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Blog Tour/Book Review: The New Achilles by Christian Cameron

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The New Achilles Blog tour

Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for action-packed historical novel, The New Achilles by Christian Cameron. Thanks to Tracy Fenton at Compulsive Readers for inviting me to take part in the tour and to Orion Books and NetGalley for my review copy.  You can read my review below.

The New AchillesAbout the Book

Alexanor is a man who has seen too much blood. He has left the sword behind him to become a healer in the greatest sanctuary in Greece, turning his back on war.

But war has followed him to his refuge at Epidauros, and now a battle to end the freedom of Greece is all around him. The Mediterranean superpowers of Rome, Egypt and Macedon are waging their proxy wars on Hellenic soil, turning Greek farmers into slaves and mercenaries.

When wounded soldier Philopoemen is carried into his temple, Alexanor believes the man’s wounds are mortal but that he is not destined to die. Because he knows Philopoemen will become Greece’s champion. Its last hero. The new Achilles.

Format: Hardcover (pp.)    Publisher: Orion Books
Published: 18th April 2019 Genre: Historical Fiction

Pre-order/Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk  ǀ  Amazon.com  ǀ Hive.co.uk (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find The New Achilles on Goodreads

My Review

The New Achilles is crammed full of action scenes (including a pirate attack in the very first chapter) that really come alive on the page.   It’s also full of detailed information about clothing, weaponry, armour, religious practices and social customs of the time that are obviously the result of extensive research.  (The glossary at the end of the book is much needed.) The detailed and often lengthy battle scenes, although undoubtedly exciting, were of less interest to me than the exploration of the interesting relationship between Alexanor and Philopoemen.  ‘We’ve boxed and we’ve argued.  Are we not brothers?’

Alexanor is variously doctor, therapist, confidante and sparring partner to Philopoemen, whom he accompanies on his journeys to different theatres of war from what we now know as the mainland of Greece to Crete and back again.  It’s a complex political situation with shifting allegiances and a multitude of city states and their leaders competing for power and influence – ‘the game of kings’, in fact.  In his Author’s Note, Christian Cameron likens Greece at the time to modern Syria with all the big players fighting over her.

Alexanor and Philopoemen are united by the trauma of loss in their personal lives but although both have chosen a life of action as the means to silence their demons, Alexanor has opted for priesthood and healing whilst Philopoemen has chosen success on the battlefield.

Philopoemen, the so-called ‘new Achilles’, is a charismatic leader, master tactician and accomplished, and seemingly tireless, fighter with miraculous powers of recovery.   As imagined by the author, he is somewhat of a radical visionary too, arguing the case for gender equality and an end to slavery among other things.  As he says, ‘I don’t want to conquer the world, I want to make it better.’ He’s a bit of a politician as well, keenly aware of what is required of a leader.  He states knowingly at one point ‘No one fancies a hard-working Achilles.  It has to appear effortless’.

The New Achilles is a book for readers who like their historical fiction to come with a soundtrack of the clash of swords, the thunder of hooves, the swish of arrows and javelins, the glugging of wine and the earthy language of soldiers in battle.

In his Author’s Note, Christian Cameron states, ‘This book is a novel, and a great deal of it, especially the details, is made up.  But Philopoemen really lived.  And he really was so great a man that everyone, friends and enemies, honoured him when he was dead.’ Fans of The New Achilles will be pleased to know that Philopoemen’s story doesn’t end here.

I received an advance review copy courtesy of publishers, Orion Books, and NetGalley.

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In three words: Detailed, dramatic, action-packed

Try something similar…The Last King of Lydia by Tim Leach

Christian Cameron 2About the Author

Christian Cameron is a writer and military historian. He participates in re-enacting and experimental archaeology, teaches armoured fighting and historical swordsmanship, and takes his vacations with his family visiting battlefields, castles and cathedrals. He lives in Toronto and is busy writing his next novel.  (Photo credit: Orion Books author page)

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Blog Tour/Book Review: Pilgrim by Louise Hall

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Pilgrim Blog Tour Poster

I’m delighted to be hosting today’s stop on the blog tour for Pilgrim by Louise Hall.  You can read my review below.  Thanks to Anne at Random Things Tours for inviting me to participate in the tour and to Mercier Press for my review copy.

