speesh's reviews
416 reviews

This is not your run-of-the-mill religious, historical, chase, search, code-breaking, discovery of some ancient artefact that proves Christianity is based on a myth or a lie, type of thriller. It's quite a step up from that.
Passages reminded me of books I've read by Alan Furst or Olen Steinhauer. The introspection, the uncertainty, the slightly tainted or regretted past, the feeling I got of the main character just being along for the ride in certain sections of his or her own life.
Gospel Truths is written from the point of view of a middle-aged English police officer, with a slightly troubled past personal and professional life. He is originally from the English counties, but after a high-profile success, he is now working in London. He is handed a bit of a hot potato of a case, involving a suicide they suspect is murder but can't prove, international banking scandals, The Vatican and various highly un-savoury international underworld figures. His investigations lead him to France, to cathedrals, the possible involvement of the Freemasons, a Gospel that could be written using Jesus' own words and the long tendrils of freemasonry organisations, with more fingers in more pies than they have fingers. I think I've covered the most of it.
The funny thing is, that while the book is called The Gospel Code and the story is ostensibly woven around a murder and a search/chase for an ancient gospel, that isn't really what (I think, as least) the book is about. It's more about a personal and introspective search, by the main character Nigel Lyman. We learn more about him, his background and history, than we do about the searched for Gospel. And it's all the better for that.
If I were to be critical, i'd say that there some background passages were a little too oblique. I liked the style of colouring in his past with some passages which, on the surface, seemed to have little to do with the plot, but were there to illuminate how the reasoning he applied to plot developments, came about. However, sometimes I was struggling to see how exactly they helped me understand him any more than getting on with the story would have done.
Overall, you are going to have to put in a bit of effort into reading this one. It's much more than an ordinary, airport shop, holiday-reading, page-turning blockbuster, no matter how much the cover blurb would like to convince you you've got another Dan Brown in your hands. It's much better than that.
Recommended.

Strange, slow, long, but still enjoyable. Though, I'm really not too sure why.On the face of it, not an awful lot happens. It feels like what it of course actually is; number two in a trilogy (I haven't read number three yet); a transition novel, between one and two.

My first problem was that it doesn't exactly follow on from the first in the series. In that one, the Templars are formed and find what they're looking for under the old Jewish Temple of the Mount. This one, takes place a number of years later and whilst many of the general themes from the first, are present and correct, there aren't an awful lot of links in terms of personnel or direct links, in terms of developing what they found and how the Templars might have used whatever it was they found, to become what they did and possibly are today. Really, apart from the location, the Holy Land and the fact that the main characters are members of the organisation behind the Templars, it is a different story, different characters.

The story follows one young knight, from (what is now France), through trials and tribulations to do with his family's background, his membership of the fellowship that was behind the formation of the Templars, through his dealings with Richard (the Lionheart), King of England, his induction into the Templars, under what are in effect, false pretences, preparations and the initial stages of the latest Crusade to 'free' the Holy Land.

However, whilst I read and read and waited patiently for something to happen, I actually got quite involved with the themes and the story. The detail and the evocation of the period, is impressive. But I often got the impression that the author does want you to know he's done an awful lot of research and that he wants to make absolutely sure you get the thrust of what he's saying. So, even though it's a good, long book, he hasn't got the space to weave all he's wanting to impart into the events that could make up the story. He plumps for having his two main characters sit discussing these ideas and ask each other leading questions in a rather false and stilted manner. What the characters are really saying is "please explain to me in great detail, exactly what the author's research told him". After a couple of these sessions, it becomes a bit wearing to be lectured at in this manner. There are quite a few other sections that could have been edited down, to allow for what he is trying to impart to be woven into actual events making up a story.We don't really get anywhere towards the end and I think, a few days later, that we left things on the eve of, hopefully, some big events in the Crusade and some sort of revelation about what the Templars intend to do with whatever they found. Buying Cyprus isn't enough.

Having said all that...while I can't really recommend this one over a few of the others I've read in this style, I still found it enjoyable and if it hadn't been for the distractions of owning an iPad2, I'd have read it a lot more quickly. I will be buying the number three, when I've ploughed through the books I've got waiting on the 'to read' shelf.

The Thieves of Faith really is just not good enough. It's not entirely in dreadful Clive Kussler territory, but in the foothills of such absurdity, that's for sure.

