Tag: HF Reading Challenge

Book Review – Dominion of Dust by Matthew Harffy @AriesFiction

whatcathyreadnextLeave a comment

About the Book

AD 797, Cyprus. Warrior-monk Hunlaf and his crew are on a voyage to acquire an important Christian relic before it falls into the hands of Byzantium’s scheming Empress Eirene.

Hunlaf’s crew receive unexpected help as they seek their treasure, but soon find themselves betrayed. About to leave for home empty-handed, the adventurers instead sail further east: to Jerusalem, the Holy Land, abundant in relics. And dangerous intrigues.

Hunlaf and his friends will face a deadly race against time as they attempt to secure a holy treasure, outwit Byzantium’s zealous agents, and avoid grisly deaths at the hands of the local rulers.

Format: Hardback (432 pages) Publisher: Head of Zeus
Publication date: 9th October 2025 Genre: Historical Fiction

Find Dominion of Dust on Goodreads

Purchase Dominion of Dust 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

Dominion of Dust is the fourth book in the author’s A Time For Swords series, the follow-up to A Time For Swords, A Night of Flames and A Day of Reckoning. (Links from each title will take you to my review.) A Day of Reckoning ended on a literal cliffhanger and Dominion of Dust takes up the story directly from that point.

Once again Hunlaf is both chief protagonist and narrator. Now advanced in age and becoming increasingly frail, he is setting down the details of his eventful life, one which saw him abandon his calling as a monk to become a warrior and adventurer. 

A Day of Reckoning, saw Hunlaf on a quest for a book known as ‘The Treasure of Life’ which took him and his comrades to the Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsular. This time he’s on a search for sacred relics which King Carolus, ruler of the remnants of the Western Roman Empire, believes will imbue him with the divine power to defeat his rival Empress Eirene, ruler of the remnants of the Eastern Roman Empire. Unfortunately she has the same idea, and her own set of searchers. So it becomes a race against time to see who can piece together the clues and locate them first. If you’re thinking this all sounds a bit Indiana Jones, you’re not wrong.

Many characters make a return appearance including the fearsome Norse warrior and master shipbuilder, Runolf Ragnarsson and – much to Hunlaf’s delight – Runolf’s daughter Revna.  The wily Giso, who seems to have connections everywhere and often disappears into the shadows only to reappear at a crucial moment, is also back. Unfortunately, Hunlaf and his comrades are not short of fearsome and totally ruthless opponents.

As you might expect, Hunlaf and his comrades face many perils along the way and there are some terrific action scenes, described in bone-crunching, bloody and visceral detail. They include a fight to escape from an underground chamber and the boarding of a merchant ship. Ignoring the voice of his spiritual mentor Leofstan, now deceased, Hunlaf continues to experience moments of uncontrollable battle rage and ‘the wanton joy of killing’.

Although we know Hunlaf will live to fight another day, he doesn’t. There are plenty of moments where he fears his luck has run out (and who could blame him) and doesn’t know if – or how – he will escape from the perilous situation he finds himself in. Unfortunately, that’s not the case for all his comrades, some of whom will die in tragic circumstances. Even though many decades have passed, the loss of these comrades still weighs heavily on Hunlaf’s mind accompanied by intense feelings of guilt that he might have been, even unwittingly, the cause of their deaths. 

The ailing Hunlaf leaves the reader with a tantalising glimpse of events he has yet to tell us about, including those of a romantic nature. And there’s a brief hint that his story might involve the appearance of a character from another of the author’s series.

I thoroughly enjoyed Dominion of Dust. I loved the characters, the settings and the fast-paced plot. To my mind, this is a series that just keeps getting better and better.

I received a review copy courtesy of Head of Zeus.

In three words: Action-packed, authentic, immersive
Try something similar: The Blazing Sea by Tim Hodkinson

About the Author

Matthew Harffy grew up in Northumberland where the rugged terrain, ruined castles and rocky coastline had a huge impact on him. He now lives in Wiltshire, England with his wife and their two daughters. Matthew is the author of the critically acclaimed Bernicia Chronicles and A Time for Swords series, and he also co-hosts the popular podcast Rock, Paper, Swords!

Connect with Matthew
Website | X/Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Bluesky

A Time For Swords

Book Review – The Two Roberts by Damian Barr

whatcathyreadnext5 Comments

About the Book

He will stay like this forever, Robert’s arm draped round him. They will be forever twenty.

Scotland, 1933. Bobby MacBryde is on his way. After years grafting at Lees Boot Factory, he’s off to the Glasgow School of Art, to his future. On his first day he will meet another Robert, a quiet man with loose dark curls – and never leave his side.

