Many Have Asked

After the publication of two books, one late last year and the other earlier this year (Iron–take a look at the Kirkus review, and The Last Summoner: Conquest in January) there has been some interest expressed in the Druids. Here’s an earlier article we published on the subject. It makes for interesting reading.

A Bit About the Druids

The Silver Eagle — Book Review

In a nutshell, this series will probably appeal to readers who are looking for light entertainment rather than any serious Ancient Roman-based fiction.

I read the first book in the Forgotten Legion trilogy by Ben Kane. I probably wouldn’t have bothered with the second book, except I bought all three on special offer from a local bookshop, and they keep me occupied while I’m in the sauna in prep for a total hip replacement.

So, what are the problems?

Apart from one-dimensional characters and a highly suspect premise, the author spent far too many words on detail of no genuine interest to a reader. For instance, when Fabiola arrives at Alesia, she studies the construction of Caesar’s defences with an engineer’s eye for detail, a definite info dump to display the author’s knowledge, of which the book has many more. And yet, his research can also be blasé. Take, for instance, his use of Irish Celtic names (Conall, to name but one) for Gaulish tribesmen or cutting off an enemy’s head with a single stroke of a gladius—a short stabbing sword. He also has Tarquinius, Brennus, and Romulus waltzing through a battle as if they’re invisible. Followed by two of them crossing thousands of miles of barren land without supplies or issues. A band of cutthroat pirates then accosts them, which ends on a cliffhanger. When we return, it’s two years later and they have joined the pirates with no explanation of how or why.

In the first book, the author introduces augury and foretelling, and then spends far too much of his time having his characters practice it with phenomenal accuracy—bringing the book into the fantasy genre. In the first book, it was only Tarquinius (at least in terms of main characters). In the second book, they’re all at it and we even get the occasional druid thrown in to really dump it on with a trowel. The reality was that soothsaying was a scam used by Roman patricians to justify their actions, much like the divine right of kings from slightly more modern times.

Taking aside the aforementioned quirks, the biggest issue with the Forgotten Legion series is a lack of historical accuracy. There are little ones, such as Brutus presenting a prostitute to Caesar while away on campaign, which is not only historically inaccurate but beyond ludicrous. However, there are also large ones that impact the story greatly. Tarquinius joining a legion in the streets of Rome at a time when only landed Romans were eligible; Pompey marching the III legion to Rome when it was banned—in fact, Caesar crossing the Rubicon with his legions presaged the start of the civil war; Pompey and Caesar openly enemies at a time when they were still trying to appease each other because of a need for plebeian support. The list continues.

The author claims in his bio to have a fascination with Roman history. He even claims he “…walked Hadrian’s Wall in full Roman military dress, including hobnailed boots.” That statement sums it up for me: Roman legionaries didn’t wear hobnailed boots, but caligae, which were sandals.

Recommendation

If you are a historian—especially of ancient classical themes—I don’t think you would get beyond the author’s lack of critical research.

For the rest of you, if you are just looking for light entertainment or fantasy, then it might be the book for you. If, however, you are looking for solid historical fiction, I would stick to authors like Steven Saylor and Bernard Cornwell.

3/5

In Solitude’s Shadow — Review

I have found with my years of reading that debut novels often lack finesse. As with any new creator, we must expect a period of skill honing. In Solitude’s Shadow is no different from other debut novels in this regard, such as a little too much telling and clumsy exposition; it is also a little on the short side for a fantasy novel. However, it is a story with fascinating character arcs and exceptional world-building.

In Solitude’s Shadow returns to the Epic Fantasy I enjoyed so much in my youth. LitRPG and Grimdark were good for a change. Still, like classic versus punk rock, it’s good to return to the original genre when the rebellion has reached its pinnacle.

The Banished have arrived at the mountain fastness of Solitude, and Ruin threatens. Great stuff.

Recommendation

Any fantasy fans struggling with the flood of Grimdark and LitRPG could do much worse than take up the Empire of Ruin series. Great characters. Great story. Great page-turner.

