraced, seemingly doomed to a life of obscurity and shame.

Then King Diarmait arrives ...

Diarmait is the ambitious overlord of an Irish kingdom. Forced to flee by the High King of Ireland, he seeks to reclaim his lands by any means possible and that includes inviting the Normans in. With nothing left to lose and perhaps a great deal to gain FitzStephen agrees to lead the Irishman s armies, and to drive Diarmait s enemies from his kingdom. His price? Acceptance, perhaps ... or perhaps a kingdom of his own?

Genres: Historical Fiction, Historical, Medieval, Ireland

304 pages, Paperback

First published December 12, 2014

About the author

Born in Derry and brought up in Tyrone, Edward Ruadh Butler studied Biomedical Sciences before working in newsrooms, bars, and laboratories, as a security guard, musician, and a lifeguard. A keen reader of historical fiction from his youth, he decided to try and emulate his heroes - Conn Iggulden, Bernard Cornwell, Robert Louis Stevenson, and George MacDonald Fraser - and write an adventure. He began by working on the story during his lunch hour and a year later he had completed the first draft of his debut novel, Swordland. It charts the remarkable career of Robert FitzStephen, a Norman-Welsh warrior who became the first invader of Ireland in 1169.

Reviews

[Clemens Schoonderwoert · Rating 5 out of 5]

This astounding debut novel, by for me a new and upcoming author, has been a very pleasurable experience.
At the beginning of the book you'll find a well defined Glossary and some interesting Notes concerning this tale, which is for a part set in Wales, but for the most important part of course in Ireland.
While at the end of the book you'll notice an extensive Historical Note concerning this wonderful story, and in this Note the historical details are really well documented and explained to us by the author.
Story-telling by the author is of a superbly good quality, his characters come all vividly to life within this fascinating historical tale, whether they are real great historical or wonderful fictional figures, and the surroundings, whether in Wales but mostly in Ireland, are wonderfully pictured in this book.
The book is set between the years, AD 1164 until AD 1170, whether in Wales but mostly in Ireland, and it tells us in a splendid and engaging fashion the story about the invasion of the Normans, who were already in England and Wales, into Ireland.
In the first part of the book the two main characters are on the one side, Sir Robert FitzStephen, a Norman who's Constable of Aberteifi (Cardigan) Castle, but after betrayal by his men-at-arms will find himself prisoner in Wales of Prince Rhys of Deheubarth, while on the other side there's Diarmait Mac Murchada, who's the exiled King of Laighin (Leinster) and who's come to Wales and England in an effort to get support from different people in his endeavour to regain his throne, and in the end with the help of the dishevelled Sir Robert FitzStephen, they will embark on this invading mission, with Diarmait for the throne of Laighin and Robert most importantly for, "Swordland".
In the second part, while Sir Robert FitzStephen is fighting hard and ferocious battles against the Irish for King Diarmait in an effort to regain the throne of Laighin for him, and for himself Swordland in the form of Waesfjord (Wexford) and surrounding areas, while at the same time this same King Dairmait is cunningly plotting, behind Robert's back, in an attempt to become High King of Ireland.
Highly recommended, for this is an engrossing story and a very worthwhile read about the beginnings of the Norman invasion of Ireland, all told in a fascinating way, so much so that I will certainly read the next installment, but to keep to this book I would like to say that this is: "A Very Impressive Norman/Irish Invasion Debut Novel"!

[Speesh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Swordland comes thundering off the page like, appropriately enough, a Norman warhorse charging at the enemy; cutting a swathe of fresh, energetic and adventurous Historical Fiction storytelling. For what I think is Edward Ruadh Butler's first novel, Swordland weaves a confident path through what, to the uninitiated, can be the confused and confusing, constantly shifting alliances and treachery that passed for early Irish power struggles. Twelfth century Ireland seems to have been a patchwork of rival kingdoms, each with their own king, but which were, in theory at least, supposed to be subject to the High King of Ireland. Raiding and endemic warfare was the order of the day even before the first waves of Viking raiders began arriving in the 9th century. Then, when the Norsemen's direct, but barely house-trained, descendants the Normans arrived over from England, the whole thing got really complicated - and very bloody.

Add in to all this a Norman knight with an axe to grind, a man who desperately wants to prove himself both to himself and - despite his mixed origins - to those of his countrymen who abandoned him to the enemy and you have a book that can only be described as exuberant, passionate, supremely exciting Historical Fiction, that does everything you read Historical Fiction for - and does it with great enthusiasm.

