Review: The Hermetica of Elysium by Annmarie Banks

The Hermetica of Elysium by Annmarie Banks
historical fiction/historical fantasy
Knox Robinson Publishing
received from the publisher for an honest review

Synopsis:

1494 Barcelona. As Torquemada lights the fires of religious fervor throughout the cities of Spain, accused heretics are not the only victims. Thousands of books and manuscripts are lost to the flames as the Black Friars attempt to purge Europe of the ancient secrets of the gods and the bold new ideas that are ushering in the Renaissance. Nadira lives a dreary life as servant to a wealthy spice merchant until the night a dying scholar is brought to the merchant's stable, beaten by mercenaries who are on the hunt for The Hermetica of Elysium. To Nadira, words are her life: she lives them as her master's scrivener and dreams them in her mother's poetry. She is pursued as passionately as the fabled manuscript for her rare skill as a reader of Ancient Greek, Latin, Arabic and Hebrew that makes her valuable to men who pursue the book to exploit its magic. Kidnapped by Baron Montrose, an adventurous nobleman, she is forced to read from the Hermetica. It is soon revealed to her that ideas and words are more powerful than steel or fire for within its pages are the words that incite the Dominicans to religious fervor, give the Templars their power and reveal the lost mysteries of Elysium. As Nadira begins her transformation from servant to sorceress, will she escape the fires of the Inquisition, the clutches of the Borgia pope, Alexander VI and the French king, Charles VIII? And will Montrose's growing fear of her powers cause her to lose her chance for love?

I really enjoyed this novel. I got sucked right into Nadira's story and didn't want to put it down. It is set during the Spanish Inquisition and the reign of Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia). Nadira is a slave who manages the accounts and correspondence for her master, the spice merchant when the agents of the Inquisition bring a scholar to the home so she can translate for them. They are looking for the Hermetica of Elysium and in their question of the scholar, they mortally wound him. Days after his death, the scholar's brother and protector arrives to learn the details of his brother's death. Vowing to take up his brother's cause, upon learning of Nadira's skill with languages, they head off in search of the Hermetica.

Nadira is a very likable character. In a time when women frequently couldn't read or write their native tongues, Nadira can understand six languages and is extremely intelligent. She analyzes situations and is very perceptive. And she is not hesitant in being direct or honest with the men she encounters, if it does not harm her in any way. These are all excellent qualities for a heroine in contemporary novels, and really drew me to the character. These modern qualities are inserted in a way that it fits with the time the story is set in. Nadira frequently is asked why she knows so many languages, and she also has fears on how others, like the Black Friars could twist her knowledge to use against her.

One thing that struck me near the end of the book (actually while reading the sample for the second book), was while there was a romantic angle that appears midway through the story, it is a very clean story. Set in a time when the Pope had mistresses and featuring a young women taken out of her home by a group of strange men, one might expect learing, or the threat of rape, and once the romance blossoms, some physical action on the mutual feelings. But that never happens, and it doesn't need to happen either. You don't miss it, and the story doesn't need those salacious events or descriptions. Though it does give Nadira's traveling companions a bit of a chivalric air, even though from the stories they tell that they aren't quite the ideal chivalrous knights of Arthurian legend.

Banks does a good job in her variety of the characters she writes. Even in the backdrop of the Inquisition, there is variety in the clergymen. Some are strong supporters of the Inquisitions, some concerned with knowledge and learning, others for caring for their flock. The characters are not one dimensional, but have their good and their bad side, so learning which way they would go made it interesting. Banks also does a good job of blending the different ideology, for there are several discussions on philosophy between the characters.

What disappointed me the most was reaching the end. I was not ready for Nadira's journey to end. But it didn't really. The second book in the series, The Necromancer's Grimoire is expected to be released in September of 2012. There is also a free prequel that can be downloaded through the Knox Robinson Publishing website. And if you are interested, there is a giveaway for this title going on at the time of this posting over at Goodreads. Click on the book title link at the top of the page to go to the book's Goodreads page.

Favorites of 2011

Tis the season for doing their lists of their favorites. I'm not doing just ones published this year, since I didn't read a whole lot that were published this year.

