Craig Moyer itibaren Maiella Monti VR, Italy

craigmoyer

11/21/2024

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Craig Moyer Kitabın yeniden yazılması (10)

2018-04-27 19:41

Pop Gitar Metodu - Snf-014 TrendKitaplar Kütüphanesi

Tarafından yazılmış kitap Tarafından: İmecemuzik

Where to begin in reviewing such a classic of historical fiction? I’ve read Mary Renault before – The King Must Die and The Bull From the Sea; engrossing tales based on the legend of the Greek hero Theseus but grounded in a more historical, plausible world by Renault – but this was my first time reading Renault’s magnum opus. Fire From Heaven is the first book in a trilogy about Alexander the Great, and covers the conqueror’s life from childhood through to the moment he became king at the age of just 20 years old, and is far and away her best work. Frankly, it puts The King Must Die and The Bull From the Sea in the shade. Renault has an innate sense of time and place, situating the story within its historical and cultural context with sublime skill and understanding. This is such a critical point in immersing the reader in the story. As some who loves both history and reading, it’s fair to say I actively seek out novels recreating the ancient past, and it’s equally fair to say that some of them disappoint the historian in me. I’ve read historical fiction where it’s obvious that the author has completely failed to understand the times he or she is writing about, failed to understand the culture, society, and thought of ancient peoples. For me it’s incredibly frustrating, not to mention jarring, when I want nothing more than to be immersed in ancient Rome or Egypt, only to find myself on a 21st century stage with unconvincing cardboard sets and characters spouting dialogue espousing 21st century values. It’s cringe-inducing. Thank goodness for wonderful writers like Mary Renault. A rarefied few, and I happily count Renault among their number, seem to have genuinely researched the period they’re writing about and succeeded in getting inside their characters’ heads – not to mention, skilfully conveyed this on the page, another challenge entirely. It’s a vicarious experience for a historian – just about the closest to time travel we’ll ever get – and I’m pleased to say Fire From Heaven swept me away to ancient Macedon. Characterisations are rendered not only deftly but with astonishing vividness and humanity. Renault clearly had a talent for understanding the human condition, and how to make her characters breathe with believable warmth, spirit, and life. It’s easy to forget that the Alexander presented here is a product of Renault’s imagination. His subtle and complex characterisation gives a stamp of authenticity that adds tremendously to the quality of the story. If I can believe a character could exist in real life as an actual human being, my immersion in the tale and my empathy for those characters is exponentially increased. Often, the books I most frequently DNF are those populated by implausible, two-dimensional characters, existing in an inauthentic, fake setting. “It’s only fiction” is quite the rallying cry amongst historical fiction debates – but, for me, it’s got to be believable fiction. Renault actually makes a decision in Fire From Heaven that tweaked my historian’s accuracy radar: in the story Ptolemy is Alexander’s bastard half-brother. As a Ptolemaic enthusiast I’ve got to acknowledge that, on balance of the evidence, it seems extremely unlikely to have actually been the case. But that didn’t keep me from enjoying the book. It’s a minor alteration that ultimately doesn’t affect the plot, and it’s slipped in to a world that is otherwise highly researched and feels real, not just in the facts but in the humanity of the people. The critical factor is not the accuracy, but the believability, and this is something that Renault was a master at creating. Moreover, she doesn’t shy away from allowing the book to have a complex plot, allowing the characters to be complex, contradictory, unexpected human beings – unlike the oversimplified, dumbed down, liquidised historical fiction that some popular authors prefer to spoon feed their readership – and this is why Fire From Heaven succeeds as a novel, and does so spectacularly. 10 out of 10

2018-04-27 20:41

İsem Yayıncılık Aks Adaylık Kaldırma Sınavı Konu Öğretimli Soru Bankası Seti 2018 TrendKitaplar Kütüphanesi

Tarafından yazılmış kitap Tarafından: İSEM Yayıncılık

The Lady Elizabeth was bad but mildly entertaining, possibly because of the appearance of one of the most interesting figures from history, but Innocent Traitor is just plain bad. It begins with two very dull parallel birth scenes and gets worse from there. The language is tedious and pedestrian, sending me to sleep rather than catching my attention. The plot drags and is utterly predictable, for example, one day after the family has heard news that some heretics are to be burned, Jane’s nurse decides to take the children out for the day on a trip to visit her sister who lives in Smithfield. Gee, I wonder what will happen?! Yep, that’s right, it all ends in tears and traumatised kiddie-winks. This writing is just so juvenile and limp. The descriptions read just the same as in Weir’s non-fiction histories – incredibly dry, unmemorable lists. The worst of by far though was Weir’s poor research and total misunderstanding and the era. Weir completely misunderstands the social mores of the day when she has Frances Brandon and Henry Grey acting all doom and gloom over Jane’s birth because she’s a daughter. She’s transferring the concerns of Henry VIII onto the couple. How she manages to do this when she’s a writer of non-fiction histories boggles the mind. Frances and Henry were still young at 20 years old and had only been married for four years, and whilst sons were undoubtedly desired, it was hardly a disaster for the Greys to have only daughters. King Henry VIII meanwhile, at the time the future Edward VI was born, was 46 years old, on his third marriage after almost 30 years of married life, and had only two surviving acknowledged but illegitimated daughters, and it was important to him to have a son because it was unprecedented for a woman to be accepted as ruler of England in her own right and the young Tudor dynasty could still be overthrown. Weir also includes the nonsense about the Duke of Northumberland poisoning Edward VI and then smothering a lookalike and switching the bodies so that the “king’s corpse” would have no evidence of foul play. I cannot stress enough how absurd this is. In her author’s note Weir claims that the evidence for this is written in a letter by one of the duke’s sons, but that is completely made up - it's hearsay, and not mentioned in any letter written by one of the duke's sons. Mary and Elizabeth Tudor are titled "Princess" in the book when they were actually titled "Lady". Jane Parker is once again condemned for taking down Anne and George Boleyn. Frances and Adrian Stokes are described according to the painting which for years now has been known to actually be Mary Neville and her son. Oh, and of course, Frances and Henry Grey beat their poor daughter Jane black and blue. Tempted as I am to explain in detail exactly why all of this is wrong, I'm simply going to link y'all to that business and you can click on it if you're interested. Jane Parker and the Boleyns' downfall What really happened to Edward VI's body The many misconceptions about Frances Brandon Essentially, Weir shoves in every scrap of rumour and gossip from the era. Whether she did this out of sheer bad research or purposely to make things "jucier", I don't know, but it doesn't improve the pedestrian prose, only adds a repellent splash of lurid crassness. Innocent Traitor is dull, wildly inaccurate, and unimpressive. 2 out of 10

Okuyucu Craig Moyer itibaren Maiella Monti VR, Italy

Kullanıcı, bu kitapları portalın yayın kurulu olan 2017-2018'de en ilginç olarak değerlendirdi "TrendKitaplar Kütüphanesi" Tüm okuyucuların bu literatürü tanımalarını tavsiye eder.