Dreaming the Bull by Manda Scott

Among the tribes, none would believe that their most hated enemy, the bloodthirsty cavalry commander astride a pied war-horse - could be one of their own....or that he might hold their fate in his hands. But as the fires of the war between the tribes and the occupying armies of Rome rage on, dozens of lives will be drawn in to the conflict....Caradoc, the Eceni warrior who will come face-to-face with the emperor himself...Cunomar, son of a warrior queen, who will learn about war - and sacrifice - at his parents' side...Agrippina, the mesmerizing empress whose guile equals that of her husband...Claudius, the omnipotent yet terrified ruler mired in a war he must win at all costs. And then there is Valerius. Caught between worlds, he has the hardest task of all - coming to terms with this heritage and on a perilous journey back to a fateful confrontation with the most feared woman in Brittania...Boudica.

A novel that travels from the wilderness of the British Isles to the teeming streets of ancient Rome, from the remote barracks of frontier legions to the shores of Gaul, Dreaming the Bull is a historical sage of extraordinary power, rich with passion and courage and heroism pitched against overwhelming odds. Written with uncompromising mastery, this is fiction that captures the heart, challenges the mind, and offers us and utterly enthralling experience of history in the flesh and blood of its making.

This is the second book in the Boudica series by Manda Scott, following on from Dreaming the Eagle. In some ways it seems a bit strange that this series of four books is called the Boudica series, because the focus of this book really did seem to be Julius Valerius and Caradoc, with Boudica being more of a cameo player, but then again I suspect that a book labelled as being about Boudica will bring a ready made audience!

This book opens a number of years after the end of Dreaming the Bull. The Romans are still in Britain, and Boudica and her warrior husband Caradoc still maintain their almost guerilla like warfare against the Romans. Whilst the warriors are generally confident there is one Roman soldier they fear - Julius Valerius - a man who seems to be something more than a man, a man who seems to be without fears of his own. What they can't know, is that Julius Valerius is struggling to come to terms with his own identity, both his current one, and the one from his past that he has carefully locked away. As with many secrets from the past, they are not as locked away as they need to be, and as Julius continues with his warfare the ghosts begin to visit him, and to bring back memories of his true identity.

When Caradoc and some of his family are captured and taken to Rome, the narrative leaves Scotland and Boudica behind, and instead we are taken to the world of Imperial Rome. Caradoc and his people must firstly survive the punishment that the Emperor wants to give them for being the biggest problem that he had in the whole empire, and then survive living in the built up world of Rome where they are free to live in the city, but if they make any attempt to leave they will be killed. It is only after several years, and with the help of an old enemy that there may be any hope at all of getting home, but that will be an exhilarating adventure in and of itself.

Whilst this is not the kind of book that you are instantly drawn into and captivated by, to the point of exclusion of all else, ultimately it is a rewarding read, and the ending is definitely interesting enough to make you want to read the next book in the series sooner rather than later!

Rating 4/5

The books in this series in order are:

Dreaming the Eagle
Dreaming the Bull
Dreaming the Hound
Dreaming the Serpent Spear

Mists of Avalon Mini-Series

Sometimes you love a book so much you could read it all the time, but life gets in the way and you are looking for a quicker way to get through the pages. For Mists of Avalon, I suggest the TNT mini-series. Starring Angelica Huston, Julianna Margulies, Joan Allen, Samantha Mathis, Edward Atterton, and Michael Vartan, this is a very good representation of Marion Zimmer Bradley's novel. From the back of the case:

Long live the new king. But who will it be? The answer will come through the mystical and powerful manipulations of fate emanating from Avalon.

The Mists of Avalon, from Marion Zimmer Bradley's bestseller, retells the Arthurian legend from the perspective of the women who shaped events with spiritual powers. Anjelica Huston plays high priestess Viviane, the Lady of the Lake determined to perpetuate the ways of Avalon. Julianna Margulies is Morgaine, her chosen successor. Joan Allen portrays Morgause, fiercely driven to shape the royal lineage to her own end. Out of the lives of these three and others - and out of the mists - will come a nation's destiny.

I really do not think a movie would have done this book justice, but a mini-series did a fantastic job. Some things are not there, others are changed or taken out, but overall this is a very enjoyable look at the women of Bradley's fantastic fantasy novel. I have never been sure if Julianna Margulies was the best choice for Morgaine, that is my only problem with this mini-series. She is not bad, but she is far from my first choice. Anjelica Huston is wonderful! Michael Vartan plays Lancelot. The actors that played Arthur and Gwenwyfar are Edward Atterton and Samantha Mathis. Caroline Goodall plays Morgaine's mother, Igraine. We also see Freddie Highmore as young Arthur.

A very good adaption, I recommend it.