4/5 Stars.

Best Read Worst Read ’23

Twenty-twenty-three was a year of new authors for me. Despite receiving recommendations for the works of Joe Abercrombie, I hadn’t yet delved into his grimdark world. The second trilogy in the First Law series had languished in my Kindle library for ages. I tried Kazuo Ishiguro for the first–and probably the last–time. Robert Jordan drove me to the brink of despair with his rambling Wheel of Time series–which I abandoned after book six, and I delved heavily into Brandon Sanderson’s works with mixed feelings. It was not all gloom, though. I enjoyed In Solitude’s Shadow by David Green (review to follow), and Annie of Ainsworth Mill by Katie Hutton.

I also returned to some old favourites, like Dean Koontz, John Le Carré, John Wyndham, and C. S. Lewis. Oh, and how could I forget Clive Barker’s Abarat series or Terry Pratchett’s Discworld?

Ironically, my best read of ’23 came from the same author as my worst. I’ve never been so excited and deflated by the same writer. Typically, I will get excited and then cool off over time. I suspect the fact that I read eight of his books one after another didn’t help—and they were big books. However, it goes much deeper than that. It was as if the author grew tired of writing and slapped together an offering to meet his contractual obligations. But I digress…

Best Read of ’23

The book I most enjoyed in ’23 was The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie.

I suspect Abercrombie’s books would have remained languishing in my Kindle library, except I found Half a King on the shelf in my local café and read it avidly. At about the same time, when a talented Irish author, John De Búrca, gifted me the original trilogy in the First Law series for a big zero birthday, it hooked me.

I found his form of grimdark refreshingly new, and I thoroughly enjoyed the exploits of Logen, Jezal, and Glotka. Creative Writing 101 instructs us authors to make our characters human and multi-faceted rather than one-dimensional, which Abercrombie achieves in spades: Glotka with his aching leg, Yarvi (Half a King) with a withered hand, Logen with nine fingers and psychopathic tendencies, First of the Magi Bayaz with temper tantrums. With the First Law world, he created a place with no angels or demons, just characters with a mixture of the angelic and demonic, mainly with the demonic in the ascendancy.

Worst Read of ’23

Okay, and now for the irony. The book I enjoyed the least in ’23 was Red Country by Joe Abercrombie.

In fairness, I did get a hint that the author’s works could vary when I read Half a World. A lack of research turned me off—such as Thorn and Skifr training with a ship’s oar. In my youth, I rowed skulls with an oar over nine feet long and weighing about 12 pounds (they are lighter today)—wholly unwieldy at that length and weight. As such, I knew training with a ship’s oar, at least thirty feet long and weighing considerably more, would be pointless. Moving it would take Herculean effort, and avoiding it would be child’s play. When I see that type of error in any work, I wonder whether anyone edited the writing or, if done, by whom. Any editor worth the name would have spotted such glaring issues.

This brings me to Red Country, the last book in the second First Law world trilogy. The book is a thinly veiled plagiarism of The Searchers. Even the title is an insult to Native Americans. In Red Country, we have Ghosts rather than the Apache scalping settlers, but apart from the name—there is no difference—so Abercrombie has adopted a misrepresentation by Cowboy and Indian movie script writers as the premise for a story, essentially taking Holywood’s attempts to excuse genocide and turning them into a grimdark fantasy?

This racist plagiarism was not the only issue.

The author revived characters like Nicomo Cosca and Caul Shivers—who worked well in earlier novels—and destroyed them. Bringing Nine Fingers back from the dead was also a mistake, in my opinion. He should have died as an anti-hero jumping into a freezing river.

It is a real shame that I went from avid fan to “not for me ta” so quickly, but I don’t think I will be reading any more books by the author.

Those In-Betweeners

If I hadn’t edited The Music of Swords by John De Búrca, I would probably have listed it as my favourite read of ’23. It is a fantastically gritty retelling of Irish Celtic mythology, including High Fantasy and Grimdark elements.