In no particular order:

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
Miss Peregrine's School for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran
Graceling by Kristin Cashore
Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
A Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England by Ian Mortimer
Lady of the English by Elizabeth Chadwick
The Greatest Knight by Elizabeth Chadwick
Game of Thrones by GRR Martin

My disappointments for the year are:
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
The Help by Katheryn Stockett
Doc by Mary Doria Russell

These three were all super hyped up (nearly everyone loved them to bits), but they were all lacking to me. They have good parts, but I wasn't getting what caused the universal adoration. It might be they were so hyped up before hand that it would have to be unicorn crapping rainbows kinds of fantastic to live up to the hype for me.

And the worse book I read this year:

Prom and Prejudice by Elizabeth Eulberg

Oh the perils of book club reads. One of the pixel art forums I visit started a book club and this was the first one. I'm not a chick lit person, nor am I a fan of certain kinds of high school students, and this was chock full of both. And that was the start of it. Unfortunately, I think I was the only one on the forum who read it, so couldn't even commiserate with anyone.

Mailbox Monday

Mailbox Monday is being hosted this December by Let them Read Books

Christmas haul:

No surprises really. Just the A Song of Ice and Fire trade paperbacks. Since I couldn't get the last two in the same MMP style as the first two (ignore the cover on the second one, its really the new version).



I also got an adjustable stand for my Nook Color, which is one of the best things ever. Now the trick is to make sure to keep a space clear on the desk so can have it at the ready.

Win:
Won from Peeking Between the Pages and Harper Collins =D

Purchases in the last two weeks: I took advantage of the publishers sale on ebooks. Dovekeepers I decided to go ahead and buy my hardcover copy, since I was enjoying it from the library copy, but didn't have time to finish on the library deadline. All the others were ones on sale $2.99 or less for the Nook (some still are, if you were thinking about them)

Review: Harald Hardrada: The Last Viking by Michael Burr

Harald Hardrada: The Last Viking by Michael Burr
historical fiction
publisher: Knox Robinson Publishing
Received from the publisher for an honest review

In the dead of night, a band of Vikings ravage a lonely convent on the Brittany coast –and their fearsome leader makes a decision that will eventually lead to his downfall. Ranulf de Lannion is fifteen years old. Crippled, deformed and abandoned by his family to the charity of the convent, he is seized by the Vikings during a midnight raid. Contemptuously nicknamed 'The Scraeling" by his captors, his future appears grim. Harald Sigurdsson, or 'Hardrada' as he will come to be known, is the leader of the Viking band. A violent mercenary with designs on the throne of Norway, Hardrada abducts The Scraeling on a whim. Ranulf grows into an invaluable asset, smoothing Hardrada's path over their thirty-five years together from mercenary to commander of the Varangian Guard, all the way to king of Norway. But all is not as it seems in the heart of Ranulf de Lannion. Having sworn secret revenge upon Hardrada for the murders at the convent, he vows to end the day of the Viking forever. When the king of Norway launches an attack against the Anglo-Saxon throne of England in 1066, what role will The Scraeling play in bringing the age of the Viking to an end?

I found the historical aspect of this book quite fascinating, as I know little of the Viking period. I'd heard of their reputations of ruthlessness and skilled warriors, and this certainly did not lack any of those episodes. The story is told through the eyes of The Scraeling. His voice is the first we hear, and his declaration in the prologue that really hooked me into the story. The reader is quickly inserted into the account of how The Scraeling came to be serving Harald Hardrada, in the account of the viking's violent pillaging of the convent where he lived. The episode is described in detail, and for any who find it hard reading violent episodes, including rape, will likely have difficulties getting past the story of how The Scraeling came to be a trusted secretary. However, this was one of the most, if not the most violent episode depicted in the novel, so if you can get through it, you are in for an interesting read. Harald traveled greatly, working as a mercenary for his kin in Kiev and for Empress Zoe of Constantinople. The reader also gets treated to excerpts of the Heimskringla, the famous Norse saga, during the section breaks.

My biggest criticism was the use of some modern sounding slang terms. These are terms in use today, and having them in a story in the time before William the Bastard claimed the English throne to become William the Conqueror made what seemed like a jarring contrast to the more period sounding voice of the rest of the novel. More authentic sounding terms would have maintained the mood better throughout the book. However, I found most of slang seemed to centered around the attack on the convent at the start, and later in Harald's relations with Empress Zoe. Once I realized that most of that sort of language was past, I was left to enjoy Scraeling's schemeings. The story gets told between the first person, where Scraeling is validating or commenting on the events well after they happened, then in the third person depicting the events as it happened. I found this to be effective, and gave the feeling of reading the memoirs of Scraeling.

