Gloriana's Torch

David Becket and Simon Ames #3

by Patricia Finney

The year is 1587. The Spanish are preparing to launch the Armada against the English and Queen Elizabeth. Ex-soldier David Becket, now responsible for the Queen's Ordnance discovers that large quantities of gunpowder are going astray. Can someone in the heart of the English government be selling it to the Spanish? Unaccountably he is plagued by vivid dreams of England invaded, an alternative story where the Armada is victorious. Patricia Finney's brilliant reworking of the Armada legend is an imaginative tour de force. Thrilling, intricate, and inspiring, this is a tale of courage, of love, and, ultimately, redemption

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical Mystery, Tudor Period, Mystery, Historical, 16th Century

452 pages, Hardcover

First published September 4, 2003

About the author

AKA P.F. Chisholm and Grace Cavendish

Patricia Finney's career started with a bang when her first novel A SHADOW OF GULLS was published before she went up to Oxford aged 18 to study History, back in the mists of time, when dinosaurs roamed.
Having found out early what she could do, she has kept doing it. To date she has (mainstream) published:
the Sir Robert Carey Elizabethan crime novels under the pen name PF Chisholm - eight of them so far;
three Elizabethan spy novels as Patricia Finney;
two Elizabethan noir novels as Patricia Finney;
one contemporary romantic thriller - LUCKY WOMAN - under Finney;
three children's books about Jack the daffy Labrador in Doglish (Finney) and various odds and sods including the sequel to GULLS and WRITERITIS, about how to write a novel.
You can find most of her work on http://www.climbingtreebooks.com except for the Sir Robert Carey (PF Chisholm) novels which are published by Poisoned Pen Press (USA) and Head of Zeus (UK).
Her dayjob career has been... complex. At the moment she is living in Hungary and learning Hungarian and writing a non-fiction book about her mother's adventures as a child in wartime Hungary. She is really enjoying not doing a dayjob at the moment.
Go to my website, read my blogs and reviews and sign up for my email newsletter - at http://www.patriciafinney.com

Reviews

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dedication: In memory of my best friend, lover and husband, Chris Perry

Opening: Become a god with me, now. This is all about gods.

Bookmark is Dawn at Ludlow Castle by David Gray © www.ludlowcastle.com

Oooops - didn't realise this is the 3rd book in a series, hope it won't make it too much of a chore.

#18 TBR Busting 2013

Page 10: muliercula definition: a little woman:

Normally there would also be a midget attending her, Thomasina de Paris, a muliercula..

[Jamie Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is about the Spanish Armada of 1588: King Philip’s attempt to invade England, which evoked one of Queen Elizabeth’s most famous speeches, to rouse the troops at Tilbury: “I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too”.

The story is told from many disparate of points of view, in a nonlinear fashion, and it’s intertwined with bits of alternate history (where the invasion succeeds and Elizabeth is fleeing from Spanish troops) disguised as dream sequences. It’s a bit odd, but I think it all works quite well.

I usually dislike dreams in books, but these speculative scenes are not very dreamlike, but rather the author blatantly indulging in what-ifs. Elizabeth isn’t actually in the book very much, except for a few heroic, romantic scenes during the dream invasion.

One of the points of view is from an African “upside down woman” who allows herself to be sold into slavery so that she can find her abducted son. She brings more fanciful elements to the book than I really wanted (the dream invasion was plenty) but her visions are a way to give the reader a wider view than is available to an ordinary character.

Simon Ames is arrested in Spain and tortured by the inquisition (there are a couple of disturbing Elizabethan torture scenes), and then he’s sentenced to be a galley slave. My favorite part of the book focused on the experience of the slaves chained to rowing benches inside one of the ships of the Armada.

