#WWWWednesday – 7th February 2024

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WWWWednesdays

Hosted by Taking on a World of Words, this meme is all about the three Ws:

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next?

Why not join in too?  Leave a comment with your link at Taking on a World of Words and then go blog hopping!

Currently reading

Two NetGalley eARCs and a physical ARC. Thanks to the respective publishers.

SufferanceSufferance by Charles Palliser (eARC, Guernica Editions via NetGalley)

When his nation is invaded and occupied by a brutal enemy, a well-intentioned man persuades his wife that they should give temporary shelter to a young girl who is at school with their daughter. He has no idea that the girl belongs to a community against whom the invader intends to commit genocide.

Days stretch into weeks and then months while the enemy’s pitiless hatred of the girl’s community puts all of the family in danger. Nobody outside the family can be trusted with the dangerous secret and the threat from outside unlocks a darkness that threatens to derail them all. 

Remember, RememberRemember, Remember by Elle Machray (eARC, HarperNorth via NetGalley)

1770. Delphine lives in the shadows of London: a secret, vibrant world of smugglers, courtesans and small rebellions. Four years ago, she escaped enslavement at great personal cost. Now, she must help her brother Vincent do the same.

While Britain’s highest court fails to administer justice for Vincent, little rebellions are no longer enough. What’s needed is a big, explosive plot – one that will strike at the heart of the transatlantic slave trade. But can one Black woman, one fuse and one match bring down an Empire?

The Shadow NetworkThe Shadow Network (Devlin & Dempsey #5) by Tony Kent (ARC, Elliott & Thompson)

How do you take down an enemy when no one believes they exist? 

When the lawyers of alleged war criminal Hannibal Strauss are caught up in a terror attack in The Hague, barrister Michael Devlin immediately suspects all is not what it seems. Teaming up once more with Agent Joe Dempsey, they must find who’s behind it all before any more innocent lives are lost.

With their key witness on the run and assassins on their tail, their only lead is a the Monk, a legendary and mysterious foreign agent with a fearsome reputation. But what is his stake in this dangerous game? And just who is part of his shadowy network of spies? Caught in a complicated web of lies, secrets and double agents, there’s no one Dempsey and Devlin can trust but themselves.

Recently finished

Where the Winds Calls Home by Samar Yazbek, translated by Leri Price (World Editions)

The Serpent Sword (The Bernicia Chronicles #1) by Matthew Harffy (Head of Zeus)

All Day at the Movies by Fiona Kidman (Gallic Books)

When war widow Irene Sandle goes to work in New Zealand’s tobacco fields in 1952, she hopes to start a new, independent life for herself and her daughter – but the tragic repercussions of her decision will resonate long after Irene has gone.

Each of Irene’s children carries the events of their childhood throughout their lives, played out against a backdrop of great change – new opportunities emerge for women, but social problems continue to hold many back. Headstrong Belinda becomes a successful filmmaker, but struggles to deal with her own family drama as her younger siblings are haunted by the past. (Review to follow)

What Cathy Will Read Next

The List of Suspicious ThingsThe List of Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey (ARC, Penguin)

Yorkshire, 1979. Maggie Thatcher is prime minister, drainpipe jeans are in, and Miv is convinced that her dad wants to move their family Down South. Because of the murders.

Leaving Yorkshire and her best friend Sharon simply isn’t an option, no matter the dangers lurking round their way; or the strangeness at home that started the day Miv’s mum stopped talking.
Perhaps if she could solve the case of the disappearing women, they could stay after all?

So, Miv and Sharon decide to make a list: a list of all the suspicious people and things down their street. People they know. People they don’t. But their search for the truth reveals more secrets in their neighbourhood, within their families – and between each other – than they ever thought possible.

What if the real mystery Miv needs to solve is the one that lies much closer to home?

Book Review – The Serpent Sword by Matthew Harffy

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About the Book

Book cover of The Serpent Sword by Matthew Harffy, first book in The Bernicia Chronicles

633AD. Anglo-Saxon Britain. Beobrand is compelled by his brother’s almost-certain murder to embark on a quest for revenge in the war-ravaged kingdoms of Northumbria. The land is rife with danger, as warlords vie for supremacy and dominion. In the battles for control of the region, new oaths are made and broken, and loyalties are tested to the limits.