The story is something or other to do with breaking into The Kremlin after some golden box with something in it, or maybe with nothing in it, to help save some woman who may or may not be dead. Mostly.

The villains are 100% bad, but with, of course, what the author is obviously convinced is absolutely impeccable taste and the illicitly gained millions to indulge their slightest whim.

The goodies are 100% good, talented and handsome or beautiful. The main man is also, of course, a master thief with a photographic memory and an ability to commit even the most complicated ancient maps of the Kremlin underground tunnels to memory after merely glancing at them. The goodies love(d) their wives/partners with every fibre of their beings. The main man's wife has recently died and the grief he feels about her loss has "hollowed his heart." Actually, there needs to be a bit of room in there, because his wife's last note to him, that he finds after she's dead, says; "I will always be with you, eternally within your heart." Bit creepy that, if you ask me.

Another thing that annoyed me about the main goodie was that he gets adopted at birth. That's ok, given the circumstances, but why in this kind of book is it never by a Mr. Mrs. Smith, Jones or Pratt? But always by a Mr. Mrs. St. Pierre, as here. Lucky, that.

The author has obviously been very thorough with his research and tried to be very thorough with the background of his characters - unfortunately, it's just that it all contributes to making them thoroughly unbelievable.

I was mopping up some of the books at the back of my Amazon Wish List, you really shouldn't bother wasting your time on it.

Ah, Memphis; home of Elvis and the Ancient Greeks...erm...

Most people who know anything about anything, know at least a little about the legend of Thermopylae and the 300 Spartans who fought there against overwhelming Persian odds back in the time of Ancient Greece. Of course, if you've seen the film '300', you'll know roughly the story, but 'Gates of Fire' takes it on to a whole different level.

'Gates of Fire' (Thermopylae is Greek for 'hot gates', after the hot springs found there) uses what is known of the battle, immediately before, during and immediately after, and fleshes out the available facts, with background, characters and lots of personality. Having already read 'The Spartans', by Paul Cartledge, I knew something of The Spartan's history and traditions beforehand, so I can vouch for the authenticity of the description of Spartan society, customs and fighting techniques.

It's written as though one of the Greeks has survived and though gravely injured, is telling the story of the Spartans and their preparation for and conduct during the battle, for later presentation to the Persian king Xerxes.

It is a thoroughly captivating book, well-written and packed with detail and interesting characters. The book builds nicely throughout, leading to the climactic battle at the pass of the hot springs. The description of the fight scenes in the final battle is superb, gripping and well-written. Of course, I've no experience of fighting in such a battle, but it seems very realistic, you get what seems like much more of an idea of how - apart from anything, how dirty and thoroughly exhausting - it must have been to take part in such a battle, than many of the other historical novels I've read.
I thought it was a really good, thoroughly enjoyable, absorbing read.

*Of course, there weren't only 300 Spartans fighting at Thermopylae. There were thousands of other Greeks from other Greek city states in the battle as well. Even the 300 Spartans is a little doubtful. In The Gates of Fire, does say that 300 are chosen to go to the battle. On the third day of fighting, the Spartan king Leonidas, on learning that his force is about to be surrounded, by Persians coming round to the rear of the Thermopylae pass, sends away the majority of the other Greek forces. Some refuse and so stay, but in this book, obviously at this point, there are a lot less than 300 Spartans still alive. However, some other sources suggest that over 1,000 Spartans went to start the battle and that when Leonidas sent away the Greek forces, there were just 300 Spartans left at that point. Confusing.

The period between the wars, especially the later period (we're of course talking Europe here) in the run-up to World War II especially in Eastern Europe, fascinates me. This is where Alan Furst's excellent novels are set. According to the introduction information, he has travelled and lived for many years in France and eastern Europe, though reading his books, you'd find it hard not to believe he wasn't transported in a time-machine, directly to today from Europe of the late 1930s.

The Polish Officer is part espionage novel and part fascinating look at ordinary people being forced to understand extra-ordinary situations. Situations made all the more extra-ordinary as their optimistic, post-World War I world is torn apart by forces beyond their understanding and, more importantly, beyond their control. It is surely a fictional companion piece to Max Hastings' 'All Hell Let Loose.'