Lucrezia Borgia - John Faunce

I'm always very interested in books about the Borgias and I couldn't resist to pick this one up. The book is written in the first person by Lucrezia telling about the adventures her family gets involved in and the circumstances of her life.

She comes across more like a pawn in her father and brother's hands than like the bad person some historians have led us to believe. A lot of the book is dedicated to her three marriages which were negotiated to make political alliances and give more power to the Borgia family. None of what is told is really new and although I wasn't expecting new I think I needed a bit more depth. Maybe more contextualization and less of Lucrezia's marriages.

Besides that, I had a big problem with this book, the tone is very modern. It didn't feel like we were in the Renaissance at all. While it may be of interest to readers new to the Borgia's story or interested in that particular theme I think it will be a bit of a disappointed if you're looking for a nice story with a true feel of the period.

Spotlight On: Amin Maalouf

Amin Maalouf is a lebanese author although he has lived in France for the last 30 years and writes in french. He writes some very interesting stories among which are several historical romances like Samarkand, The Crusades Through Arabs Eyes or Leo Africanus...

He uses historical settings as the background to his character's story, some are new perspectives of known events - The Crusades... - while others are an account of someone's life - Leo Africanus - either way all his characters are preocupied with sociological and philosophical problems oft dealing with the time's political intrigues.

In Samarkand he mentions the events behing Omar Khayyam's Rubbayat, in The Crusades Through Arabs Eyes he depicts the crusades based on arab accounts of the period, in Leo Africanus he tells the life of Leo who wrote a description of Africa's geography...


He has also written a futuristic tale called The First Century After Beatrice in which he deals with several problems affecting the world today. He has written more books, all with historical settings and some of which mixing fantasy with real events. I hope to read them soon!

Here's the list of his books:

LES CROISADES VUES PAR LES ARABES, 1983 - The Crusades Through Arab Eyes
LÉON L’AFRICAIN, 1986 - Leo the African (trans. by Peter Sluglett)
SAMARCANDE, 1988 - Samarkand (trans. by Russell Harris)
LES JARDINS DE LUMIÈRE, 1991 - The Gardens of Light (trans. by Dorothy S. Blair)
LE PREMIER SIÈCLE APRÈS BÉATRICE, 1992 - The First Century After Beatrice (trans. by Dorothy S. Blair)
LE ROCHER DE TANIOS, 1993 - The Rock of Tanios (trans. by Dorothy S. Blair)
LES ECHELLES DU LEVANT, 1996 - Ports of Call (trans. by Alberto Manguel)
LES IDENTITÉS MEURTRIÈRES, 1998 - In the Name of Identity (trans. by Barbara Bray)
L'AMOUR DE LOIN, 2000 (opera libretto)
LE PÉRIPLE DE BALDASSARE, 2000 - Balthasar's Odyssey (trans. by Barbara Bray)
ADRIANA MATER, 2004 (opera libretto)

Cover Story: The Blood of Flowers

This is definitely a case of a debut author writing a book that really catches the attention, especially when the cover gods have been smiling on her! So I thought I would see what covers I could find from other countries.

Here is the US cover:



and this is the UK version:



and from Germany:



and The Netherlands:



Do you remember watching Sesame Street and the game they played which had a song that went "One of these things is not like the other ones, one of these things just doesn't belong"? Well....that's what I thought when I looked at the four covers! I mean, three of them are beautiful, and the fourth is just, well, not! I'll leave you to decide which ones are which! LOL!

Dreaming the Eagle by Manda Scott

I am about to write up my review for the second book in this series, so I thought I would repost this review which was originally put up on my blog earlier this year!

With a novelist's grace and a historian's power, critically acclaimed author Manda Scott brings her immense storytelling gifts to an epic work of historical fiction. Dreaming the Eagle breathes life into history, creating a vibrant portrait of the early years of the Celtic queen, Boudica. With haunting images and unforgettable characters, Scott draws us into a completely different world...a world of myth and heroism, beauty and brutality...where a young woman journeys to greatness at the crossroads of history...

She is Breaca nic Graine, born to the Eceni, a tribe of dreamers and hunters, storytellers and artisans. While fierce in battle, they are a peaceful people, men and women of pride and mystery, in whose lives the real and the fantastical exist side by side. But theirs is not a peaceful world; it is a world of bloody conflict, where neighboring tribes war among themselves while a greater enemy gathers strength across the ocean.. Against this seething backdrop, Breaca will come of age and prove her brilliance in battle, catapulting her to the forefront of her tribesmen, who will rename the copper-haired warrior: Boudica:"She Who Brings Victory."

