Tag Archives: Historical Fiction

The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray

American Literature March 13, 2008 Superfast Reader 9 Comments

Synopsis: The concluding adventures of Gemma Doyle, proper Victorian debutante and keeper of the magic of a mystical world called the realms, which is threatened by intruders from the ominous Winterlands. Review: The Sweet Far Thing ends the trilogy that began with A Great and Terrible Beauty, followed by Rebel Angels. Gemma Doyle and her friends are boarding school girls in Victorian England. They should be focusing on their upcoming debuts, but instead their attentions are captured by a war brewing in the realms, the…

Gunnar’s Daughter by Sigrid Undset (Translated by Arthur G. Chater)

Norwegian Literature November 9, 2007 Superfast Reader 5 Comments

Synopsis: Callously ravished by the man she hoped to love, an 11th Century Norwegian woman shapes her life around dreams of vengeance. Review: Gunnar’s Daughter is an early novel from the Sigrid Undset, author of the Nobel Prize-winning Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy, and it is no less of a powerful, shocking work not just for a book set in medieval Norway, but for a book written at the beginning of the 20th Century.

The View from a Kite by Maureen Hull

Canadian Literature September 3, 2007 Superfast Reader 4 Comments

Synopsis: Life inside a 1970s TB ward from the point of view of a teenage girl who won’t take her treatment lying down. Review: A View from a Kite is a superlative young adult book, featuring a fresh, likable protagonist in an utterly fascinating setting. Gwen is 17 and has tuberculosis, so she lives in a sanatarium where her only responsibilities are to rest, eat, and heal. She lives amongst patients of all ages, and one of the great treats of this book comes from…

The Red Queen’s Daughter by Jacqueline Kolosov

American Literature September 1, 2007 Superfast Reader 6 Comments

Synopsis: The orphaned daughter of Henry VII’s widow Katherine Parr finds herself at court, ostensibly as a lady-in-waiting but in reality to serve Queen Elizabeth as a white magician. Review: The Red Queen’s Daughter is one of the last of the galleys I picked up at Book Expo this year. I don’t read a lot of historical fiction but I was intrigued by the magical aspect to the story. The book has a good balance of historical detail (divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived–anybody remember…

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie Farrell

British Literature June 19, 2007 Superfast Reader 2 Comments

Synopsis: Upon discovering that she has a great-aunt who’s been in a mental institution since the age of 16, Iris has to decide how much she’s willing to allow her life to be changed.

The Cross (Kristin Lavransdatter 3) by Sigrid Undset

Norwegian Literature May 22, 2007 Superfast Reader 11 Comments

Synopsis: As her seven sons grow to manhood in 13th Century Norway, Kristin finds her marriage tested by long-simmering resentments, and struggles with her passage into senescence. Review: This might be my favorite of all three Kristin Lavransdatter books, because I think Undset is operating at the peak of her narrative powers. She really brings to life a time in Kristin’s life that isn’t as readily appealing as Kristin’s passage into womanhood, and the novelty of Kristin and Erlend’s life together has worn off. In…

Anna’s Book by Barbara Vine

British Literature April 1, 2007 Superfast Reader 3 Comments

Synopsis: After the death of the tortured aunt who edited her grandmother’s best-selling diaries, a second-generation Danish-British woman seeks to find out the truth of her aunt’s parentage, which may be linked to an infamous murder case. Review: The complexity of Anna’s Book (originally published as Asta’s Book) is reminiscent of A Dark-Adapted Eye, and both books are now tied as my favorite of the books crime novelist Ruth Rendell has written as Barbara Vine. Both books deal with a tangled family history as revealed…

The Wife (Kristin Lavransdatter II) by Sigrid Undset

Norwegian Literature March 23, 2007 Superfast Reader 1 Comment

Synopsis: Now married to her beloved Erlend Niklausson, Kristin takes up her new life as the mistress of Husaby, fearful that the child that grows inside her will expose her secret shame and cause her father to reject her. Review: I didn’t think it was going to be possible for Undset to outdo her achievement The Wreath, book I of her Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy set in Norway in the 14th century. I feared that marriage wouldn’t suit Kristin, that her vitality and inner fire would…

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

British Literature February 24, 2007 Superfast Reader 1 Comment

Synopsis: The destinies of two men who look almost like twins are intertwined with a prisoner of the Bastille and his golden-haired daughter, as the drums of the French Revolution bring death, destruction, and La Guillotine ever closer. Review: A Tale of Two Cities is three of five for the Classics Challenge. I don’t think I’m going to accomplish the goal, not because I wasn’t reading but because I should’ve signed up for Anna Karenina. Oh well. Dickens I have loved, and Dickens I have…

Child of the Prophecy by Juliet Marillier

Australian Literature January 23, 2007 Superfast Reader

Synopsis: The granddaughter of a powerful sorceress finds herself coerced into betraying her kin to bring about the downfall of Ireland. Review: Child of the Prophecy is the third installment in Juliet Marillier’s Sevenwaters trilogy follows the story of Fianne, granddaughter of Sorcha, who saved her brothers after they were turned into swans, and niece to Liadan, the healer who managed to thwart the pattern set by the Old Ones. It’s the weakest installment, due largely in part to the lack of nuance in crafting…

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