We wanted to share with you the latest review of the book. There is nothing more nerve wracking that waiting for those first reviews to appear. And yet, as independent authors, honest reviews are so important for readers to learn more about a book; or even the authors.
Enclosed is a review from Noelle Granger, who writes as N.A. Granger, Author of Death in a Red Canvas Sail and Death in a Dacron Sail (soon to be released).
I chose to review this book because I am largely ignorant of the history of the Dark Ages, except for some marginal knowledge of Charlemagne, King Charles the Great. However, I am acquainted with The Song of Roland (La Chanson de Roland), an epic poem based on the Battle of Roncevaux Pass in 778, during Charlemagne’s reign. It is the oldest surviving major work of French literature. This book is an homage to that epic.
The Dark Ages was a time of great turmoil and the collision of empires. As the young Frank kingdom, led by King Charles, prepares to defend itself against the Saxons in the east, Roland, heir to the Breton March, has been relegated to guard duty. Everything changes when a foreign emissary entrusts him to bring Charles vital word of a new threat to the kingdom from a Muslim invasion from the south. Roland joins the king’s retinue and discovers there are traitors plotting regicide within the peerage and knights. Roland is well-acquainted with one of them – his step-father, whom he suspects of killing his father on the battlefield to assume his lands and take Roland’s mother as his wife.
The story is written from an omniscient point of view, which sometimes breaks the train of the main story, but is necessary to understand the many obstacles faced by Charles as he works to hold his kingdom together. Nevertheless, the focus is on Roland’s development into a great warrior and the right hand of Charles, along his deepening love for the sister of his good friend and the plots of his step-father and others who desire to seize the throne. It revisits an age of court intrigue, chivalry and valor, the clash of arms, and a final, fateful decision made before the Battle of Roncevaux.
I enjoyed this book. It is filled with superb medieval historic detail as it pulls together various threads in the life of King Charles and Roland. I particularly liked the visitations of Roland’s father William in ghostly form, to advise Roland and counsel him. While Charles remains a less formed character, Roland’s progression from an impetuous youth seeking revenge to a canny and powerful warrior is well limned. Most of the other main characters – the stepfather Ganelon and his equally treacherous son Gothard; Saleem, the son of Marsilion, the Muslim king; Oliver, Roland’s good friend; Aude, Oliver’s sister and Roland’s love – are also three-dimensional and unforgettable. There are many minor characters, related to various aspects of the story, who require vigilance on the part of the reader to keep in mind, but they added to the richness of world the authors have created.
For the rest of the review, please find Noelle’s blog at…
Map of the World