I found it to be an interesting read, and if not for the language issue, I would have given it a full four stars

Review: Catching the Eagle by Karen Charlton

Catching the Eagle by Karen Charlton
historical fiction
Publisher: Knox Robinson Publishing
Received from the publisher for an honest review

Easter Monday, 1809: Kirkley Hall manor house is mysteriously burgled. When suspicion falls on Jamie Charlton, he and his family face a desperate battle to save him from the gallows. When £1,157 rent money is stolen from Kirkley Hall, it is the biggest robbery Northumberland has ever known. The owner sends for Stephen Lavender, a principal officer with the Bow Street magistrate's court in London, to investigate the crime. Suspicion soon falls on impoverished farm labourer, Jamie Charlton, and the unpopular steward, Michael Aynsley. Jamie Charlton is a loving family man but he is hot-tempered and careless. As the case grows against him, it seems that only his young brother, William, can save him from an impending miscarriage of justice. But William is struggling with demons of his own. Desperate to break free from the tangled web of family ties which bind him to their small community, he is alarmed to find that he is falling in love with Jamie's wife. Set beneath the impenetrable gaze of a stray golden eagle whose fate seems to mirror that of Jamie's, Catching the Eagle, the first novel in the Regency Reivers Series, is a fictionalized account of a trial that devastated a family and divided a community.

Catching the Eagle is a nice light, quick read. Set during the Regency period, this story follows the lives of those in the middle and lower classes. Set in northern England, the story has us meeting the Charlton family, of whom one of the eldest sons is accused of stealing from the local estate. To me, this was a unique point of view, for a novel set in this time. The Charltons, and most of the people we encounter in the book are all working people. The Charltons are farmers or perform odd jobs around the region. Most of the novels I've ready that are set in this time are ones that mostly deal with the people in the big houses, or those in their social circles. What makes it more interesting, is that these are real people. Jamie Charlton is an ancestor of the author's husband, who was tried for the robbery that is the basis of the novel.

While it was a fun and light mystery novel feel, and it had a good ending that tied things up, it was not the most satisfying ending to a story. Although, I suspect that is largely related to the nature of the crime and what was known when the events took place. However, this is the first novel of a series based on the border reivers (robbers or raiders along the Scottish border, according to the author), so I hope we get to see more of the Charltons in the next one.

Snapshot Saturday: Christmas Eve

Snapshot Saturday is hosted by Alyce of At Home with Books

My parents got new furniture as part of their Christmas present, so we only just got out the tree yesterday, so it is not very decorated, once again. Plus the oven decided to go all Scrooge McDuck on us, and stop working (as in choose it's own temperature and not shut off), so we aren't much in the spirit. But the youngest cat was very happy to see the once green fountain now just a chew toy once again. He might be teaching mom's puppy some bad habits.

This is the one I have near my desk

Happy Christmas to all who celebrate the religious or commercial versions. Yuletide greetings, Happy Chanukah, Happy Kwanza, and Belated Happy Solstice to everyone else

Mailbox Monday

Won from the English Historical Fiction Authors group


Won from Cat's Thoughts- My mom was glad of this too, as she loved the first book


From LibraryThings Early Reviewers (finally!)


From Paperback Swap


And I also go the sample of Cinder by Marissa Meyer from Barnes and Nobles, but Goodreads doesn't have the blog tools for it yet.

I also found this really cute book for my nephew (shhhhh, don't tell him!)


Worth mentioned, Barnes and Nobles has these great planners, leather and made in the USA by Gallery Leather. And only about $5 more than the Paperchase ones I had been getting at Borders

Review: Of Faith and Fidelity: Geoffrey Hotspur and the War for St. Peter's Throne

Of Faith and Fidelity: Geoffrey Hotspur and the War for St. Peter's Throne by Evan Ostryzniuk
historical fiction
Knox Robinson Publishing
Recieved from the publisher for review
Four stars

As the papal wars of the Western Schism rage across Europe, a young man takes his first step on the journey of a lifetime.
Geoffrey Hotspur dreams of knighthood. As an English orphan-squire bonded to the court of Sir John of Gaunt, uncle of the English King Richard II, his prospects are few.

An inveterate gambler already deep in debt, young Geoffrey accepts an invitation to participate in a raid on French lands. His plans go awry, however, after a deadly street brawl results in his banishment from court. As further punishment, he is ordered to join a royal commission bound for Florence.