Many will share in Breaca's extraordinary destiny... Eburovic, the beloved father who always knew that his impetuous firstborn was destined for greatness... Caradoc, the legendary warrior whose love for Breaca is rivaled only by his hatred of Rome... Corvus, the Roman soldier who will become a powerful - and unlikely - ally. Soon as violence and treachery threaten a fragile peace, as an emperor named Caligula rises to power in a distant land, Breaca will once again be called to battle. And this time, the future of a people will rest in her hands as she faces a near-impossible task: to rally the splintered Celtic tribes against the encroaching might of Rome.

Filled with breathtaking sights and sounds - from the beauty of an ancient tribal ritual to the blood lust of a gladiator's arena, from the deafening roar of battle to the quiet passion of lovers - and brimming with raw adventure and vivid historical detail, this magnificent novel has it all: mystery, passion, hatred, lust, war, romance, miracles. It is a work of masterful storytelling by one of the most exciting and original new voices in historical fiction.

Wow...that is an extensive inside cover flap copy, and to be honest I am not going to regurgitate any of the story because this covers it mostly adequately.

The book is broken into four parts. I found the first part quite slow going, where the author was setting up all the meaning of the dreaming, the way that the tribes interacted with each other, and with their animals, and the basis of the warrior training that Breaca received. Once the story moved into the 2nd part and beyond, the story picked up pace and it was easier to get sucked into the story.

There are a couple of things that I think that were misleading in the blurb above. The first is from the final paragraph, where it talks about the "quiet passion of lovers". If you go into this book expecting to read a balance between the history, and the romantic attachments of the main characters then you will be disappointed. The romantic outcome is telegraphed from very early in the book. By the time I was getting towards the end of the book I was actually expecting that this part of the story would be carried into the next book, instead of the inevitable happening in this book.

It is also interesting that there is no direct mention of Breaca's brother Ban in the blurb either, because in many ways his story is the counter balance to Breaca's own. He is a major character, and there were significant chunks of the narrative where the focus was on Ban, and not on Breaca.

There were many, many characters, and at times I really had to struggle to keep track of some of them, and to be honest I think the author did too. There was one fairly major protagonist who was dealt with, but there was absolutely no reaction whatsoever from any of the other characters, which given his role in things was very, very surprising at least to me.

This is no light and fluffy account of what have may have happened - it is in turns gruesome and harsh, mystical and reverent and very believable.

For me there is an inevitable comparison to be made to the Jules Watson books I have read, The White Mare and The Dawn Stag. The settings are not identical but I would think it is fair to say that the tone and intentions of the books are very similar, even though there are several distinctions between them. I think that Jules Watson's books are better able to sustain an emotional involvement on the part of the reader, but there is less reliance of the fantasy elements in this book. It is not that the fantastical, mythical parts of the story aren't there, but I do think there is less reliance on them to move the plot forward.

The hook at the end of the story for the next book is definitely well and truly there, and I for one have been caught on it! The next book has already been picked up from the library!


The books in this series in order are:

Dreaming the Eagle
Dreaming the Bull
Dreaming the Hound
Dreaming the Serpent Spear

The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani

Once there was a girl who could make glorious carpets from wool tinted with the essence of orange safflowers and pomegranates

In Persia, in the seventeenth century, a young woman is forced to leave behind the life she knows and move to a new city. Her father's unexpected death has upended everything - her expectation of marriage, her plans for the future - and cast her and her mother upon the mercy of relatives in the fabled city of Isfahan.

Her uncle is a wealthy designer of carpets for the Shah's court, and the young woman is instantly drawn to his workshop. She takes in everything - the dyes, the yarns, the meanings of the thousand ancient patters - and quickly begins designing carpets herself. This is men's work, but her uncle recognizes both her passion and her talent and allows her secretly to cross that line.

But then a single disastrous, headstrong act threatens her very existence and casts her and her mother into an even more desperate situation. She is forced into an untenable form of marriage, a marriage contract renewable monthly, for a fee, to a wealthy businessman. Caught between forces she can barely comprehend, she knows only that she must act on her own, risking everything, or face a life lived at the whim of others.

The world of medieval Persia comes alive in this luminous novel, from its dazzling architecture to its bustling markets with their baskets of spices and breathtaking turquoise-and-gold rugs. With spellbinding Persian tales and prose as radiant as the city of Isfahan, The Blood of Flowers is the remarkable adventure of one woman choosing a life - against all odds - on the strength of her own hands, mind and will.

Marg says:

Sometimes it is a real breath of fresh air to read about an unusual time and place, especially when the story is also well written and interesting! The setting for this book in 17th century Persia, during the time of Shah Abbas, and features a young girl who is trying to make her way into the male dominated world of carpet making.