As I already mentioned, I enjoyed In Solitudes Shadow by David Green and have just started the second book in the series, Path of War. I will be posting a review of In Solitudes Shadow in Hughes Reviews on Friday.

Never Let Me Go — Kazuo Ishiguro

The author has a way with words, for want of a better cliché. He paints a vivid picture of a dystopian near future.

However, I got an immediate sense of The Midwich Cuckoos with this tale, as if Meat Loaf had remastered Bat Out of Hell and tweaked all the raw talent out of it. I found Kathy’s narrative voice so similar to Wyndham’s main character, Gayford, that it leached enjoyment out of the story. 

Would I have seen it differently if I had read it when it arrived on bookshelves?

I am not sure. The fear of cloning would indeed have been more prevalent when the book was first published early in 2005–Dolly the sheep had been successfully cloned in ‘96, less than a decade earlier. However, I found the whole premise of the story a little suspect. Why would they educate people destined to die at a very young age? What exactly were the children donating that meant they could donate four times before “completing?” Why were donors being cared for by other donors—unless the author was trying to make some statement with the act’s sheer cruelty? (If he were, this reader missed it completely.) Why did the donors blithely submit, especially as they were “educated?” Another area where the story fell was the whole gallery theme. The author fails to satisfactorily explain the point of forcing the children to produce art for the gallery or judging them on their creativity as if a creative streak will make their organs more desirable. We learn later that Madame kept them, but not why.

“Here, look, Kathy H. has eyes good enough to paint this masterpiece—would you like them?” — is all I can think, but why does Madame keep the work?

Aside from my misgivings about the premise, I found the foreshadowing clumsy at best: ‘…but I’ll tell you about that later…’ is an artifice the author uses throughout. There’s also an element of repetition, with Kathy often being reminded of Hailsham while driving and generally by inane objects like barns. Once would have been sufficient, I think.

Recommendation

Despite the author’s mastery of the written word, I’m not fond of Never Let Me Go.

I stopped reading Man Booker authors back around the time they cloned Dolly. Reading Never Let Me Go reminded me of why. I can’t recommend this book. The main reason is that I get the sense that the author rushed the production, perhaps because he wanted to comment on a contemporary topic. As such, the plot holes seem glaring.

A Bit About the Druids

Druids feature heavily in Micheál’s books. Here’s a little more about them.

Druids – who and what were they?

Druids are a contentious subject. Who were they? What was their role? How much of the sixteenth-century romanticists’ interpretation (take Merlin) is conjecture, and how much can be considered realistic? Aside from Archaeological evidence, all we know comes from Classical commentaries, specifically of Julius Caesar and Tacitus, but also of Strabo and Diodorus. The writings of Strabo and Diodorus so closely resemble those of Caesar it is likely there was some cross contamination between them. Caesar was the earliest to provide detail, so it is likely the others used him as a source.

Even the origin of the word itself is subject to disagreement. The modern term derives from the Latin druidae. However, ancient Classical writers said it came from a Gaulish word but were not specific. Some say it comes from the old Irish druí (sorcerer) or the old Welsh dryw (seer; wren). It could also derive from a proto-Celtic construct (hypothetical), druwides, meaning “oak-knower”.

We know little about their origins. Many believed druids existed throughout proto-Celtic Europe, from Ireland to Turkey (Anatolia), but modern archaeologists think it unlikely. Archaeological evidence points to them being native to Ireland, Britain, and Western France. Unlike popular belief that their religion revolved around stone circles, the Classical writers placed them in caves and sacred glades. That would tally with old ideas that the druids arrived with the Celts and were not associated with stone circles. However, there is evidence in the Paviland caves near Swansea that the druids were in Britain as many as twenty-six thousand years ago. Evidence in France (Lascaux) shows that druids might have existed seventeen thousand years ago.