Accompanied by Jean Lagoustine, a mysterious Frenchman whose intentions towards the young squire are not all they appear to be, the ship upon which they journey is waylaid by corsairs. Barely escaping with their lives, Geoffrey and Jean find themselves forming part of a company of Catalonian crossbowmen en route to enlist with the Roman papal army.

Intrigue and betrayal dominate the war between the two popes, and the young squire's understanding of faith and fidelity are soon challenged. The need to do right inspires Geoffrey to take a personal stake in the outcome of the conflict. With little more than his wits and a sword, the young squire must find a way to fulfill his duty to his lord, to his faith and to himself. As the war culminates in the final battle for the throne of St. Peter, will Geoffrey find that a knighthood is worth the risk to his honor?

This novel is set in the spring and summer of 1394, during a time referred to as the Western Schism of the Catholic Church. During the time of the novel, Clement VII and Boniface IX were claiming to be the true Pope. This is not a period I am much familiar with, but I enjoyed this small dip into Papal and Italian history. As the author mentions in his notes on the novel, this a period of political strife in the Church, and not a period of conflict over theological interpretations.

In some ways, this story of squire Geoffrey Hotspur, reminds me of the starts of the Horatio Hornblower and Richard Sharpe tales, although those take place some 400 years later during the Regency period. We start with Hotspur, who is early in his military career, serving as a squire in the Gaunt household. He is young, impetuous, and just about the lowest man on the career path of significance (knighthood). He is flawed, gambling away the little money he has in rash bets and letting his emotions get the better of him, But during the course of the novel, we start to see Hotspur start to grow and mature, as a man and a soldier.

I enjoyed the relationship between Jean and Geoffrey. They meet by "happenstance", and then find themselves on the same ship to Florence. They develop an interesting friendship, where Geoffrey treats Jean more as his squire or valet, than what you would typically think of as friendship. After bouts of betrayal, by the end of the novel, they are still together, and the curious friendship is much the same as it was. It is almost an odd couple type of relationship, and I see much potential for them if they stay together into the next novel.

Since the novel focuses on the military campaigns during this period of the Western Schism, it is heavy with descriptions of military movements, arms shielding, and battle maneuvers. The military details made this a slower read for me, but understanding some of the weapons of the time and their usage is important to the novel, not just in depicting the historic battles, but showing their effects on Geoffrey and Jean. If you read military history or historical fiction, you will be familiar with much of it already.

I enjoyed this read, and will be looking forward to seeing what Lady Fortuna has in store for Geoffrey Hotspur in the next novel.

New Releases December 8th

These four titles are available December 8th from Knox Robinson Publishing. I will be reviewing all four throughout the month, so keep tuned for those. The first, for Of Faith and Fidelity: Geoffrey Hotspur and the War for St. Peter's Throne go up Thursday afternoon.

Of Faith and Fidelity: Geoffrey Hotspur and the War for St. Peter's Throne by Evan Ostryzniuk

As the papal wars of the Western Schism rage across Europe, a young man takes his first step on the journey of a lifetime.

Geoffrey Hotspur dreams of knighthood. As an English orphan-squire bonded to the court of Sir John of Gaunt, uncle of the English King Richard II, his prospects are few.

An inveterate gambler already deep in debt, young Geoffrey accepts an invitation to participate in a raid on French lands. His plans go awry, however, after a deadly street brawl results in his banishment from court. As further punishment, he is ordered to join a royal commission bound for Florence.

Accompanied by Jean Lagoustine, a mysterious Frenchman whose intentions towards the young squire are not all they appear to be, the ship upon which they journey is waylaid by corsairs. Barely escaping with their lives, Geoffrey and Jean find themselves forming part of a company of Catalonian crossbowmen en route to enlist with the Roman papal army.

Intrigue and betrayal dominate the war between the two popes, and the young squire's understanding of faith and fidelity are soon challenged. The need to do right inspires Geoffrey to take a personal stake in the outcome of the conflict. With little more than his wits and a sword, the young squire must find a way to fulfill his duty to his lord, to his faith and to himself. As the war culminates in the final battle for the throne of St. Peter, will Geoffrey find that a knighthood is worth the risk to his honor?

Catching the Eagle by Karen Charlton

Easter Monday, 1809: Kirkley Hall manor house is mysteriously burgled. When suspicion falls on Jamie Charlton, he and his family face a desperate battle to save him from the gallows.

