Ancient & Medieval Historical Fiction discussion

I thought seeing as we were getting Mr. Cornwells thread all full of Robert Low I would start him his own.

The Oathsworn series:

The Kingdom series:

And I should mention in here that the 5th Oathsworn book is due to be released in September or October of this year depending on where you live.

I can vouch for the Oathsworn series, and I'm about to begin the Kingdom series.

I write historical fiction (unpublished, so I'm just a wannabe for the time being), and it's writers like Cornwell, Pressfield, and Iggulden that have inspired me. But it is Low that has challenged me. His style is so evocative, and his characters and imagery have stuck with me over the years. I'd never try to emulate him, but I'd like to borrow from him. Great stuff, and under-appreciated in the US.

I too can vouch for Robert Low. His Oathsworn series, to me, is unchallenged in the world of Viking books.

His Oathsworn series is my favourite series of all time, in a tie with another series. I love Orm and his offsiders and can't wait for Crowbone! Although, from the blurb, it is hard to tell if Orm is even a major factor of this new book due out September 2012.

Crowbone does sound more like a spin-off rather than another in the series. I guess I'll have to RAFO.

Rafo?? Hmmm...what the heck is that one? :-)

I think you're right. It has always felt like a spin off since I saw it's title 'Crowbone' earlier this year.
Add to that the fact that Low said he wasn't going to write anymore Orm stories and his threat to kill him off when he was writing The Prow Beast made me suspect Crowbone would be a spin off.

Here is Robert Low's fab website for those who haven't seen it.
http://www.robert-low.com/

RAFO = read and find out. It's one of the few acronyms I use, yet it's only easy to say if you treat it like a word and don't say the letters. :)

Read and find out. It is a new one for me and I like. :-)

Well, then that makes one of my few contributions to Goodreads. :)

Hahaha! :D

Read And Find Out - I like it too! Thanks, Justin. Robert Low's books are superb. I await Crowbone with keen anticipation. I also really enjoyed Giles Kristian's Blood Eye trilogy. Anyone else like it?

by Giles Kristiankeeps coming up in my recommendations but I haven't managed to read it yet.

Terri and I are looking forward to so much we plan on buying it as soon as it comes out. :)
We're making time for a BR no matter what else we're reading....

Yeah, I've got lined up for purchase. Too many good Viking books out there!

I've read Raven. It was alright. I could take it or leave it though.

Lots of chat about him and other great Viking reads in the Vikings thread. :-)
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/6...

Yes, pumped for the Crowbone release. *squeel!*

Due for release in September, I'll be buying pre order in August or early September.

At Terri's recommendation - cheers Terri! - I've read and enjoyed The Whale Road ... as an author I study what I read in the hope of learning. I posted my impressions on Whale Road in a blog if anyone is interested I'd love to hear your feedback. The blog is here: http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_...

Glad you liked it R.J. :)

I must warn those who haven't read the Whale Road. R.J's review of the book has many spoilers and excerpts from the book. So if you haven't read the book and do plan on reading it....be warned....

Terri is right, my review is more an author's analysis of a fellow writer's skill. I was very impressed with Robert Low's rich and vigorous pallet. So if you have read The Whale Road then I hope my blog will give you a new insight into some of his writerly skills.

I plan to read more of him when I go on holiday in a few weeks. I will make my next review less of a giveaway!

Meanwhile, I wld esp like to hear your views on Einar. His character fascinated me from start to finish. I don't know if I read him right. So I wld love to hear other views on him. Did you warm to him in any way, for example?

This is making The Whale Road, sitting over there on my physical shelf, mostest tempting. I look forward to reading R.J.'s writerly analysis/homage too, but I'll have to strict and wait til after the book.

I loved reviewing it. It was a pure pleasure. I loved the read and it inspired me. I swear I lived many moments in! Not that I am trying to urge your hand to reach out towards ... your ... copy ... and ...

*bows* (falls from prow of longship into icy Baltic)

Bryn wrote: "This is making The Whale Road, sitting over there on my physical shelf, mostest tempting. I look forward to reading R.J.'s writerly analysis/homage too, but I'll have to strict and wait til after t..."


What's that? Can someone hear something *Bryn...Brrrryyynnnn.....read me...reaaaadd mmmeeee*

:D

That is a beautiful review, RJ! (Though I might not have waxed quite so lyrical about a Viking with herring-breath; it made me think of my cat after he ate his dinner...)

R.J. wrote: "Meanwhile, I wld esp like to hear your views on Einar. His character fascinated me from start to finish. I don't know if I read him right. So I wld love to hear other views on him. Did you warm to ..."

I am pleased to see you connected with Einar. I also connected with him. I even had a little crush on him. I don't know why. Perhaps because he was a sharp thinker. Highly intelligent and dark and gruesome in nature. A bad guy, yes, but I found him to be an oddly magnetic character.

Yes, he was magnetic, definitely. I found him powerful, masterful, decisive and dynamic. He was also terrifyingly unpredictable and flawed in all too human ways. And he seemed to know it.

I think his flaws really bothered him.
(view spoiler)[
He was in a battle with himself constantly. He wanted to lead his men with respect, cared for them like family sometimes then had no care for them at other times, but he was very insecure.
(hide spoiler)]

Speaking of cats, there was a wonderful similie in WR which made me roll around cos it reminded me of someone: made a mouth 'like a cat's arse'. At Terri, rightly pointed out in her review, WR is full of some very witty dabs.