[Chaos · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my first time picking up this author, and I'm so happy with what I read. Anything to do with the Spanish Armada during the time of Elizabeth's reign is going to be complicated and gruesome. This book isn't anything different in that sense, but it had so much more complexities and mysticism to it than other books I've read during this time. I love the multiple povs, which usually can get tiresome, but the way this author did it added so much more depth to each character and heaviness to each situation. My favorite characters are Rebecca, whose a spy trying to save her husband, and Merula, an enslaved princess and shaman who was dream Visions. War is brutal, and the povs all made it exceedingly more graphic, especially Merula's viewpoint. While this book has the typical historical fiction feel, it does have a dash of fantasy to it that enhances the story. Davids' dream helps add to the brutality of the story and takes on the what if scenario. It was chilling, to say the least. Simon wasn't a favorite, but I did enjoy his take. The way he accepted death and destruction helped him mitigate some of the misery of his situation. It was interesting being in his head and watching from his eyes. Complicated story, but oh, so good. The elizabethian era is one of my favorite eras to read about, and this book just made it so much better!

[Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't love this one like I did the first two in this series, Firedrake's Eye and Unicorn's Blood, but I still liked it. Finney excels at details that really paint a picture showing the way things worked in Elizabethan England. If you want to know the mechanics of making saltpetre for gunpowder, you'll find out here (but you might not want to know), and she shows with gruesome specificity just what it was like to be a galley slave in a war fleet (not pleasant -- or survivable, in many cases). The story was well-plotted, if a little drawn-out, and the characters were also very well done. I especially liked the black warrior-woman, Merula, who had a kind of second sight and a much better understanding of the spiritual than either the Protestants or Catholics who were so busy killing each other.

[Cynthia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finney writes wonderful historical fiction. Not only are her characters plausible, the setting vivid and history accurate (to the best of my knowledge) but she gives you things to think about as well. This retelling of the Spanish Armada's failed invasion of England features people on all sides of the conflict, all of whom feel perfectly justified in their actions no matter how heinous. The dream sequences of a successful invasion were so sad I found them hard to read. Now that I'm done it makes me want to reread her earlier Elizabethan books as well as the series about Roman Britain.

[Madeline · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked and I have a lot to say about it but mostly the ending whyyyyyyyyyyyy.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gloriana's Torch is an inventive historical thriller set before and during the defeat of the Spanish Armada. Told from multiple points of view, we are brought into the web of espionage and plotting leading up to the arrival of the Armada, and into a very inside view of the battle itself. David Becket, once a skilled swordsman, is now serving as an inspector of ordnance. His discovery that large quantities of arms are going missing leads him further into the web of plots swirling around the Spanish Armada. Simon Ames, a spy and former inquisitor for Walsingham, is captured in Spain and sentenced to be a galley slave on one of the Armada ships. Rebecca, Simon's wife, becomes a spy herself to both finish Simon's original mission and rescue him from the galley if she can. Merula, an enslaved African princess and shaman, becomes embroiled in the machinations of both David and Rebecca.
Finney handled the multiple points of view very well, and the narrative structure helped to make the intricate plot easy to follow. She had a particularly deft hand with overlapping the points of view - giving us a set of events through one perspective and then later re-telling them through the eyes of a different participant. I also enjoyed the use of David's dreams to provide a fascinating and heart-breaking view on what could have happened to England if the Armada had succeeded. My favorite sections were those from Simon's point of view while he was a galley slave. He combined a will to survive with a degree of acceptance of death that allowed him to cope with and even mitigate some of the misery and brutality of his situation.

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was not my favorite of Finney’s Elizabethan series featuring David Beckett and Simon Ames but as always I did enjoy being swept up in her imagined version of the Spanish Armada invasion of England that almost was. This time the main characters are far apart from one another, but both working on behalf of the Queen to understand and thwart the Spanish plans, taking them to Lisbon, Antwerp, Calais and the oar deck of a Spanish warship. It’s Finney’s attention to detail (so glad the life of a galley-slave was not mine) and colorful characters—-two new characters that emerge from the West African slave trade were my two favorites—-that keep me coming back to her writing.

[Caro · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the kind of thing I could eat up with a spoon: complicated history, vivid characters, tragedy and comedy, and a touch of fantasy, too. Finney presents the same incidents from different points of view which rather than being repetitive is actually illuminating, given that we have spies on all sides and a number of mysterious characters. There's lots of plot to chew on and more than one reversal of fortune. Having read all three books in this series, I can see why Dunnett readers have recommended them. I save five-star reviews for books that changed my life, but this one deserves at least a 4.5.