The author was very skilled at weaving together both the story of the girl, but also details about the techniques used in the designing of carpets, in the selection of the colours to make the carpets, and the precision required by the carpet knotters. There are also several old Persian tales that have been interwoven into the narrative, used to illustrate and to guide our young heroine.

When one of the town elders brings back the almanac for the year, the small country town is interested to see what is destined for their lives - for marriages, births, the harvest etc. For one young girl in particular she is interested to hear what is going to come as she is now of a marriageable age. This year is an unusual one though. There has been a comet in the night sky, and everyone knows that that means bad luck. For the small but happy family, that ominous sign comes to eventuality when her father dies, leaving her and her mother to fend for themselves. After running out of resources, including those that were meant to be her dowry, the two head to the big city to request assistance from the brother of the husband and father.

Once in the city, the pair become basically house servants, but the young girl gets to visit the great carpet market making workshop owned by the Shah, which is run by her uncle, and gradually her uncle begins to teach her many of the secrets of the process, including design, colour selection and knotting with the most luxurious of threads.

After being caught acting rashly more than once, the young girl is contracted with a sigheh - a renewable marriage contract, that everyone involved in has agreed to keep this secret. The end result of this is given that there is now no dowry left, the girl is being forced to give away the only thing she has left of any value - her virginity. It takes a long time for our heroine to get used to the ways of her husband and to learn the secret of wifely enjoyment, and there are several times throughout the story that her mother is worried that the sigheh will not be renewed, which means that the contracted price won't be paid. It is quite an interesting contrast. By day the girl is a servant, subject to her aunt's somewhat nasty treatment, using every spare minute she has to learn to make carpets. By night, she is a wife, albeit subject to her husband's whims.

Life then offers a choice - to continue as things are, or to take a chance at having a different and more independent life. There are many lessons to be learned, and many of them are painful. There are times when things get much worse before they get better, but our girl's spirit is strong, and she is willing to learn the lessons that life is teaching her!

This book took 9 years to write, and you can tell that for the author this was a labour of love! It took me a couple of days to read it, and it was a joy to read! Filled with the colour and allure of different cultures and times, this is a really good read. I definitely hope to read more by this author!

Rating 4.5/5


Kailana Says:

Reason for Reading: Michelle Moran, author of Nefertiti, recommended it, saying that it was her favourite historical fiction novel and I am always looking for a good recommendation.

I read a fair amount of historical fiction, and I have to say, this is one of the more original historical fiction novels I have ever read. Most of the historical fiction that I have read takes place in Canada, the United States, Egypt, or the United Kingdom. This is the first time I have read a historical fiction novel, that I remember, set in 17th-century Persia.

During the 17th-century in this region, it was a male-dominated society. It is still this way in many Middle Eastern countries. In this novel, a young girl watches a comet shoots across the sky, and when it has passed life begins to change for her very drastically. She should have been finding her husband and moving on with her life, but her father dies unexpectedly and suddenly her and her mother have nothing. She has no dowry to find a husband, and they have no one to farm for them, so they are just barely getting by. A kind man comes to the village and asks them if there is anything he can do for them, and the mother implores him to track down her deceased husbands half-brother in the hopes that he will take them in and help them get back on their feet.

When they move from their village to the rather large Isfahan, life changes drastically for her and her mother. Suddenly they are not in control of their own household, and have to take orders from the wife of their father's brother. She is not very sympathetic, and looks upon them as new slaves for her household. She does not really know anything about domestic work, but she does have ideas about how it should be done. They live in riches, but she is always afraid that there will not be enough, so she is always looking for opportunities to gather more wealth for her husband.

Her niece opens up what she hopes will be a great business venture when a wealthy man asks to marry her. It is not a regular wedding, though, the marriage would only last for three months, and then he can request more time with her every three months after that. It could turn into a regular marriage, but in the process she will lose her virginity and this can jeopardize future relationships. It is a chance that her mother is willing to take because it will give her money. Her aunt wants it to happen because it could meet more business for her rug-making husband.

This book is about a girl in a very strict culture wishing for something more. She wants to be a rug-maker like her uncle, but that is not an opportunity that is allowed to women. Her uncle helps her, though, teaching her the tricks of his trade and allowing her to help him. When things get complicated with her marriage arrangement, she must decide on a safe course of action or one where her safety net could disappear. She has to decide whether her own future is more important than the safety the marriage is currently providing her with. This is a book about a girl that dares to break the rules of her society to better herself and live out her dreams.

Parting Thoughts: I loved this book! It was by far one of my favourite reads this year, as I stated in my Thursday Thirteen of favourite reads so far this year. It is a different sort of read for me, and a very worthwhile one at that. Especially considering it is her first novel, I think she did a wonderful job. I look forward to reading more from her and I strongly recommend this book.