When £1,157 rent money is stolen from Kirkley Hall, it is the biggest robbery Northumberland has ever known. The owner sends for Stephen Lavender, a principal officer with the Bow Street magistrate’s court in London, to investigate the crime. Suspicion soon falls on impoverished farm labourer, Jamie Charlton, and the unpopular steward, Michael Aynsley.

Jamie Charlton is a loving family man but he is hot-tempered and careless. As the case grows against him, it seems that only his young brother, William, can save him from an impending miscarriage of justice.

But William is struggling with demons of his own. Desperate to break free from the tangled web of family ties which bind him to their small community, he is alarmed to find that he is falling in love with Jamie’s wife.

Set beneath the impenetrable gaze of a stray golden eagle whose fate seems to mirror that of Jamie's, Catching the Eagle, the first novel in the Regency Reivers Series, is a fictionalised account of a trial that devastated a family and divided a community.

Harald Hardrada: The Last Viking by Michael Burr

In the dead of night, a band of Vikings ravage a lonely convent on the Brittany coast –and their fearsome leader makes a decision that will eventually lead to his downfall.

Ranulf de Lannion is fifteen years old. Crippled, deformed and abandoned by his family to the charity of the convent, he is seized by the Vikings during a midnight raid. Contemptuously nicknamed 'The Scraeling" by his captors, his future appears grim.

Harald Sigurdsson, or 'Hardrada' as he will come to be known, is the leader of the Viking band. A violent mercenary with designs on the throne of Norway, Hardrada abducts The Scraeling on a whim.

Ranulf grows into an invaluable asset, smoothing Hardrada's path over their thirty-five years together from mercenary to commander of the Varangian Guard, all the way to king of Norway.

But all is not as it seems in the heart of Ranulf de Lannion. Having sworn secret revenge upon Hardrada for the murders at the convent, he vows to end the day of the Viking forever. When the king of Norway launches an attack against the Anglo-Saxon throne of England in 1066, what role will The Scraeling play in bringing the age of the Viking to an end?

The Hermetica of Elysium by Annmarie Banks

1494 Barcelona. As Torquemada lights the fires of religious fervor throughout the cities of Spain, accused heretics are not the only victims. Thousands of books and manuscripts are lost to the flames as the Black Friars attempt to purge Europe of the ancient secrets of the gods and the bold new ideas that are ushering in the Renaissance.

Nadira lives a dreary life as servant to a wealthy spice merchant until the night a dying scholar is brought to the merchant’s stable, beaten by mercenaries who are on the hunt for The Hermetica of Elysium. To Nadira, words are her life: she lives them as her master’s scrivener and dreams them in her mother’s poetry. She is pursued as passionately as the fabled manuscript for her rare skill as a reader of Ancient Greek, Latin, Arabic and Hebrew that makes her valuable to men who pursue the book to exploit its magic.

Kidnapped by Baron Montrose, an adventurous nobleman, she is forced to read from the Hermetica. It is soon revealed to her that ideas and words are more powerful than steel or fire for within its pages are the words that incite the Dominicans to religious fervor, give the Templars their power and reveal the lost mysteries of Elysium.

As Nadira begins her transformation from servant to sorceress, will she escape the fires of the Inquisition, the clutches of the Borgia pope, Alexander VI and the French king, Charles VIII? And will Montrose’s growing fear of her powers cause her to lose her chance for love?

Mailbox Monday

Mailbox Monday is a traveling meme, which is being hosted this month at Let Them Read Books.

There are the books I've acquired in the last week or two. The Silence of the Lambs pleased me greatly, as it's an early printing. Same cover as the first edition, but alas, not marked as a first edition or number line. My mom ended up already having 13 1/2, but atleast the cost of that went to the library. Now if only Barnes and Nobles wouldn't keep putting things from my e-book wishlist on sale....

Library Thing Early Reviewers



Nook purchases



Library Book Sale



Library Borrows

2012 Support Your Local Library Challenge

Ah-Ha! Found the library book challenge, or one of them. This is hosted by The Eclectic Bookshelf. The levels are:

Level 1 - Read 12 library books
Level 2 - Read 24 library books
Level 3 - Read 36 library books
Level 4 - Read 37+ library books

I am going to sign up for a modest Level 1. Leaves me with a goal of one library book a month. But can always do more.

Completed books:
1. Across the Universe by Beth Revis, audiobook
2. Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld, audiobook
3. Tithe by Holly Black, audiobook