[Faith Perry · Rating 4 out of 5]

What compelling characters and fascinating intrigues that are sometimes plausible that could have changed the course of history. Really makes you wonder what really happens...especially as we watch current events skewed in fake news. Will we ever really know the players and their parts in epic history?

So, so sad that David died. He was a true anti-hero - the best and most realistic. I hope that we see what happens with his unborn child and some further adventures with Simon Ames.

Thank you Sharon for another fabulous Elizabethan romp!

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hooked by the first, enthralled by the second, and dragged through this, the final book of the trilogy. Suspense and a twisting plot is well and good, but too many loops and your passengers are liable to fall off of the ride.

[Sue Marsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

To describe this book as an Elizabethan political spy thriller (which it is) just doesn’t do the book justice. Patricia Finley’s sense of person and place is exceptional and I found her ability to inhabit each of her characters quite spellbinding. An astonishing tour de force.

[William Phelps · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great setting for the story. Didn't find most of the characters very interesting except Merula. Overall, the story seemed to drag.

[Ann G. Daniels · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure I've ever classified a book as both historical fiction and fantasy before. The approaching invasion of the Spanish Armada is seen from the point of view of numerous players, including an English former warrior whose heart is true but whose reputation and strength are in ruins, a Jewish couple who set out undercover to find the Armada's secret plan, a priest turned assassin, the Queen herself, double and triple agents in several countries, an inquisitor with more secrets than even he knows, and the chief narrator, Merula, an African princess who allows herself to be taken as a slave in order to search for her son, also sold into slavery. Through Merula's dreamsight and the prophecy-dreams of other characters, we see alternate versions and visions of history.

This is a real page-turner and while those more knowledgeable than I about the Armada might find fault, I was certainly swept up in its scope and its detail, as well as its exciting plot and characters. I have only a few faults to find. Finney's vocabulary, while colorful, seems to be somewhat limited and redundant (out-of-breath characters repeatedly "crow" for air); and speaking of redundant, I think that as with most books of this length, a little judicious editing would not have been amiss. And speaking of editing, where are the copy-editors of yesteryear? Shakespeare, who makes a brief appearance, made up his spellings as he went - we're in the computer age now, and I expect better. But apart from such quibbles, it's a good, rip-roaring, lusty read.

[Deirdre · Rating 5 out of 5]

The third in a series of novels by Finney, this is a gripping novel and impressive achievement (the preceding two novels were Firedrake's Eye and Unicorn's Blood). Her research is first rate and even when, by her own admission, she has had to make guesses, those guesses are informed by a deep understanding of her period.

Two of the characters (David Becket and Simon Ames) have been the linking protagonists in each of the three books and here they are two of a number of varying points of view, all characters having very distinctive voices. Where one character's story mystifies or dissembles, another clarifies and corrects. Through it all is a driving and exciting narrative that cover the religious conflict of the 1580s, the preparations for and the defeat of the Spanish Armada. One can smell these people and their environs, see through their eyes the Europe of their times and feel the violence of their experience. This is one of those books you just don't want to put down and yet don't want to end.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Gloriana’s Torch’ by Patricia Finney. Phoenix pbk ISBN 0 75381 804 3
A sequel to ‘Firedrake’s Eye’ and ‘Unicorn’s Blood’ all set in Elizabethan England, This book is about a plot to warn England of the Armada. It features the soldier and reluctant hero David Beckett, his friend Simon Ames (a Jew) and, Mercula (a black slave who has visions). Mercula gives us a fascinating glimpse of the European world and religion through African eyes.
There is an extremely exciting and harrowing account of what it was like to be a galley slave in those times. How to row a galleass, with its rewards and punishments, and we meet the ‘Padron’ villain Suleiman, a Turk with unnatural proclivities. There were 36 oars and each huge oar had its own ‘Padron’, with an overseer ‘Captain of the Oardeck’ supervising 250 rowers, plus a further 50 to allow for injuries. Bleeding and newly calloused palms were treated with aqua vitae. Every few days the rowers were hosed down with sea water, partly to heal the whiplashes, but also to swill away the faeces and urine.