I found this an absolutely absorbing novel. By far the most satisfying Alan Furst novel I've read so far. It is set in Eastern Europe, in Poland, at the outbreak of World War II. The main character is drafted into Polish Intelligence, while the war causes the world around him to collapse. He and his colleagues try to re-establish their places in the new world and determine how the future of their country might look. Being Polish, they of course know that however things turn out, it's probably going to be largely out of their hands and that other, bigger and more powerful, powers will determine what happens to the Poles and so their job is to try and make the best of it, while also trying to make sense of it all.

He is sent undercover through Poland, to France, to Spain, to England and back to Poland where the Nazis are now on their way into Russia and the world is turning upside down once again. As i said earlier, I think the book is about people trying to make the best of situations that are largely out of their control. They are trying to remain in control of their lives, while realising that it probably isn't possible.

This is a thrilling, tense, satisfying book. There are many absorbing vignettes, many interesting characters, many thought-provoking episodes, all linked by the Polish officer of the book's title, who is, as he says at one point; "...a wanderer, somehow never home."

This is in essence, a different look at the Viking 'swords and shields' books that I like reading so much (Robert Low, Giles Kristian, etc). If you're simply after swords and shields and bucket-loads of bloody raping and pillaging, this isn't for you. This is much more. More a thorough tour round the 11th Century Viking world, wrapped in an really engaging and in the latter stages especially, thought-provoking story.

It is clear from this, the third and final book in the 'Viking' series, that the whole story hinges on the 'threat' of the coming of Christianity (the 'White Christ') to the previously Pagan Scandinavian lands. A coming which pretty much was the reason for the end of the Viking era. We have followed someone called Thorgills, throughout the series, but it is really first here, in number three, that it becomes clear that he too can see the writing on the wall, that Christianity is probably unstoppable. At the same time, a lot of his motivation in making the decisions he makes, is in the hope of finding a way of halting that flow of Christianity and turning the good, honest, hard-working ordinary Viking people, back to 'the old ways'. In Harald Hardrada, he thinks he had found 'the symbol of my yearning that it might be possible to restore the glories of the past.' Problem is, Harald does want to restore the glories of the past, just different glories to those of Thorgills'. Both want to be a new Knud/Knut (if you're a Scandinavian reader), Canute (if you're English). Harald wants to be the Scandinavian Knud, who ruled Norway, Denmark and large parts of England, while Thorgills is really in essence like what we English remember Canute for - trying to hold back the waves, in this case, of Christanity.

The honesty and quiet nobility of the Pagan ways as practiced by ordinary people, is many times contrasted with the corrupt, power-hungry, un-forgiving and elitist new Christianity. Especially in the contrast between Thorgills' life in the Varangian guard in Constantinople and his later living on a poor farm, with his wife, on the Swedish border with Norway. Yet the underlying similarities in all religions, to the ordinary man or woman in the street or field are also stressed. The only thing that is different in a lot of cases, is the names - and in 'Viking', the people following those religions.
 
Whilst it had been a while since I had read number two, and had read several others in the same field in between, I had no difficulty re-picturing the main character, previous events and where we were now. He clearly has done his research exceptionally well (I have, down the years, built up a reasonable knowledge of Viking history, and I do now, after all, live in a Viking country!) and if you know anything about the Varangian Guard in Constantinople, Scandinavia in the 10th Century (you'd be surprised, you do!), King Harold, the Bayeux Tapestry, William 'the Conqueror' and the preparation for and the events of, 1066...you'll find it all woven in here. There was only once where I thought I was going to have to suspend belief about Thorgills' being in the right Viking place at the right time in Viking history - and you probably need to know your Shakespeare - where I raised an eyebrow slightly, but without looking into the facts and the dates, I'm not going to be too hard on him for it.   
 
For anyone with even a passing interest in the 'real' Viking world and history, this will be a wonderfully rewarding read. A textbook with a story wrapped around it isn't such a bad thing, when it's done so well as this Viking saga. I thoroughly enjoyed 'The Kings Man' and found it the best of the 'Viking' volumes (I did wonder if a compendium (?) single volume edition might be a nice idea). The whole story is interesting, involving and well-written, the main characters are fully-realised and believable - I was genuinely upset with one development towards the end of the story - and the final passages are a poignant and thought-provoking look at the ending of the Viking world, seen by a believer in 'the old ways'; a true 'Viking'.