PilgrimAbout the Book

In Dublin, fourteen-year-old Jen and her father, Charlie, are struggling to cope with the death of their mother/wife. Charlie, in particular, seems to have given up on life. When Jen’s aunt, Suzanne, convinces them to go on a pilgrimage to a strange village in Yugoslavia, there is hope that some solace or healing may be brought to their broken lives.

On their arrival, however, they find a village in upheaval. An influx of pilgrims have swarmed into the village, each looking for their own miracle. Then there are the local police, who aim to suppress this so-called `revolution’. Amid all this, Jen makes a friend, Iva – one of the children who claims to have seen the Virgin Mary.

Told with a deep humanity and grace, Pilgrim is a story about a man who feels he has nothing to live for, and a daughter who is determined to prove him wrong. A nuanced and moving exploration of grief and faith.

Format: Paperback (288 pp.)    Publisher: Mercier Press
Published: 14th September 2018   Genre: Literary Fiction

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk  ǀ  Hive.co.uk (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find Pilgrim on Goodreads

My Review

Pilgrim takes the reader on an emotional as well as an actual journey to a small village in Yugoslavia where six children have experienced a vision of the Virgin Mary. It comes at a time (the early 1980s) of turbulence in that country. Alternating between the points of view of a few key characters, including Iva, one of the six children, and the Franciscan priest who tries to protect them, the book explores the experiences of the pilgrims who flock to the village. The political upheaval in Yugoslavia and its impact on the inhabitants also features but very much as background. Pilgrim is more a book about people than events.

I liked the device the author often used of allowing the reader to experience the events of the same day but from different points of view – Iva and Jen, Jen and Charlie, and so on. I also enjoyed some of the characters created by the author who populate the background of Dublin. For example, the ‘smelly butcher’ (as remembered by Charlie) or Boris the travel agent (as encountered by Louis).

There’s some great close observation of even those with mere walk-on parts such as a newspaper vendor at the seaside recalled by Sarah’s sister, Suzanne.  ‘Along this strip there was always a man with a white badger streak in the centre of his coal-black hair who sold newspapers. He placed stones on top of the newspapers to stop the pages fluttering in the light wind and he sat on a grey plastic crate with his nose stuck in a battered book.’ These reminiscences by the main characters, such as Jen’s adventures with her childhood friend Francis, provide interesting side roads for the reader to explore. Temporary detours, if you like, from the main storyline.

The author really captures an Irish lilt in the speech and thoughts of Charlie especially. Having said that, Charlie is the character I struggled most to empathize with. His predominant characteristics seemed to be self-pity and self-absorption. His lack of regard for his daughter, Jen – struggling with her own grief, after all – even for her basic safety and welfare was staggering at times. I often had to remind myself who was the adult and who the child! However, I guess the author was trying to show what grief and loss can do to a person. And I was forced to revise my view of him towards the end of the book. There’s often more to a story – and to a person – than you can know.

All the characters the reader encounters in the book have had tragedy in their lives, often the sudden and unexpected loss of a loved one. Although their response to these tragic events varies, for all of them it has been life-changing. One might expect a book in which the characters have experienced such sadness to be sad as well. Although it undoubtedly is in parts, the overwhelming message I took from the book is one of hope – for redemption, for forgiveness, for release from the burden of guilt and for the possibility of starting over again. Oh, and never take for granted those you love because everything can change in a heartbeat.

I received a review copy courtesy of publishers, Mercier Press, and Random Things Tours.

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In three words: Emotional, spiritual, intense

Try something similar…The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer (read my review here)

LouiseHallAbout the Author

Louise Hall is from Malahide, Co. Dublin. She has previously published two works of non-fiction, Medjugorje: What it Means to Me and Medjugorje and Me: A Collection of Stories from Across the World.

Her fiction has been published in The Irish Times and been shortlisted for numerous competitions, such as the RTÉ Guide/Penguin Short Story Award, the Colm Tóibín International Short Story Competition and the Jonathan Swift Creative Writing Awards. Pilgrim is her debut novel.

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