A review by liisp_cvr2cvr
Duke by David Churchill
5.0
If you count yourself a fan of historical fiction at all, then it would be madness for you not to get your hands on this mega read.
Duke is book #2 in The Leopards of Normany trilogy by David Churchill. My sincere thanks to Bookbridgr, Headline Publishing and David Churchill for providing me a copy of Book #1, Devil for a review last year. To my utter delight and surprise Headline Publishing followed up by also sending me review copy of Duke. How awesome is that? Now, I must apologize I haven’t got around to reading Duke until recently and the delay in getting this review done.
Devil, book #1 of The Leopards of Normandy follows Robert the Duke- his life, his battles, the deceipt and loyalty of fellow countrymen and neighbors. In Duke, the historical fiction continues with Robert’s son William the Bastard who as a young boy takes over the duchy and faces many a hardship in his young life. The hardships however make William stand up for himself as he grows older and holds his duchy with even more conviction.
This book truly portrays a game of thrones, the moving about of chesspieces by many an ambitious hand. Loaded with fictional and historical characters alike, David Churchill has managed to take what few evidenced historical facts there are and build a tremendous fiction around it.
The writing is of truly high quality and standard while the fiction supporting facts is imaginative and spectactular indeed. With so many characters and everyone’s varying ambitions one could be worried about being able to follow the story, yet as was the case with Devil, this is where the quality comes in- the writing is so simple and easy to follow yet packs a proper punch therefore delivering the whole story in a convincing and adventurous way.
The book has a fantastic balance of everything that historical fiction stands for- betrayal, wit, love and hate, loyalties and death. There isn’t a single moment in this book which doesn’t satisfy the hunger of the bookworm.
Power hungry characters are the most interesting as they will go to any length to get what they want and yet, William, the Bastard, the Conqueror is a character I enjoyed seeing grow from a boy to a man on the pages of this book while keeping an air of level headedness about him earning the respect of any reader.
Devil, book #1 was easily one of my favorite reads last year. This year, Duke is among the favorites as well… and I can’t wait to read how the story ends!
Duke is book #2 in The Leopards of Normany trilogy by David Churchill. My sincere thanks to Bookbridgr, Headline Publishing and David Churchill for providing me a copy of Book #1, Devil for a review last year. To my utter delight and surprise Headline Publishing followed up by also sending me review copy of Duke. How awesome is that? Now, I must apologize I haven’t got around to reading Duke until recently and the delay in getting this review done.
Devil, book #1 of The Leopards of Normandy follows Robert the Duke- his life, his battles, the deceipt and loyalty of fellow countrymen and neighbors. In Duke, the historical fiction continues with Robert’s son William the Bastard who as a young boy takes over the duchy and faces many a hardship in his young life. The hardships however make William stand up for himself as he grows older and holds his duchy with even more conviction.
This book truly portrays a game of thrones, the moving about of chesspieces by many an ambitious hand. Loaded with fictional and historical characters alike, David Churchill has managed to take what few evidenced historical facts there are and build a tremendous fiction around it.
The writing is of truly high quality and standard while the fiction supporting facts is imaginative and spectactular indeed. With so many characters and everyone’s varying ambitions one could be worried about being able to follow the story, yet as was the case with Devil, this is where the quality comes in- the writing is so simple and easy to follow yet packs a proper punch therefore delivering the whole story in a convincing and adventurous way.
The book has a fantastic balance of everything that historical fiction stands for- betrayal, wit, love and hate, loyalties and death. There isn’t a single moment in this book which doesn’t satisfy the hunger of the bookworm.
Power hungry characters are the most interesting as they will go to any length to get what they want and yet, William, the Bastard, the Conqueror is a character I enjoyed seeing grow from a boy to a man on the pages of this book while keeping an air of level headedness about him earning the respect of any reader.
Devil, book #1 was easily one of my favorite reads last year. This year, Duke is among the favorites as well… and I can’t wait to read how the story ends!