With no patronage and no experience Beobrand must form his own allegiances and learn to fight with sword and shield. Relentless in pursuit of his enemies, he faces challenges which transform him from a boy to a man who stands strong in the clamour and gore of the shieldwall.

As he closes in on his kin’s slayer and the bodies pile up, can Beobrand mete out the vengeance he craves without sacrificing his honour … or even his soul?

Format: ebook (346 pages) Publisher: Aria
Publication date: 1st April 2015 Genre: Historical Fiction

Find The Serpent Sword on Goodreads

Purchase The Serpent Sword from Bookshop.org [Disclosure: If you buy books linked to our site, we may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops]

My Review

The Serpent Sword is the first book in Matthew Harffy’s ‘The Bernicia Chronicles’ series set in 7th century Anglo-Saxon Britain, the period often referred to as the Dark Ages. I came across the series at book six, Storm of Steel and have read all the subsequent books: Fortress of Fury, For Lord and Land and Forest of Foes. (Links from the titles will take you to my review of each book.) Browsing my NetGalley shelf I realised that I had this, the first book in the series, still unread so I set about putting that right.

The young Beobrand we encounter at the beginning of the book is a rather tortured soul. He has suffered the loss of most of his family and then discovers he has in fact lost all of his family following the murder of his brother, Octa. His thirst for revenge only fuels his desire to become a warrior. Although he dreams of glory in battle, he’s unprepared for the reality of warfare and the anguish it will bring.

Beobrand makes mistakes, falling in with a band of warriors whose ruthless actions bring about a crisis of conscience. Where is the honour in such deeds? He also witnesses first-hand – and we the reader along with him – the full horror of warfare and the visceral nature of being part of a shieldwall. ‘All along the line men were grunting and shouting abuse. Screams of the injured and dying mingled with the mad laughter of warriors wallowing in the glory of battle. All was accented by the clash and and crash of metal on metal.’

Although possessing the natural instincts of a warrior – and just as importantly, luck – Beobrand has to learn his craft. It’s work that will stand him in good stead as he takes on a formidable opponent. And by the end of the book, there is more at stake than just his honour or even revenge. What does ‘wyrd’ [fate or destiny] have in store for Beobrand? As he is reminded, ‘[…] the way of the sword is not rife with happiness. The sword is like a serpent. You can try to tame it, but it is venomous and will often bite the hand that holds it’. Those who have read subsquent books in the series will know how true this is.

Although Beobrand is a fictional character, real historical figures feature in the book too. However, as the author points out in the Historical Notes, no contemporanous accounts exist although that does provide opportunities for the novelist. As Matthew Harffy observes, ‘The fact that it is a time seen as “through a glass, darkly”, makes it a perfect time to write about’.

My digital copy of The Serpent Sword includes a preview of the next book in the series, The Cross and the Curse, which intriguingly opens in 619AD, fourteen years before The Serpent Sword. Luckily I recently came across a copy of The Cross and the Curse in the Oxfam bookshop in Henley-on-Thames. I just need to make sure I don’t leave it as long to read it as I have this one.

Matthew Harffy is also the author of the A Time for Swords series set in 8th century Britain, comprising A Time for Swords, A Night of Flames and A Day of Reckoning, and the standalone Wolf of Wessex. As you may have gathered, I’m a big admirer of Matthew’s books and if you’re a fan of action-packed historical fiction I can wholeheartedly recommend The Bernicia Chronicles series. Unlike me, perhaps start the series from the beginning though?

I received a digital review copy of The Serpent Sword courtesy of Head of Zeus via NetGalley.

In three words: Action-packed, compelling, authentic
Try something similar: The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell

About the Author

Matthew Harffy, author of The Bernicia Chronicles

Before becoming a full-time author, Matthew worked in the IT industry, where he spent most of his days writing and editing, just not the words that most interested him! Prior to that, he worked in Spain as an English teacher and translator.

Matthew lives in Wiltshire, England, with his wife and their two daughters (Photo: Goodreads author page)