Hello all, my poor old elbow is rather sore again. Something about the way I'm leaning on it to paint at the moment upsets it - a couple of weeks ago it blistered. I thought it had healed okay, but it became really sore again over the weekend, despite my being away from my painting table. I think I'm going to have to take a break from painting for another few days. In the meantime, I shall try to do some more rule-writing - as that doesn't involve much leaning on my elbow!
So, with nothing to show at the moment, I thought I'd post a couple of book reviews.
I may have mentioned before that I'd read Harry Sidebottom's two novels set in the 3rd Century - hopefully to become a series 'Warrior of Rome' - Fire in the East and King of Kings. I'm reviewing them again because I'm re-reading the first - not least because of having read another book which wasn't so good, and wanting to reassure myself that there are good books on the subject! Sidebottom's books are really good stories - the pace is fast enough to hold the interest, and they are amazingly well grounded in the history of the period: this man really knows his Romans! I can't recommend them highly enough. They are quite 'literary', but not so as to be stuffy and unreadable - far from it, I find it a struggle to put them down unfinished.
On the other hand, on a whim I bought a copy of Anthony Riches' novel 'Empire - Wounds of Honour'. The title sounds good, and the setting - Hadrian's Wall in the late 2nd Century - bodes well. The story is quite good, if a bit contrived (and there are one or two parts with small 'continuity errors' - to steal a phrase from film editing), but as for the background: oh dear me. Perhaps I have been spoilt by Sidebottom, but it is chock full of errors and just doesn't manage to 'feel' Roman other than in the most superficial way. Maybe the errors stop me from 'suspending disbelief', I don't know, but it certainly doesn't impress me. He's obviously jumped on the 'swords and sandals' bandwagon, but without researching the background sufficiently carefully. I did quite enjoy reading the book - the story was quite inventive in parts, and there are some decent ideas for wargames scenarios - both big battles and little skirmishes, but as a novel set in Roman times, it definitely falls down on the believability stakes. In my opinion Riches is nothing like so good an author as Scarrow, and probably oughtn't even to be mentioned in the same sentence as Sidebottom.
So, in order to reassure myself that there are good books out there, I am rereading Fire in the East. It really is excellent - in fact better than I remembered from my first reading. The story is very well crafted, so that it definitely stands a second reading, and I am spotting more of the delightful period detail which is interwoven, seamlessly, with the story - a lot of it is done so subtly that, whilst madly turning the pages to follow the story, you're apt to miss it. It's easier to spot the details on a second read through.
So, my advice would be to run out and buy the Sidebottom novels now, but wait for the Riches one to be remaindered or to come out in paperback, or better still, appear in a second-hand shop somewhere.