Hello everyone. Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. In this post, I will be doing a wrap up of all the books I read in August. These reviews have spoilers:
1. The Pagan Lord by Bernard Cornwell
This is the seventh installment of The Saxon Stories and Uhtred has been living in relative peace for at least 8 years in Fagranforda. He is still Aethelflaed’s man and is in charge of keeping Edward’s ‘bastard’ son, Aethelstan, alive. Uthred’s children also start taking a more prominent role both in his life and in the political intrigues between the kingdoms of Britain. In this book, Uhtred, once again out of favor with the Church, travels north to capture Bebbanburg, fails miserably, and returns to Mercia only to realize that the Vikings, led by Cnut ‘Longsword’ Ranulfson, are once again ready to wage war against Wessex and conquer Edward’s kingdom.
I Really Liked this book and enjoyed that for once we see Uhtred on the losing side in trying to capture Bebbanburg; he is older now, over fifty, and he is getting too old to stand in the shield wall. So we also see how Uhtred fights his battles with words and cunning as well as his sword and saxe. I particularly liked this and was not expecting that the book would end up with Uhtred fatally wounded after battle.
2. The Empty Throne by Bernard Cornwell
This eighth installment of The Saxon Series is the first book where Uhtred spends most of it heavily injured and unable to fight. He is no longer the young man he once was; rash, abrasive, quick to anger, and impulsive. And I admit that I enjoyed this older version of Uhtred. I also liked that he is trying to be a better father, even though he doesn’t know his children all that much (particularly Father Judas and Stiorra) and that we were also able to see Uhtred from his children’s point of view. More specifically, from Young Uhtred’s (once called Osbert) point of view in the prologue.
This book focuses primarily on Mercia politics, and in Uhtred’s role in cementing Aethelflaed’s power as Lady of Mercia after Aethelred’s death. Aethelstan’s importance in the history of Britain is also hinted at in this book, and I really liked Uhtred’s relationship with the young prince. Another character that grew on me was Eadith. Despite everything, she is not a bad person, and I am happy that she and Uhtred find solace in one another (because I doubt that Uhtred will ever love another woman as he loved Gisela). I gave this book an I Really Liked It Rating.
3. Alcestis by Katharine Beutner
This book is a retelling of the myth of Alcestis, the paragon of a dutiful wife in Greek Mythology, who goes to the underworld to save her husband’s life. I really enjoyed this book even though it might seem that the description of the type of lives women in Ancient Greece used to lead is a little boring at times or that the book is slow and it takes forever for something to happen. But the thing is, this is what a dutiful wife is expected to be. However, Alcestis is anything but ordinary and once in the underworld she falls in love with Persephone. And Alcestis’s journey through Hades, her relationship with Persephone and the emotional turmoil she experiences throughout it is the best thing about this book. I gave this book A New Favorite rating.
4. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
This book is the memoir of a neurosurgeon resident who was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer during the last year of his residency. Given that this is the recount of someone’s life, I am not going to rate it as I do other books, but I will say that this is a book that makes us look at death straight in the eye and realize just how strong cancer patients can become (or are forced to become) in order to face and find the courage to fight this devastating disease (in all of its forms). Personally, I knew from the beginning that Paul Kalanithi did not survive his battle with cancer, but I found that the manner in which he chose to die was very courageous and admirable. I also think that the epilogue, where Lucy Kalanithi tells her husband’s readers about Paul and his story now that he has died, made me realize as well that it is also hard to be the one that is left behind. That you need an entirely different sort of courage for that, and that too is admirable. I recommend this book to anyone interested in reading it.
5. The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
This book is a retelling of The Iliad, and it focuses on the events told in Homer’s epic poem from the point of view of one of the slaves in the Greek camp, outside the walls of Troy. This slave is Briseis, the former Queen of Lyrnessus and now slave of Achilles. The intent is to tell the story of the last days of the Trojan War from the perspective of the women whose lives were also affected by Achilles’s wrath during his confrontation with Agamemnon. Given that this is a retelling of The Iliad it makes sense that Briseis is the main character, but from the description of the book one would have thought that, as a reader, we would have been privy to the thoughts of more than just one woman and many thought that the book did not deliver on this end. Personally, I liked Briseis as a character, but I think that the book and its readers would have been served better with a different synopsis. I gave this book an I Really Liked It rating.
6. Malice by John Gwynne
This book has become very popular with fantasy readers lately, so I decided to give it a try. Reminiscent to Game of Thrones in that we follow the perspective of several characters, Corban, Veradis, Kastell, Evnis, Cywen, and Camlin, that is as far as the similarities go, however. Heavily influenced by Celtic lore and tradition, this book was a rather surprising read for me. I am no stranger to books of this kind, the multi-point-of-view kind, but I admit that it took me a bit to get invested in the characters and ultimately the story/plot. Specifically, the background between humans and giants was a little confusing for me in the beginning. In addition, I wasn’t a big fan of the narrator of the audiobook version (this happened to me a lot this month, I am noticing.). However, once I was past that, the rest of the book was a quick read for me, and I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I was going to in the beginning. My theory is that Corban is The Bright Star whilst Nathair is The Black Sun. Frankly, I didn’t particularly like him a whole lot at the end of the book, and I do believe now that he killed his own father.
This is the first fantasy book I read concerning giants, and I very pleased with how much I am liking that. I will continue on with the series promptly. I gave this book an I Really Liked It Rating.
That is everything I read this month. Thank you for reading.