[MC · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me awhile to get into this book - early on, I liked some of the characters and disliked others (and the chapters narrated by them). I think the book would have been more enjoyable without the constant need (in some chapters) to reiterate particularly negative topics (e.g. the threat of rape of the galley slaves) over and over and over again or in detail (e.g. torture). The tone was set - I got it - but as with any topic in a book, repeating the same thing constantly gets annoying. The historical aspect was interesting, and I think it was compelling to tell the story from so many different viewpoints - some from the English side, some from the Spanish side, and some who weren't particularly invested either way. It was long, and there were some points when I considered stopping, but the last couple chapters in my view made it worth continuing on even through parts I was less fond of.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5 stars) This is the third book in the David Becket and Simon Ames series. Simon has been on a mission as a spy to try find out the plans for the Spanish Armada’s invasion of Britain, acting as a trader of slaves and other goods. He takes on the spirit healer, Merula, to save his wife from illness. Rumor has it that they have a new secret weapon. In the meantime, David has been investigating the widespread corruption in England in the manufacturing of munitions to support the military. Simon is held on suspicion, ending up as a galley slave. While his wife works to find him, and hopefully save him, David follows his own path to find out the truth behind the plots. The story is told from multiple perspectives, including dream sequences of an alternative ending to the invasion by the Spanish Armada. This was a complex and intriguing tale, filled with detail and historical context.

[ExtremeBibliophile · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part of a series featuring the decidedly anti-James Bond exploits of alcoholic ex-swordmaster turned spy for Queen Elizabeth I, David Becket, this novel is set during the time of the battle with the Spanish Armada. Finney is unjustifiably underappreciated (she also writes the YA series Lady Grace Cavendish mysteries, also set during the Elizabethan era) and she has a fantastic gift for character description and language fluency that is much in evidence here. A worthy successor to "Firedrake's Eye" and "Unicorn's Blood".

[Sarah W. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this without the benefit of the other books in the series, which likely would have changed my impressions had I read them first. That being said, I found the multiple story-lines confusing and struggled to get through certain sections. I did enjoy the imagining of life aboard the Spanish Armada of 1588, but this story has been told (dare I say, better told?) many times before and little stands out with this volume.

[Nancy McLaughlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great history

This book brings history to life. You are immersed in the sights, smells and feel of life at the time of the Spanish Armada. The depiction of the life of a galley slave was wrenching. Treachery abounds and viscous, horrendous damage done in the name of God. Breathtaking!

[MB (What she read) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extraordinarily good! I'm sorry to seemingly come to the end of this wonderful series.

I highly recommended this author to any reader who likes swashbuckling espionage historical fiction with great characterization.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

3rd book in a trilogy - I just happened across it in a used book store. Tells the story of the Spanish Armada with the unusual perspective of spies and saboteurs as well as those of galley slaves. Well written and researched. Recommended.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

This is well written. Great characters and a good plot. Elizabethan England comes alive through vivid, detailed descriptions of what people thought, wore, ate and how they lived. Includes all kinds of people from beggars to Queen Elizabeth.

[Marsha Valance · Rating 5 out of 5]

Third in the Tudor trilogy. David Becket and Simon Ames fight against the Armada's successful landing forces. Leicester is killed; Raleigh saves the Queen; many surprises ensue. At first, I was surprised by the swerve into alternate history, but I did love where it went.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Historical fiction set during the Spanish Armada. Filled with intrigue, historical references, varied characters show different sides of the time period.

[Ami · Rating 5 out of 5]

Patricia Finney is just awesome. Period.

[Kerry O'Connor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Historical fiction at its very best.

[Laura]

Another one that I couldn't get into, so I might as well just return it to the library.

[Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved all the historical detail and the intricacy of the adventure. A great read.