'tis why I love this author so much. He has a wit as sharp as a rapier. :)

Yep, he knew he was screwing up, but cld not help it. He was sort of trapped in his own personality and had to go along with himself. Maybe there is some viking archetype of the screwed up hero. I suppose the sagas are full of them. Maybe the god Loki was a bit like that. Chopping the odd finger off the priest was airborn! No messing around there then. I wonder what Health & Safety wld have to say about that? But that's why we love the guy, right? He does it his way. We can't say he breaks the rules because, he was the rules on his ship. Yet he betrays the oath. There is a lot to ponder about him.

I esp liked the way he had the vikes chuckling about the mischievous god Loki all the time. It just makes sense that if you were rowing across the North Sea in and open boat you wld need a good laugh. I was amused at Orm getting stuck with the sheep in the boat also.

I think humour is one of the reasons that I am drawn to the Viking/Northern men. Those big men still have that humour today.

NB* make sure you include the spoiler feature when you are giving too much away about the book.
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/7...

Yep, anyone who is into rock music n bikes probably has a bit of viking in them!

I will try n get my head round the spoiler thing. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I need all the help I can get. Is it too late to put the spoiler on my review now?

In your review? No, you can edit and use the spoiler function no probs. I do it all the time.
Or you could add a simple explanation into the beginning of your review to say that the review contains spoiler details from the book. Just so people who haven't read the book will know what they're getting into.

R.J. wrote: "Yep, he knew he was screwing up, but cld not help it. He was sort of trapped in his own personality and had to go along with himself. Maybe there is some viking archetype of the screwed up hero. I suppose the sagas are full of them..."

Not really though there are a couple, and it depends what you mean by "screwed up". The norse had a fascinating concept of the "eingangr madr" (i'm sure thats spelt wrong), literally the "man who walks alone". These were people who were just inherently unlucky: They may be great warriors, good company, good looking etc but bad things just kept happening to them, and whatever they tried tended to go wrong, for no perceivable fault of their own but just through bad luck. For that reason it was better not to hang about with them. I think either Gisli the Outlaw or Grettr the Strong are examples of this sort of individual from the sagas.
Then again, by modern standards, Egil Skallagrimmson, Iceland's greatest early medieval poet, was pretty "screwed up". At one point in his saga he pushes a guy who tried to poison him up against a wall and vomits in his face. Now *thats* a poet for you :-)

Dawn wrote: " by Giles Kristiankeeps coming up in my recommendations but I haven't managed to read it yet.

Terri and I are looking forward to so much we plan on buyin..."

I've read the first three books in this series and they are great. slightly darker than Robert Low's viking books and possibly a little more real for it, but still escapist fun.

Tim wrote: "R.J. wrote: "Yep, he knew he was screwing up, but cld not help it. He was sort of trapped in his own personality and had to go along with himself. Maybe there is some viking archetype of the screwe..."

I know that "eingangr madr" feeling, having always walked alone. Not that I am not sociable, mind. But there is a vital disconnect somewhere. This does not matter for the most part, but when it comes to trying to flog a story it is a drawback. Perhaps part of Einar's appeal is that he actually does something and others follow him. OK it ends in doom but doom is arguably preferable to perpetual ig-nor-ance. But then the lone walker makes perpetual ig-nor-ance his destination by definition. Ach, Einar, Einar! O to have a little Einar in us. Even his hair marks him out from the dull, damn it! Perhaps we love failed heros because they seem more like us in their failure.

I've jumped! And pre ordered me some Crowbone!!

Due out Sep 12, so I figured now was as a good time to pre order and benefit from the cheaper pre order price as any. even though the Hardcover was only a couple dollars more, I could only afford the paperback on my budget. :(

I'm as happy as a fat spider though. :)


Crowbone

Not to be left behind I have ordered it too. So I just have to finish The Prow Beast before September 12. :)

Awesome. Buddy read on schedule.

Yep!

Dangit! I'm only seeing it available on Kindle, starting on 9/13. Nothing on Barnes & Noble. I don't think it's being released in print in the US (not in 2012 at least)! I do see it, though, on Amazon.co.uk, and on Amazon.ca. What can I do?!?!

I got mine from The Book Depository so I didn't have to wait for the North American release date. On pre-order it cost about $15 Cdn. It was the same price on both the UK and US site.

Justin,
The Book Depository is the way around US release dates. I know a few Americans who get books that way. They are free shipping anywhere in the world too. Which I love.

All his other books are excellent. I hope I can get to like Crowbone of Norway. He used to piss me off in the other books, but he was good at what he recited.


Terri wrote: "I've jumped! And pre ordered me some Crowbone!!

Due out Sep 12, so I figured now was as a good time to pre order and benefit from the cheaper pre order price as any. even though the Hardcover was ..."

One thing I've come to appreciate with Low is how good he is at developing a character over time. Crowbone, being so young and eccentric, has a tremendous trajectory ahead of him. I'm looking forward to it.

I hated Crowbone's stories in the series. I used to groan everytime he told one and barely pay attention as I speed read through them. They were the only thing I didn't like about Low's series. I hope this new one isn't full of them, but I imagine since it is who Crowbone is, that they'll be there. I'm not one for people telling stories within stories.

I've just been browsing reviews of The Whale Road. Oh, that was yours, R.J.? Great review, and you quote a number of the similes that stood out for me. - Those similes had a lot to do with with why I took to the book.
It's funny, most reviews say 'picks up/pulls together after 50 pages' and I had the opposite. I loved the first fifty - not just for the similes, but for the confusion of narration, which only intrigued me, as if my wits had to work. The similes are less frequent later, aren't they? I miss them.
I'm less than half in. It dropped off for me, but is on the up again.

@Bryn. That's an interesting way to put it, to enjoy the confusion of the narrative. I'd say that's what brought me in to the novel as well. I felt that the confusion was intentional, that in doing so he was trusting the reader, and I always appreciate that in a writer.