'Outlaw', is an enjoyable, even memorable, re-imagining and re-exploration if you will, of the Robin Hood legend. All our favourite fiends, friends and enemies are here - 'Maid Marion', Friar Tuck, 'Little' John, the Sherrif of Nottingham, and Guy of Gisborne - there's action and adventure a-plenty and it all takes place in and around Sherwood Forest.

But forget what you thought you knew of Robin Hood. There's no swinging happily through Sherwood Forest's lush, leafy glades, no slapping thighs while dressed in Lincoln green. He still robs from the rich of course, but he keeps more than a bit for himself, as you would. This Robin Hood is a successful leader, an inspiring personality, a friend, a lover - but he's also a constant, threatening presence; you're never entirely sure what he believes or what he will do next. It is the last throws of an older England, an ancient, honest England fighting to survive against the overwhelming odds of the all-conquering Normans.

However, the story is perhaps more about the young Alan Dale. From an impoverished childhood and an early - not entirely successful - career as common thief in Nottingham, he becomes involved with the real thieves and outlaws of Robin Hood and Sherwood Forest. Typically, one (Nor)man's thief, is another (English)man's freedom fighter and Alan Dale is inexorably drawn to the outlaws through necessity and curiosity. The book follows battles to remain alive, his 'education' at the hands of themtough forest outlaws - but also from a whole host of troubadors, Knights, lords and ladies - through many adventures up and down England, leading to the Outlaws' final confrontation in Sherwood, with the seemingly superior forces of the Sherrif of Nottingham. It's not really a surprise that he survives, of course; he has already made clear that he is narrating this in the latter days of a long life, but it is genuinely interesting, not to say tensely exciting, finding out how he is to do it.

"And there are many here who have been forced to leave their families, their hearths and homes by so called law-men, by bullies who claim power of life and death over you in the name of the King...And there are many here who have been injured, humiliated and denied your natural rights as free Englishmen"

Yet there is another all-conquering force at work in this book's (not so) Merrie England; Christianity. It seems there are many ordinary free Englishmen who are still unrepentantly Pagan and in this, the book reminded me a lot of the struggle to keep the pagan faith alive, that is central to another book I read recently, 'Viking: King's Man', by Tim Severin. Indeed, 'Little' John is clearly Viking inspired.

Christianity is obviously the religion of the rich and powerful. It is a 'top down' religion, closely bound up with and indeed cynically used by, the Normans. Used to instil a fear of their 'betters' - and a fear of the consequences of revolt - in the ordinary people of England. As a Norman comments on a speech Robin Hood makes on the eve of battle;

"He talks like a ranting priest, but he rants about the most extraordinary Godless, unnatural things: Freedom from the Church? Freedom from our rightful lords, who have been set above us by God? What nonsense, what dangerous, heretical nonsense."

However, the older, Pagan beliefs, are closely associated with the fields and forests and wild places. An honest, down to earth faith. As a denizen of Sherwood, living in a seemingly Christian society, this Robin Hood uneasily straddles the two faiths. But, as a true man of the people, he is more Pagan than Christian. Or is he? Several times through the book, just as Alan Dale seems to have got a fix on Robin Hood's values, or what he believes; Robin moves in another mysterious way. He seems to hate Christianity and perhaps with good reason, for Christianity is bound up with the Normans, the two forces combining to oppress the ordinary, hard-working, pagan worshiping English people. Robin's honest, down to earth people need a hero, they need a new King Arthur and Robin Hood is it.

Was he a real person? He is surely, historically speaking, more a fantasy figure, than a real, historically provable figure. Robin Hood is almost certainly a coalescence of the ordinary people's collective hopeful imagination - hoping for inspiration, help and comfort against the oppressive regime of the Normans and the voracious march of Christianity. Much in the vein of King Arthur, who is mentioned many times in 'Outlaw'; Robin Hood is a rememberance of a glorious 'golden' age of England, now lost, the return of which needs an Arthur-like spear-head figure. Robin Hood.

Was he a real? Probably not. But if he had been, he would certainly more like Angus Donald's Robin, than all the Hollywood or tv studio versions you're more familiar with. Looking forward to getting hold of the next in the series.