Tag Archives: History

A Captain of the Gate by John Birmingham

Book Review, , , , ,

Overview

A Captain of the GateTitle: A Captain of the Gate
Author: John Birmingham
Series: The Disappearance Companion
In: Legends of Australian Fantasy (Jack Dann & Jonathan Strahan)
Rating Out of 5: 3 (On the fence about this one)
My Bookshelves: Australian authors, Fantasy, History
Pace: Slow
Format: Short story
Publisher: Harper Collins Australia
Year: 2011
5th sentence, 74th page: McKinnon, a great man by any measure, flawed as are all men, celebrated and reviled, a creator-destroyer of the first order, lies beneath a simple tombstone because he demanded it to be so.

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Synopsis

A ′What if′ story of the Cold War … a small piece of alternate history of the period told via a biography of one of its players, Lieutenant Branch McKinnon, an adventurer in a different post-WWII world of American isolationism.

Thoughts

I just don’t know what I think about this short story. I liked the tone, I liked the way in which it was written, but I wasn’t really sure whether or not it was even a story until I got to the afterword. I just don’t know enough about the history of World War II or even the Allied Nations to actually pull apart this fictional historical biography.

Once I got to the end of A Captain of the Gate, I loved and completely understood the concept of what the point of these 60 pages was. The idea of rewriting a history for all the ‘what ifs’ was brilliant. And the use of a hero (or villain) of this war’s biography and personal history worked well too. But, as someone who knows next to nothing about historical events (I swear I slept through that class), much of the intricacies of this storyline completely flew over my head.

Maybe if I did some research, I would understand (and enjoy) this story better.

 <- Tribute to Hell Review The Magic Word Review ->
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Falling Pomegranate Seeds by Wendy J. Dunn

Book Review, , ,

Overview

falling-pomegranate-seeds

Title: Falling Pomegranate Seeds
Author: Wendy J. Dunn
Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect)
My Bookshelves: Australian authors, History, Strong women
Pace: Medium
Format: Novel
Publisher: MadeGlobal Publishing
Year: 2016
5th sentence, 74th page: The bells on the harness of Queen Isabel’s mount rang a discordant sound as her eyes searched the men at her husband’s back.

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Synopsis

Dona Beatriz Galindo.
Respected scholar.
Tutor to royalty.
Friend and advisor to Queen Isabel of Castile.

Beatriz is an uneasy witness to the Holy War of Queen Isabel and her husband, Ferdinand, King of Aragon. A Holy War seeing the Moors pushed out of territories ruled by them for centuries.

The road for women is a hard one. Beatriz must tutor the queen’s youngest child, Catalina, and equip her for a very different future life. She must teach her how to survive exile, an existence outside the protection of her mother. She must prepare Catalina to be England’s queen.

A tale of mothers and daughters, power, intrigue, death, love, and redemption. In the end, Falling Pomegranate Seeds sings a song of friendship and life.

Thoughts

I don’t often read historical fiction, it’s not a genre that I’ve ever been exposed to. But, when I met Wendy through Swinburne University and decided to read her book… just wow, wow. I’ve never read such a heart-rending and fascinating story. The fact that it is based upon something that truly happened just made every moment of tragedy and triumph all the more powerful and poignant.

Catalina, or Katherine of Aragon as many came to later know her, had an immensely painful and tragic upbringing. This not only brings forward the strength of an incredible woman and one whom is often forgotten due to her replacement by Anne Boleyn, but it also highlights the plight of women. The mothers and daughters throughout this story constantly fight for their sense of self and lives. Their relationships are pressured and pursued by the needs of the men surrounding them, and they are constantly upheld to an ideal that is structured by others’ needs.

Telling the tale of Catalina through the eyes of her tutor, Beatriz, was a beautiful way in which to tell of the Holy War and a child growing too quickly into her mantle of responsibility. Every moment of peace and happiness present within the beginning of the story and childhood is offset by the pain and suffering that quickly causes such a vibrant young child to grow into adulthood.

This is a fantastic look into the history of one of the Tudors, but it is far more than that. Falling Pomegranate Seeds is an insightful look into the rights of women, the relationships between mothers and daughters, and coming of age in a world that is harsh and difficult.

<- More Wendy J. Dunn reviews Dear Heart, How Like You This? Review ->
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A Delusion of Satan by Frances Hill

Book Review, , , ,

Overview

a-delusion-of-satan

Title: A Delusion of Satan
Author: Frances Hill
Rating Out of 5: 3 (On the fence about this one)
My Bookshelves: History, Non-fiction
Pace: Slow
Format: Non-fictional text
Publisher: The Perseus Books Group
Year: 1995
5th sentence, 74th page: Either way, when Lawson and she finished talking she was standing by the door, about to leave, when she suddenly screamed.

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Synopsis

During the bleak winter of 1692 in the rigid Puritan community of Salem Village, Massachusetts, a group of young girls began experiencing violent fits, allegedly tormented by Satan and the witches who worshipped him. From the girls’ initial denouncing of an Indian slave, the accusations soon multiplied. In less than two years, nineteen men and women were hanged, one was pressed to death, and over a hundred others were imprisoned and impoverished.

This evenhanded and now-classic history illuminates the horrifying episode with visceral clarity, from the opportunistic Putnam clan, who fanned the crisis to satisfy personal vendettas and greed, to four-year-old “witch” Dorcas Good, chained to a dank prison wall in darkness till she went mad. By placing the distant period of the Salem witch trials in the larger context of more contemporary eruptions of mass hysteria and intolerance, the author has created a work as thought-provoking as it is emotionally powerful.

Thoughts

I don’t often read non-fictions, and I rarely read historical books, something that I am slowly changing. So reading A Delusion of Satan was a nice change of pace and a very pleasant surprise. Unlike a lot of research that I have done previously into the Salem Witch Trials, this book provided an in depth, logical insight into the hysteria and actions surrounding such a dramatic and horrific period in America’s history.

Hill fantastically utilises primary sources within her work and this, combined with a thorough analysis of witness testimonies, builds a detailed and insightful look into the witch burnings of the 1690s. She also investigates the ways in which group mentality can be hugely harmful to the minority. In Hill’s forward, she compares and contrasts this phenomenon with today’s mentality and fear of sexual predation upon toddlers and children. This contrast really helps to place the atrocities into context within our modern times.

Hill’s writing is not only engaging and insightful, the flow of her words and arguments bring this world and time to life in the mind’s eye. It can be difficult to find an engaging non-fiction text at times, since the words often can’t be embellished. However, Hill manages to do this fantastically, she takes the truth and a captivating period in history and make the idiosyncrasies of that time accessible for those of us who haven’t got a degree in history.

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