FEATURED AUTHOR - D. Lynn Robinson is a mom of five and has been writing fiction all her life, and publishing novels since 2019. A lover of the outdoors, she enjoys hiking, swimming, and warm sandy beaches. When she’s not in the water, you can find her horseback riding with her husband Joe on one of the many trails Idaho has to offer. The Last Indigo and the Beast of Epicerra is her first fantasy chapter book, and a project deeply important to her. She believes that great stories have the power to enrich lives…
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Recent comments: User reviews
The Mongol invasion looms large and its clear from the beginning that that will be the climax. The love story was the poorest aspect but the novel is similar to his later ones in that regard.
The hero is riduculously superhuman in his exploits pushing the novel into the realm of fantasy rather than historical fiction.
The book is very long, over 100 pages but well worth your time.
In this one, a young boy, the usual Henty hero, an uber-competent English boy, gets wrongful arrested and exiled to siberia.
Henty solves the language problem by having the boy be Russian born. The politics are cut short as we only see the Nihilists as rabble rousers. Most of the book is on the hard to believe escape from Siberia to Norway.
Not terribly exciting (but it wouldnt be, in truth) but enough to hold your interest. With some nice little cultural nuggets, mostly on the Samoyads of norther russia.
It also is unintentionaly hilarious as an add for tobacco. the protagonist is constantly extolling the health benefits of tobacco. It is as important as food to these adventurers.
but really one of the more palatable Henty books.
It concerns the son of an educated scholar and his friend, a lord's son, as they witness Wat Tyler's attempt to get the king of England to take notice of the serf class in the 14th century.
Although he gives some lip service to their grievances (yes the life of a peasant in the middle ages was aweful), you can really the taste the bile and contempt Henty feels for commoners. To him they should be satisfied with their lot in life and not trouble their betters. Instead of the white man's burden, it is the upper-class's burden. How dare they want to own their own land?
It has that annoying Henty characteristic of having an action scene, then spending the next 30 pages having the characters participating tell those who werent there in excruciating detail. Mainly so the heroes can keep saying "pish-posh, it wasn't anything." Then why keep describing it? If it were a serial, i might understand the need to recap, but I feel like shouting "I was there when it happened! You don't have to keep recaping it for me!"
If you want a upper-class one-sided opinion of Wat Tyler, here it is. As always a pity, because Henty chooses such excellent subject matter. If only he could see beyond his own birth.
It follows Bertrand de Guiselin, the constable of france, an ugly but heroic knight who held off the English for the first half of the war
More fun than his Fu Manchu stuff.