It is interesting, along with Tancred from James Aitcheson's Sworn Sword, to hear history from the Norman side. FitzStephen's problems, those of being, merely by dint of birth seen as not worthy enough, even though he clearly was, to be valued by his supposed superiors is, admittedly, not a wholly new concept. But, seen from the bad guy's, the Norman's side of the fence, it is still - at least for me - a reasonably fresh concept. It allows Edward to be more objective towards his main character, creating a man we can have sympathy with, while also being allowed to fill the gaps with our own preconceptions of how the Normans were actually the villains of the piece, the unfeeling conquerors. That's probably thanks to years of Robin Hood, and seeing the poor, downtrodden Saxons being kept subservient under the Norman lash. Seeing as we English, owe the Normans so much (not least a large part of the language I'm currently writing in), and are in love - generally - with the Normans' ancestors, the Vikings, it is sometimes contradictory for us to think that they’re still the bad guys. Let's face is, the Saxons were the original invaders, the people who actually came up with the name Welsh for the Celts who were here when they arrived (the names Wales and Welsh can be traced to a Proto-Germanic word Walhaz, meaning foreigner, and stranger. Strangers in their own land, eh?). Yes, FitzStephen does want to rule over/will kill, these ‘original’ people of the lands he finds himself in, but while keeping an edge of Norman harshness to him, Edward Ruadh Butler draws this more nuanced and sympathetic portrait of a Norman knight. FitzStephen wants to reach a level of success - for him that means owning large amounts of land - that will bring him back equal with his Norman peers, though I get the feeling that once attained, he wouldn't see it as actually being satisfactory, only bringing temporary gratification. Edward Ruadh Butler's FitzStephen is evidently destined to be better than that.

After harsh years of disappointment and suffering in Wales, in Ireland FitzStephen learns quickly that Irish kings have not just a predilection for back stabbing, but are quite willing to stab you in the front, if the need arises. The latter, I think, actually appeals to FitzStephen, as at least in Ireland, he can actually see the people who have come to kill him. It can't be long before he realises the Normans he thought were his peers people, turned out to be the real sneaky backstabbers.

I will admit to rarely ever reading the back blurb before I start on a book I've been sent for review. I want to come fresh to it, see where it takes me. And Swordland took me in so many new and excitingly interesting, often unexpected, areas and most often didn't go where I thought it was going to, so many times. Swordland, is a magnificent start to The Invader Series, positively bristling with a wonderfully adventurous spirit, full of new names, new places, new faces and no little wit.

Blog: Speesh Reads
Facebook: Speesh Reads
Pinterest: Speesh Reads

[Jerry Mercer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grand Novel

This book has all the components of an interesting and well done novel. Good descriptions and plenty of action and intrigue abound. The author overused the Irish and Welsh names however burdening the reader with unpronouncable words that slow down the plot.

hich bogs down the reader's progress.

[Paul Bennett · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gripping tale featuring Norman, Welsh, Irish, Ostmen and Flemish combatants and their duplicitous maneuvers to stake a claim or a kingdom in Ireland.  The main protagonist is Robert FitzStephen, a Norman warrior who falls upon hard times but is offered the chance to regain his honor leading the army of the deposed Irish King Diarmait Mac Murchada.  The author had my attention from page one.  Well researched and written in a manner that stays as true as possible to the known historical record, although, as is true of any good tale, some facts can be rearranged to make the fiction more compelling.  The battles are ferocious without being overly gory; the tension brought on by the many competing groups and goals permeate the story lines.  An admirable and enjoyable read of yet, to me anyway, another time and place of British history.  4 stars

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is certainly an attention grabbing epic set in the latter half of the 12th Century and spanning Wales and Ireland as lords, warriers and rival kings do battle to earn territory, gold and bragging rights. The battles are not confined to the fields either as there are agreements made and broken and a level of deviousness that pervades throughout the story with allegiances chopping and changing (pardon the pun) as quickly as day turns to night. This does make it a little hard to follow, especially with some of the names being similar, more so if you are not that familiar with the Welsh and Irish languages. And with all that Butler stays as true to the historical record of the time as anyone is able weaving fact into fiction and fiction into fact, which makes this all the more enjoyable as it feels like a real part of history is being replayed.

[Gareth Russell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A novel that begins impressively and continues that way. The atmosphere of the Middle Ages is captured, including food, clothes, weaponry, and homes, as are the complexities of identity in the Norman, Welsh, and Irish world. This world seems bigger, in that Butler conveys how long it took for them to travel from one place to another, and how slow information moved compared to the sudden speed of a military attack. Anyone totally unfamiliar with Anglo-Norman or Irish history from this period may struggle with such a large cast of characters, but that's true of many historical novels. I'll be reading more by Butler and I'm like that this period is getting the attention in fiction that it deserves.

