Tag Archives: Historical Fiction

The Spirit Ring by Lois McMaster Bujold

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Synopsis:
In a magical version of Renaissance Italy, the daughter of a sculptor/mage finds herself embroiled in a deadly political dispute as she struggles to free her father’s soul, which a wicked lord wants to imprison in a magic ring.

Review:
Lois McMaster Bujold crafts a suspenseful tale of intrigue, sorcery, and politics that really satisfied me. The Spirit Ring is grounded in the kinds of real squabblings that mark territorial disputes, and the magic serves that story, rather than being the sole purpose of the story. It’s also a love story, and quite an unconventionally romantic one. I definitely prefer McMaster’s fantasy to her scifi, and this is now one of my favorites of hers.

Mudbound by Hillary Jordan

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Synopsis:
When a reluctant farmer’s wife moves to a tin-roof shack in postwar rural Mississippi, her passion for her husband’s war hero brother becomes part of a web of tension that engulfs the town in hatred and violence.

Review:
Mudbound took me by surprise. Told from multiple points of view, the story manages to be inevitable without being predictable, with characters who all have very distinct voices. The casual, every day racism of even the most sympathetic characters is shocking to this 21st century Yankee girl. Hillary Jordan reminds readers of our hideous past without being preachy, and has written a book that adds to the discourse on the darkest part of American history. Best part–the last sentence made me cry.

11/22/63 by Stephen King

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Synopsis:
A schoolteacher travels through a wormhole to stop Lee Harvey Oswald from assassinating JFK.

Review:
11/22/63 started out really strong. I loved the premise and knew that Stephen King would do a lot more than just tell the A-story of Jake Epping, time traveler and would-be history changer. The historical aspects were really well done, particularly through the life Jake builds in small town Jodie, Texas, and the love story is poignant.

However, I felt like the ending was a foregone conclusion, and I didn’t feel like King delivered on the promise he made by setting the opening horror sequence in Derry right at the same time as It. I was expecting a lot more than I got.

Taliesin by Stephen R. Lawhead (The Pendragon Cycle, Book 1)

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Synopsis:
A princess of Atlantis flees to ancient England where her paths cross with a mage-in-training whose parentage is unknown.

Review:
I was drawn to Taliesin (which I desperately want to be an anagram of Atlantis, but it’s not) because it’s a retelling of the King Arthur legend with historically accurate place names and details, and with the Christianity an important, unoppressive element. Several major characters are converted to Christianity in episodes that are emotionally and spiritually powerful, but Lawhead doesn’t make that the happy ending. He understands that the Christian life is filled with drama and conflict, both inner and outer, and Lawhead doesn’t let his Christian characters have all the answers.

Where I disengaged from the book was with the character of Charis. Charis was proud, fierce, headstrong–all character qualities I normally love–but I think Lawhead romanticized her too much and made her inaccessible. All the men worshipped her but he didn’t give her any qualities that let me identify with her as a woman.

I really liked the character of Lile, the pagan wife to the king of Atlantis. She was a very nuanced character, set up to be the “evil stepmother” but proving to be both friend and enemy to Charis. I really appreciated that aspect. I’m hoping that her daughter Morgiane doesn’t end up being one-dimensional.

As for Taliesin, the bard/mage discovered in a river as a baby, I’m not sure how I feel about him. He’s certainly heroic, but like with Charis I experienced some distance from him. I think he was put on a pedestal by Lawhead and I couldn’t totally connect with his struggles.

I will definitely give the next book a try because these criticisms could just be first book issues. I’ve never read a memorable King Arthur telling so I’m keen to see this one through.

World Without End by Ken Follett

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Synopsis:
The intertwined lives of the inhabitants of the Kingsbridge priory and town, through the stories of four children who become keepers of a terrible secret.

Review:
I almost gave up on World Without End about halfway through. Ken Follett’s plotting is so mathematical that I felt like I could predict how all the story lines would resolve themselves. I am glad that a friend encouraged me to stick with it, because even though everything did tie itself up pretty neatly, I did find a few surprises along the way.

As in The Pillars of the Earth, I loved the historical detail in World Without End, which takes place 200 years later, in the 1300s. Follett offers a great depiction of the feudal system. For the first time, I understand the relationship between the serfs and their lords. Additionally, we got a great glimpse into church politics.

The most interesting character was Gwenda, a peasant girl whose robber father tries to sell her to a band of outlaws, only to propose that they try it again when she manages to escape at great cost to herself. Gwenda is in love with Wulfric, a peasant with great prospects who finds himself thwarted by Ralph, an ambitious man-at-arms to an earl. Gwenda was the wildest card in the deck, and I loved her spirit and ambition. She was also one of the more three-dimensional characters in the book.

