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jmkemp's review
5.0
The Red Horse is set at the beginning of the First English Civil War in 1642. The primary characters are Captain Hollie Babbitt and his young Cornet Luce Pettitt. Babbitt is a grizzled and damaged English mercenary back from the continent to fight for Parliament. Pettitt fights from conviction and conscience, he is a distant relation to the Earl of Essex. This sets us up nicely for a tale from a cavalry viewpoint with the odd glimpse of higher command.
There are a troop of supporting characters as well. For the most part they simply give enough context for the main characters not to be in isolation. Both main characters are flawed, and this makes their character development engaging. Luce starts off niaive and relatively innocent. I could identify my long departed 20 year old self with him (although I didn't write poetry back then, nor did I have Luce's prudishness).
Babbitt is suffering from mild PTSD, he has flashbacks and mood swings. After the battle of Edgehill he loses touch with reality and gets suicidal. Fortunately for him people are looking out for him.
As well as the characters being real and engaging there is a really good level of historical accuracy in here. The author clearly knows the period that she is writing about. I've spent a couple of decades reading about and re enacting the ECW and there were only a couple of minor points I saw, and that was probably for readability.
The full richness of the period is shown. With Parliamentarians you get the different levels of motivation. There are religious dissenters, raving preachers and quiet Grindletonians. There are also well off types that fight for liberty, their liberty and not really that of the common man. On top of that there are the British mercenaries that have learnt their trade in Europe and come home for pay.
It's not all military either. Befitting the nature of the civil wars there are interludes where we see the impact on civilians.
Overall I loved this book. I paid for it myself and as soon as I finished it I paid for the sequel.
I think you should read it too.
There are a troop of supporting characters as well. For the most part they simply give enough context for the main characters not to be in isolation. Both main characters are flawed, and this makes their character development engaging. Luce starts off niaive and relatively innocent. I could identify my long departed 20 year old self with him (although I didn't write poetry back then, nor did I have Luce's prudishness).
Babbitt is suffering from mild PTSD, he has flashbacks and mood swings. After the battle of Edgehill he loses touch with reality and gets suicidal. Fortunately for him people are looking out for him.
As well as the characters being real and engaging there is a really good level of historical accuracy in here. The author clearly knows the period that she is writing about. I've spent a couple of decades reading about and re enacting the ECW and there were only a couple of minor points I saw, and that was probably for readability.
The full richness of the period is shown. With Parliamentarians you get the different levels of motivation. There are religious dissenters, raving preachers and quiet Grindletonians. There are also well off types that fight for liberty, their liberty and not really that of the common man. On top of that there are the British mercenaries that have learnt their trade in Europe and come home for pay.
It's not all military either. Befitting the nature of the civil wars there are interludes where we see the impact on civilians.
Overall I loved this book. I paid for it myself and as soon as I finished it I paid for the sequel.
I think you should read it too.
didactylos's review
4.0
The opening section is more than a little confusing and I almost gave up on this, I suspect a lot of this is not quite working out who the focus of the story is. By the time Edgehill is reached it becomes a lot clearer and the aftermath of the battle the whole narrative begins to hang together a lot better. By the end thoroughly enjoyed the read and am looking forward to the rest of the series.
jameskemp's review
5.0
The Red Horse is set at the beginning of the First English Civil War in 1642. The primary characters are Captain Hollie Babbitt and his young Cornet Luce Pettitt. Babbitt is a grizzled and damaged English mercenary back from the continent to fight for Parliament. Pettitt fights from conviction and conscience, he is a distant relation to the Earl of Essex. This sets us up nicely for a tale from a cavalry viewpoint with the odd glimpse of higher command.
There are a troop of supporting characters as well. For the most part they simply give enough context for the main characters not to be in isolation. Both main characters are flawed, and this makes their character development engaging. Luce starts off niaive and relatively innocent. I could identify my long departed 20 year old self with him (although I didn't write poetry back then, nor did I have Luce's prudishness).
Babbitt is suffering from mild PTSD, he has flashbacks and mood swings. After the battle of Edgehill he loses touch with reality and gets suicidal. Fortunately for him people are looking out for him.
As well as the characters being real and engaging there is a really good level of historical accuracy in here. The author clearly knows the period that she is writing about. I've spent a couple of decades reading about and re enacting the ECW and there were only a couple of minor points I saw, and that was probably for readability.
The full richness of the period is shown. With Parliamentarians you get the different levels of motivation. There are religious dissenters, raving preachers and quiet Grindletonians. There are also well off types that fight for liberty, their liberty and not really that of the common man. On top of that there are the British mercenaries that have learnt their trade in Europe and come home for pay.
It's not all military either. Befitting the nature of the civil wars there are interludes where we see the impact on civilians.
Overall I loved this book. I paid for it myself and as soon as I finished it I paid for the sequel.
I think you should read it too.
There are a troop of supporting characters as well. For the most part they simply give enough context for the main characters not to be in isolation. Both main characters are flawed, and this makes their character development engaging. Luce starts off niaive and relatively innocent. I could identify my long departed 20 year old self with him (although I didn't write poetry back then, nor did I have Luce's prudishness).
Babbitt is suffering from mild PTSD, he has flashbacks and mood swings. After the battle of Edgehill he loses touch with reality and gets suicidal. Fortunately for him people are looking out for him.
As well as the characters being real and engaging there is a really good level of historical accuracy in here. The author clearly knows the period that she is writing about. I've spent a couple of decades reading about and re enacting the ECW and there were only a couple of minor points I saw, and that was probably for readability.
The full richness of the period is shown. With Parliamentarians you get the different levels of motivation. There are religious dissenters, raving preachers and quiet Grindletonians. There are also well off types that fight for liberty, their liberty and not really that of the common man. On top of that there are the British mercenaries that have learnt their trade in Europe and come home for pay.
It's not all military either. Befitting the nature of the civil wars there are interludes where we see the impact on civilians.
Overall I loved this book. I paid for it myself and as soon as I finished it I paid for the sequel.
I think you should read it too.