Tuesday...

I meant to put the book review I did for Sharon Penman's new book Lionheart up on the blog, though I did link to it on LibraryThing. Anyway, as the book release date is coming up soon (4 October according to Amazon), I thought I'd post it here as well. So here goes...
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Lionheart by Sharon Kay Penman.

Covering the period July 1189 through September 1192, this is very much Part I of a two volume book. To say that it traces Richard Lionheart's involvement in the Third Crusade and his marriage to Berengaria of Navarre is too simple a description of a narrative which starts with a three page list of principal characters and stretches in its field of action from northern England to the Holy Land; to say that it includes a cast of thousands is no exaggeration. Penman paints a vast and minutely detailed picture; indeed the depth of detail (and the extensive and impressive research behind it) is both a strength and a weakness of this book.

The first eighty pages sometimes seem to drag as Penman jumps from location to location, viewpoint to viewpoint, in the process of introducing all her principals and providing the necessary thumbnail sketches of their backgrounds. At last, however, the various parties (fated to converge in Sicily) get on the road, and the pace picks up slightly. By the time we reach Cyprus the action is fairly brisk. The rest of the book, located in the Holy Land, mostly holds this pace, although there are some slow sections now and again which deal mainly with the labyrinthine politics of the Crusade, often seeming to take the principals in slow ponderous circles at an enormous cost in blood, treasure, and general suffering.

The conclusion of the book sees Richard's departure from the Holy Land, sailing back to Western Europe to try and salvage his battered empire. History (and Penman's afterword) tells us the fate of most of the principals, but it's partly the future of two minor but appealing invented characters which will lure me back to read the next volume. Overall, an impressive achievement, highly recommended for Penman's fans and those interested in the Angevins and the Third Crusade. Four stars out of five.

This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

-G R Grove
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And that's it for today.

Friday...

As I noted on my LibraryThing thread a couple of days ago, something strange is currently happening with my writing: I now seem to be working on two books simultaneously! The first one, of course, is The Druid's Son, which will form the fourth book of the Storyteller Series. But the other one... well, it's a sort of prequel, not narrated by Gwernin, which forms the background to the main book. The working title for now is Son of the Fox. If this is confusing - well, I'm a bit confused myself at the moment!

On other fronts, the weather has finally settled into a seasonal normal range for Denver - much nicer than the last part of August! A couple of pictures: first, autumn-blooming clematis...



...and second, the rowan berries are getting ripe:



Back to work now...

-GRG

Monday...

Oops, forgot Friday again... I was preoccupied with canning tomatoes, among other things. At this point almost all our vegetables come from my garden, and I have excess to can or give away. Won't last much longer, though - first frost here is usually mid-September.

The beans have recovered from last week's mishap. The only question is whether the post extension at the west end of the fence will survive for another month:



The story I was working on last week is more or less set, and I've been practicing telling it. Getting close...

I spent a good bit of the weekend reading Sharon Penman's newest book, Lionheart. Since I was lucky enough to win an advanced review copy (it comes out in October) from LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program (at 50:1 odds!) I thought the least I could do was read and review it asap. I've finished the reading (which took a while - 594 pages and not a quick read), so should be reviewing it soon; I'll post it here when I do. Normally I don't read new historical fiction (new to me, that is) while working on one of my own books, but both her style and period are so different from mine that I'm not worried about cross-contamination.

That's it for today.

-GRG

Monday...

A hot weekend, and no break so far, but at least when it's hot in Colorado it's also dry - plus it usually cools off nicely at night. I got up early today to get part of the lawn mowed before the day warmed up - front yard's done, anyway. Might be able to finish it tonight.

I've been posting a bit about my research for The Druid's Son on my LibraryThing thread, and I'm also doing a giveaway of a copy of Storyteller there.

Another garden picture from last week's series - too hot to go out and take more right now:



-GRG

Friday...

Yesterday I was playing with books and my camera. LibraryThing is running a competition for shots of book piles in different languages, and I did a Welsh one:



Today I've been writing... a little more progress at last. And tomorrow is CWS St. Dwynwyn's celebration - more about that later.

-GRG

LibraryThing Giveaway

I've started another e-book giveaway on LibraryThing, this time for the new Smashbooks version of Flight of the Hawk. You can see the giveaway here.

Also, a link to a little more information on the fascinating limestone terrain of the Burren, where yesterday's and today's pictures of Poulnabrone portal tomb were taken.



-GRG

still here...

Various mundane matters have been holding my attention lately (can we say "plumbers"...?), but I have a chat thread going on LibraryThing which might interest people.

Lots of gardening work, too...

-GRG