I listened to the audio version and loved John Lee’s speaking voice. I’m glad I stuck this one out, though it did get tedious before the plague hit.

The Luxe by Anna Godberson

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Synopsis:
The death of a society girl in 1899 New York City isn’t quite what it seems, thanks to an impossibly complex snarl of love triangles.

Review:
I guess you would call The Luxe “Gossip Girl” set in Edith Wharton territory, but that makes it sound dreadful when in fact it’s pretty enjoyable. I don’t think I’ll continue on in the series but it was a fun read.

The Midwife by Gay Courter

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Synopsis:
The tale of a Russian midwife who emigrates to America during the pogroms of the early 1900s.

Review:
The Midwife was a completely satisfying reading experience, not just because the plot and characters were so engaging, but because I loved the author’s perspective on birth. It’s as if Ina May Gaskin were writing historical fiction–it’s so rare to see birth treated like a normal event, not an emergency. I am not a birth junkie but I did have both my kids at home and loved my midwives so much, and it was great to read a book that portrayed the special heroism of midwives who believe that birth can happen at home.

The story itself is gripping. Hannah is training in Moscow when restrictions against Jews begin to tighten, so she travels on a harrowing train ride back to her home in St. Petersburg, where the violence becomes personal. She and her family decide to flee, at great personal and financial cost, and settle on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. NYC at the turn of the 20th Century is one of my favorite fictional settings, and I just ate up the perspective on Jewish culture and society, from least to greatest. There’s a romance element that really worked for me because it felt grounded in emotional truth. Loved it!

Healing Paradise by Gay Courter

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Synopsis:
As WWII encroaches, Rozy braves judgment and trials, both personal and professional, to be one of only 4 women in her class at Cornell Medical School, finding passion for her work and a love that may not survive the rigors of her life as a doctor.

Review:
In Healing Paradise, Gay Courter has done a great job developing a most fascinating world, that of medical school in the late 1930s/early 1940s. I loved seeing the inner workings of medical school, and the ways in which Rozy and her friends fought against the institutionalized sexism they encountered. I also loved watching her romance with fellow med student Alexander develop, with the requisite challenging family dynamics being especially stressful.

What I appreciated about this book was how straightforward it was. Courter is aiming to tell a good story and gets out of the way admirably. And those are the books I enjoy the most, where I can just get lost in the story and not be distracted by clever wordplay or overblown literary ambitions.

Rozy decides to pursue pediatrics, and I found this particularly fascinating as a volunteer breastfeeding counselor. I’ve done some training in NICU protocol and so I really enjoyed seeing a glimpse into the way premature babies were cared for in the past. I shuddered when one doctor says he doesn’t feed preemies for a few days because they can’t handle it, and then cheered Rozy for refusing to agree with this bit of idiocy. I’m so used to reading books and watching TV shows that portray a medicalized view of pregnancy, birth, and the newborn phase as normal that it was refreshing to meet a character who was ahead of her time and following common sense about what babies need.

The Hangman’s Daughter by Oliver Pötzsch

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Synopsis:
When a child turns up gruesomely murdered, the midwife is accused as a witch, and the local hangman must turn up the real culprit or else torture and execute his innocent friend.

Review:
The Hangman’s Daughter seems to be one of those books that everyone is talking about, probably because the price on Amazon is so low.

I enjoyed the historical detail from 17th Century Germany but the plot really let me down. It became a rather run-of-the mill thriller of the kind that doesn’t particularly interest me. I loved the characters and the world but found myself rushing through the end.

The House at Riverton by Kate Morton

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Synopsis:
As she dies, a former lady’s maid reflects on the scandal that ended the family she served and reveals the truth that only she knew.

Review:
Kate Morton is rapidly becoming my latest favorite author. With her thrilling blend of Gothic melodrama and intricate plotting, she hits all my favorite buttons, much like her self-proclaimed influences Daphne DuMaurier and Barbara Vine.

In The House at Riverton, Morton presents Grace, a lady’s maid who spent her youth in service with a titled family haunted by tragedy and tainted by scandal. Now a dying old woman, Grace has been approached by Ursula, a filmmaker who is recreating the events that ruined the family. Grace is the only living survivor, and while she tells Ursula she was only incidentally connected to the events, the tapes she is making for her missing grandson reveal that she was privy to every interconnected secret.

I loved this so much I’m hurrying off to buy the next one, even though it’s way overpriced in the Kindle format. I don’t care! Must.read.more.Kate.