Stephanie Jane recenzis Agricola's Bane de Nancy Jardine
Roman historical fiction
3 steloj
Set not long after After Whorl: Donning Double Cloaks, Nancy Jardine's Celtic Fervour series continues in this fourth installment, Agricola's Bane. The Roman army encroaches ever northwards forcing our Celtic tribes to either submit to Roman rules and taxes, or to flee leaving behind their derelict villages and fragmented communities. Jardine again switches focus to give new characters the lead roles. In this story we have hints of a romantic triangle, but I actually felt that the romance aspects were overly underplayed. I know it's unusual for me to want more romance in a novel!
I liked how the prose is sprinkled with Latin names and phrases to give a sense of the language at the time. Mistaken homophone uses are unfortunate, but overall I felt that Jardine portrays both the conquered and the still rebelling peoples well. It does make such a change to be reading historical fiction where …
Set not long after After Whorl: Donning Double Cloaks, Nancy Jardine's Celtic Fervour series continues in this fourth installment, Agricola's Bane. The Roman army encroaches ever northwards forcing our Celtic tribes to either submit to Roman rules and taxes, or to flee leaving behind their derelict villages and fragmented communities. Jardine again switches focus to give new characters the lead roles. In this story we have hints of a romantic triangle, but I actually felt that the romance aspects were overly underplayed. I know it's unusual for me to want more romance in a novel!
I liked how the prose is sprinkled with Latin names and phrases to give a sense of the language at the time. Mistaken homophone uses are unfortunate, but overall I felt that Jardine portrays both the conquered and the still rebelling peoples well. It does make such a change to be reading historical fiction where the British are the oppressed people, rather than the oppressors! Like Donning Double Cloaks, this is also a journey story and there are a lot of minor characters and similar tribes to keep track of. I found this difficult so am sure I missed out on some of the important political shenanigans. Agricola wasn't the great demon character I had expected either so that was an interesting portrait.
I had got the impression that Agricola's Bane was the last of a four book series so expected a strong conclusion, however the Celtic Fervour series continues on into at least a fifth book. Jardine is not yet done with the adventures of the Garrigill clan.