[Jürg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellently done - the bare facts of the Normans' venture into Ireland in the late 12th century are fascinating all on their own, but Butler spins colour, story and characters around the facts that make his book a truly enjoyable read. Refreshingly, Butler avoids the fashionable tropes about the Middle Ages that spoil so many historical novels, and his research on the ephemera of medieval life - the horses, the weapons, what made them special - is as good as his grasp of the history.

[steve evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great value read

I found this book not only a good read but also interesting as it is based on fact . It brings together various races of people from Norsemen to Norman's mixed in with the various Irish clans .
Looking forward to the next installment.

[Lawrence Boyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hard to pronounce but a very good read

The characters were as colorful as the Irish countryside but I had a terrible time trying to pronounce their names in my mind. The names of the cities and other places on the map were just as difficult.

[Marsha Lambert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed reading about medieval Ireland and the coming of the Normans. Well written characters and a page turning storyline. Looking forward to reading the second in the series.

[Mike Whitehouse · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 Stars .

Not often you get fiction based on fact that actually works but in this instance it does, a first class story of betrayal , honour and bloodshed.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who knew such a small book could contain such drama, action, adventure and war.
Which isn't surprising considering the main cast of characters are Norman - the people who assumed the mantle of Warlords after the age of the Vikings.
However, it may be surprising to many whom like me aren't familiar with Norman history beyond October 1066, that this tale is set not in England, but firstly in Wales and then on to Ireland.
For the Normans didn't just transform the fate of England, but also our neighbours in both land and sea. The Welsh weren't entirely happy having the Normans as new neighbours and so proved problematic, yet it seemed the only people who were event slightly happy for the Norman's arrival - were the Irish, or some of the Irish. Mainly those who were losing an age old feud against other feudal Lords and the High King. They see an opportunity to lure theses masters of war with the offer of land, so they can defeat their enemies and claim back more land than they lost.
Thus you are introduced to Robert Fitz Stephen, a proud Norman who will prove to be both saviour and it's doom.
The drama kicks off from the very first sentence on the first page and keeps up all the way through. So many characters both good and bad or in-between, both Norman, Welsh and Irish, and even the settled Norsemen of Ireland who also had to face the Normans, all help give the reader a 360 degree omniscient view of the entire story.

[Jim Carleton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would really like to give this a higher rating, but I just can't do better than 3½ stars, which isn't allowed here.

Overall, this is a good retelling of the beginning of the Norman invasion of Ireland. Butler gets all of the main points - events and people - correct. I would expect that of someone of Irish heritage. I am also of Irish heritage - the O'Brynes of County Wicklow - and I knew a lot of the outline, but not a lot of the details. Research on-line gave me reason to believe that the author had done his own research well.

But that's as far as it goes. The writing style is clumsy and awkward. This might well be as much a function of weak editing by someone not very familiar with Irish history, or it might have been because of some really bad transfer from print editions to the e-book which I read. Either way, it was difficult to follow a lot of the action due to sudden shifts of viewpoint within chapters. This was really quite bizarre, because it has been common practice in fiction typography, for over a century, to put bars of some sort - a long line, either simple or ornate, a row of asterisks, a small box with a dash on either side, anything of that sort - between one section in a chapter and another. At the least, a gap of several blank lines will work. There is nothing like this anywhere in this novel. Had some of the chapters been shorter, it might not have been so bad.

Another, more serious, problem was Butler's insistence on using full Irish names, without any effort made to explain how to pronounce them. I know a small bit of Irish Gaelic, enough to know that Phádraig is Patrick, Dubhlinn is Dublin, Diarmaid is Dermit/Dirmat, that Ui became O', and a few other associations. I could struggle along with most of the rest, but as so many English-speakers do with Russian novels, I had to "blip" over most of it. A simple listing of the Dramatis Personae and place names, and how they transliterate in English, would have been nice, and not terribly difficult, nor very long. Certainly the author hopes that the inquisitive reader would do some individual research, but a little help from him to get things moving would have been very nice.

Bottom line: I enjoyed the narrative and its cleaving fairly closely to actual history, at least as we understand it nearly a millennium later. I was able to surmount the difficulties that I outline, above. However, I have little interest in reading any further novels in this set: I don't have enough time left on this planet to keep struggling with these issues, especially as I already have plenty other books to read.

[Kristie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Found the book hard to get in to. Eventually had to give up reading it!

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good historical fiction. Might read the next in the series!!