Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #91683 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 704 pages

Review

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Customer Reviews

Print it again!
This is an amazing novel. It is not, as the cover claims, so much about Boudicca -- though certainly plays her part in blazing fire and glory -- as it is another historical Bristish chieftan named Caradoc, who united many of the Celtic tribes of England against Rome and fought determinedly until his eventual defeat in A.D. 50. (For those of you who do not know the story -- it's not a common one -- I won't reveal the rest.) It is also about some of the (also historical) Romans who encountered the power of Britannia, though the ultimate sympathy (wrong word, but close) lies with the British tribes. Ms. Gedge sticks to history as far as she can in her writing, and fleshes it out with incredible skill. The book is 827 pages long and I devoured it.

One of the things that makes this book so good is its chosen subject -- obscure figures who have become the stuff of legend; a mysterious and ancient fight for freedom that yet finds a home in our modern souls. Another is its realism -- brutal violence and desperate betrayal alongside deepest love
and noble ideals held, compromised, lifted up. This story does not shrink from death and wrenching sorrow, nor does it invent a hundred miraculous escapes, nor become so caught up in mysticism that it leaves no room for the ordinary man and woman. It is a tale of real people, intermingling and forging lives in less than ideal circumstances, yet time and again forced onto two opposing sides of an issue that has many more facets than two. It is a terribly sad story, but also a triumphant one, and one to stir your blood as others cannot. It deserves many more than five stars. Print it again!

Gedge steps out of Egypt
Wow! I have always loved Pauline Gedge's novels set in Ancient Egypt. Her attention to detail, historical fact and ability to imagine a civilaztion in the fullest sense of the term based on the knowledge we have available through the work of Egyptologists continues to impress me. In the Eagle and the Raven, Gedge brings her remarkable abilities to another place and time in histroy and is quite successful. I really encourage a reader who wants to see and feel living history to pick up this book. You won't be sorry, I promise.

Hack work that gives the genre a bad name
I awaited this book with high hopes, having read the many positive reviews and being both a historical fiction fan and an avid student of ancient history and archaeology. What a disappointment! It's hard for me to believe that I am reading the same book so praised by many other reviewers. Maybe it's just a matter of expectations.

If you are even half serious about looking for quality writing (skillful use of language, depth of characters, engaging plot, etc.) and/or historical authenticity, or at least plausibility, pass this drivel by. A much better choice that deals with the same historical background would be the four Boudica novels by Manda Scott. On the other hand, if you just want something, anything to read, maybe this is a good choice.

Gedge has written several books that seem to be well-reviewed on Amazon at least, so it was a real shock when I started reading what most closely resembles bad romantic fiction. Gedge clearly made little effort to become acquainted with the historical material on which the novel is based. Her treatment of setting is at best superficial and more often completely generic--the story could take place anywhere and at any time; not what one looks for in overtly "historical" fiction.

The characters are invariably crude one-dimensional parodies of themselves, and although the story spans several decades, there is no discernible development or complexity explored. The charactrers at age 14 act and think like they do at 30. They all end up in what are supposed to be amazingly committed and passionate relationships, but we are given no real basis for believing this; that is to say, Gedge writes that it is so, she does not write anything to show how or why it is so.

In fact, Gedge's writing strikes me as not just historically sloppy, but fatally undermined by her penchant for cliches, her unstinting heavy-handedness, and especially her insistence on telling us what is happening rather than showing us what is happening and letting us, her readers, draw our own conclusions. It reads more like the very ambitious project of an untalented high school student than the mature work of a seasoned novelist. It is utterly unconvincing.