Historical Fiction book reviews

2018-03-03 Another great book in his Vespasian series, with some real shocks as it builds up towards a dramatic climax – to be concluded in the next book! If you haven’t yet read Robert Fabbri, his Vespasian novels do an amazing job of connecting much of the history of the early Roman Empire into a single, clear, and entertaining narrative. If that sounds like it... Continue reading

2017-02-27 The 3rd book in Conn Iggulden’s Conqueror series about Genghis Khan, and a fantastic novel. Partly because Genghis is more of a character in his own books again; partly because the tensions we’ve seen built up in the previous two books reach some conclusion; and partly because the Mongols spread east into the lands of Islam, which is an area I’ve long held an... Continue reading

2017-01-29 At times I was disappointed with this book. After Iggulden spent so much time in the last one building up the character of young Genghis Kahn – and making him sympathetic – there was surprisingly little personal development here. We had a couple of scenes with him and his sons, but little more. I also struggled to understand why we followed Temuge for so... Continue reading

2017-01-29 The greatest achievement of this book is that is makes the young Ghengis Khan a very sympathetic character. Drawing on historical notes, Iggulden does a great job not only of building the character up and making us care, but also fills it will those wonderful little background details that make a work of historical fiction stand out. Apparently, the author spent some time living... Continue reading