Together they will spend every penny and every minute devouring Glasgow – its botanical gardens, the Barras market, a whole hidden city – all the while loving each other behind closed doors. With the world on the brink of war, their unrivalled talent will take them to Paris, Rome, London. They will become stars as the bombs fall, hosting wild parties with the likes of Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon and Elizabeth Smart. But the brightest stars burn fastest.

Format: Hardcover (320 pages) Publisher: Canongate
Publication date: 4th September 2025 Genre: Historical Fiction

Find The Two Roberts on Goodreads

Purchase The Two Roberts 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

I confess I’d never heard of the Scottish artists Robert ‘Bobby’ MacBryde and Robert Colquhoun before reading this book and I suspect I’m not alone. How exciting though for an author to come across two people whose lives and achievements have been almost forgotten and bring them to a wider audience in an act of literary reincarnation. And to do so by imagining the thoughts and emotions of the men themselves. As Damian Barr writes in the Acknowledgements, ‘It’s the job of a novelist to know what we don’t know, to find gaps between facts to make our story.’

I felt I got to know the exuberant Bobby better than the more reserved Robert, although I can’t blame the author for falling in love with Bobby as a character, with his irrepressible energy, cheeky humour and sense of adventure.

Bobby and Robert’s passion for art burns almost as fiercely as their passion for each other, not that they don’t have their ups and downs like any relationship. Robert, as well as being physically fragile, has a tendency to withdraw into himself whereas Bobby is a man of impulse. ‘Bobby is so very alive that he is permanently alert to the pleasure in even the smallest thing. He is always being swept up in new excitement.’

I loved the way the author depicted the domestic intimacy of their relationship once they move in together, something fraught with risk given homosexuality was illegal. The author gives us a tragic example of the consequences of discovery at one point in the novel.

Funded by a scholarship of £120 awarded to Robert, in 1938 they set out for Europe to view the wondrous works of art they have only ever seen in books. In each country they visit Bobby is keen to try out his (very) rudimentary knowledge of the language. In Paris, a city filling up by the day at the prospect of war, they visit the Louvre where Bobby stares wondrously at the painting The Raft of the Medusa. In Marseilles there’s no art but there are plenty of sailors.

They return home, only to be parted when Robert is called up for military service whilst Bobby is exempted. It’s the first time they’ve been apart for years.

Two years later they’re back in London and fuelled by success. The pair enthusiastically immerse themselves in the hard-drinking lifestyle of the Soho set, rubbing shoulders with Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, Dylan Thomas and Quentin Crisp. ‘Names, names, names. Names they read about in Horizon, New Writing, even the Evening Standard. Names that are now their friends, Well, mostly.’

And then suddenly their art is out of fashion and pretty soon they’re out of money and reliant on acquaintances to provide them with a roof over their heads and, importantly, somewhere to paint.

I found it difficult to visualise their paintings based on the verbal descriptions alone and, like many I suspect, I searched online for images. I was surprised both by the energetic use of colour but how aligned the pair clearly were in their artistic style even if it’s ‘objects for Bobby, subjects for Robert’. I also found a wonderful article on the BBC Arts website which includes an episode of the arts programme, Monitor, devoted to them (first broadcast in 1958).

You sense from the beginning that, given their lifestyle, the pair are not going to make old bones. However, I wasn’t quite prepared for how moved I was by the way in which they met their respective ends. It felt as if, rather than dying several years apart leaving one of them bereft, they should have gone together.

The Two Roberts has been described, aptly in my view, as the author’s ‘love letter’ to MacBryde and Colquhoun. I can only imagine what it must have been like for him to reach the final page of their story. Therefore I can forgive the author for including his own ‘wishful thinking’ version of their ending.

The Two Roberts is an intense, emotionally charged story of love, passion and loss.

I received a review copy courtesy of Canongate via NetGalley.

In three words: Intimate, vibrant, moving

About the Author

Author Damian Barr

Damian Barr is an award-winning writer, broadcaster and journalist. His memoir Maggie & Me, won Stonewall Writer of the Year and Sunday Times Memoir of the Year. His debut novel, You Will Be Safe Here, was shortlisted for six major awards and named a Book of the Year in the Observer, Guardian and Mail. He has written columns for The Times and Sunday Times and hosted Front Row on BBC Radio 4 as well as his own series Guide Books.

In 2019, Damian brought books back to television with the Big Scottish Book Club, now in its sixth series and syndicated internationally. Also on BBC TV, he presented Shelf Isolation and the landmark documentary for Sir Walter Scott’s 250th. Damian holds a PhD in Creative Writing from Lancaster University and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. His world-famous Literary Salon ran from 2008 to 2023, celebrating writers from around the world and widening the cultural conversation. He is a trustee of Gladstone’s Library and a campaigner for libraries. He lives in Brighton. (Photo/bio: Publisher author page)

Connect with Damian
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Bluesky