None of these theories can be corroborated because very little has been written about druids. Although Caesar tells us of their literacy, they kept no written records of their practices because it would have contradicted their religious geis or taboos. Greeks referenced druids as early as the 4th century BCE. Still, the first detailed writings were from Caesar in the middle of the first century BCE.

What Caesar tells us in the Comentarii de Bello Gallico, his Gallic war history, is intriguing.

As well as philosophers, the druids were a powerful political force, but they also practised many professions, such as education, medicine, and law, and were advisers to kings and chieftains. Caesar tells us that they originated in Britain and hints that their influence continued to emanate from Britain into Gaul. Archaeological evidence suggests they had a power base in Anglesey, which would back Caesar’s theory.

He also touches on druidic centres of learning, telling us that they learnt their lore as a verbal tradition. Many believe the primary learning centre to have been on the island of Anglesey. Becoming a druid took as long as twenty years, so vast was the material they needed to learn.

“Magnum ibi numerum versuum ediscere dicuntur. Itaque annos nonnulli vicenos in disciplina permanent.”

– Comentarii De Bello Gallico by Julius Caesar

“They are said to learn a great number of verses, and therefore some remain under training for twenty years.” (Transliteration)

Caesar states that the primary religious doctrine of the druids was reincarnation. However, Tacitus also refers to the practice of sorcery during the first invasion of Anglesey, around 60 CE. The Fourteenth Legion crossing the Menai Straits were halted by witches and druidic spells.

“…while between the ranks dashed women, in black attire like the Furies, with hair dishevelled, waving brands. All around, the Druids, lifting up their hands to heaven, and pouring forth dreadful imprecations, scared our soldiers by the unfamiliar sight, so that, as if their limbs were paralysed, they stood motionless, and exposed to wounds.”

— The Annals of Imperial Rome by Cornelius Tacitus

As did others after him, Caesar claimed the druids performed human sacrifices, burning their victims while tied to wicker men. The victims were usually criminals, but when none were available, they would sacrifice ordinary citizens. He writes that because of their reincarnation beliefs, sacrifice would often be offering one soul in place of another at risk because of illness or battle. Modern historians think references to human sacrifice were nothing more than Roman propaganda. The reason is Romans often painted the conquered as savages. Romans thought themselves more civilised, considering sacrificing criminals to be barbaric but feeding them to lions, nothing more than entertainment for the masses. However, archaeological evidence shows that the druids did sacrifice humans, so it is difficult to know the truth.

Other Romans wrote about druids. For example, Pliny the Elder noted, “To murder a man was to do the act of highest devoutness and to eat his flesh was to secure the highest blessings of health.” These words, however, were obviously just embellishing what Caesar had already written.

That druids had a considerable influence over the Celtic clans is apparent. It was part of Roman imperialism to tolerate local laws and religions whenever possible. Not so the druids. After Romans suppressed them in Gaul under Tiberius, Claudius declared them outlaws in 54 CE, and Gaius Suetonius Paulinus invaded Anglesey to eradicate them. There can be only one reason why this persecution was considered necessary. Fear. The Boudiccan uprising meant that Suetonius failed. Agricola finally succeeded almost twenty years later, signalling the end of classical druidism.

Shortly after the advent of Christianity, the druids faded into obscurity, losing their priestly duties and becoming bards (filí). It is unclear if this obscurity is due to Roman persecution or Christianity’s spread. What is clear is that Christians assimilated many of the druid’s pagan rituals into Christian rites and festivals, such as moving Christ’s birth from spring to coincide with the Winter Solstice.

Modern desires have created much of druidism’s mythos, such as freemasonry is a direct descendant and that stone circles were central to druidic beliefs and making Myrddin (Merlin) a wizard with magical powers. There was a druidic revival in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries based more on that romantic conjecture than reality. Although we know little, Neo-Druidism takes inspiration from Classical accounts and romantic writers since the revival and archaeology and symbolism of proto-Druidic or pre-Druidic stone circles.

Hammer is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.

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