Tag: Reviews

Book Review – Bellatrix by Simon Turney @AriesFiction

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BLOG TOUR BANNER BellatrixWelcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for Bellatrix by Simon Turney. My thanks to Andrew at Head of Zeus for inviting me to take part in the tour and for my review copy.

About Bellatrix

Book cover Bellatrix by Simon TurneyEgypt, 25 BC. Titus Cervianus is no ordinary soldier. And the Twenty Second is no ordinary legion. Formed from the personal guard of a conquered king, the Twenty Second’s ways are strange to soldiers of the Empire – yet the legion has proved itself in the blistering heat of the desert.

Cervianus and his comrades march into the unknown as he and the Twenty Second Legion contend with the armies of the Bellatrix: the Warrior Queen of Kush. The Kushites and the Egyptians are united against the Roman presence in their lands – but there are complex political and military forces at work. Deep in the deserts, Cervianus and his comrades must brace themselves for a furious onslaught as they take on the might of the Bellatrix.

Format: Hardback (416 pages)        Publisher: Head of Zeus
Publication date: 5th January 2023 Genre: Historical Fiction

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My Review

The Capsarius (follow the link to read my book review) introduced the reader to Titus Cervianus, a combat medic in the Imperial Roman Army, although of course the army was made up of many different nationalities from provinces conquered by the Roman Empire. Cervianus himself is from Galatia, part of modern day Turkey.

Bellatrix sees the return of a number of characters from the first book, including the seemingly indestructible centurion, Draco, and Cervianus’s friend, the irrepressible Ulyxes. Ulyxes is a great character. ‘The man moved through the world like a trireme, making large waves and leaving a wake that rocked and undulated and turned lives upside down.’  Ulyxes’ remarkable memory makes him unbeatable when it comes to games of chance and proves important at critical moments in the story.

One of the standout sections of Bellatrix for me was the description of the Twenty Second Legion’s punishing and dangerous trek through the desert, blisteringly hot during the day and bitterly cold at night. ‘The mounds of grey and brown began to blend into one another as the hours wore on, dust causing the men to gag, weariness and uneven ground leading to stumbles and falls, each one rewarded with a jab from an officer’s vine staff and a lash from his tongue.’  I was amazed by the distances Roman legions were expected to march – over twenty miles in a day – carrying their kit and supplies with them.

It soon becomes apparent that Rome has seriously underestimated the Kushites both in terms of their military capability and their sense of purpose. The legion’s overstretched supply lines and reliance on native scouts whose loyalties are suspect make them vulnerable, with disastrous results. We all know war is a nasty business but, as we learn in the book, both the Romans and the Kushites had particularly gruesome ways of dealing with those they defeated or conquered. Indeed, those who are squeamish may want to skip over a few of the scenes.

Cervianus and his fellow legionaries find themselves in one precarious situation after another. At one point, low on food, weapons and manpower, and facing the prospect of an attack by a vast horde of bloodthirsty Kushites, one of his comrades succinctly sums up their position. ‘We couldn’t fight off a drunk Syrian catamite with the shits.’ A useful phrase next time you find yourself up against the odds.

I love the way the character of Cervianus has developed through the two books. From being a self-confessed loner when we first meet him, shunned by the rest of his contubernium, he has developed some firm friendships – notably with Ulyxes – and earned the respect of both his peers and senior officers not just for his medical skills but for his intuition and his courage in battle. His fixedly rational perspective on life, so prominent in the first book, has become more nuanced. Absorbing the culture and religious beliefs of the areas he has travelled through has made Cervianus begin to believe there is a guiding hand determining his future path in life, that there is something he is meant to do or to prevent from happening. After all, why else allow him to survive so many precarious situations? It’s also given him a valuable insight into what motivates the deadly opponents the Twenty Second face.

History records the outcome of the conflict between Rome and Kush, and Simon Turney himself describes The Capsarius and Bellatrix as a duology. So does Cervianus’ story end here? The author teases the reader with a tantalising possibility.

Bellatrix is another completely immersive journey back in time for fans of action-packed, richly detailed and fast-paced historical fiction.

In three words: Compelling, authentic, absorbing

Try something similar: The Iron Way by Tim Leach

Simon Turney author of Bellatrix and The CapsariusAbout the Author

Simon Turney is from Yorkshire and, having spent much of his childhood visiting historic sites, fell in love with the Roman heritage of the region. His fascination with the ancient world snowballed from there with great interest in Rome, Egypt, Greece and Byzantium. His works include the Marius’ Mules and Praetorian series, the Tales of the Empire and The Damned Emperor series, and the Rise of Emperors books with Gordon Doherty. He lives in North Yorkshire with his family.

Connect with Simon
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My Week in Books – 8th January 2023

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MyWeekinBooksOn What Cathy Read Next last week

Monday – I shared my Five Favourite December Reads.

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Favourite Books of 2022.

Wednesday – As always WWW Wednesday is a weekly opportunity to share what I’ve just read, what I’m currently reading and what I plan to read next… and to take a peek at what others are reading. 

Friday – I published my review of historical novel The Witches of Vardø by Anya Bergman. I also shared details of a new challenge I’ve set myself for this year, which I’m calling Backlist Burrow.

Saturday – The first Saturday of the month means it’s time for the #6Degrees of Separation meme. 

New arrivals

After last week’s ‘nul points‘ this week has seen an influx of NetGalley approvals, an ARC plus a trip to the bookshop for some books for my Backlist Burrow reading challenge. 

A Brief History of Living ForeverA Brief History of Living Forever by Jaroslav Kalfař (eARC, Hodder & Stoughton via NetGalley)

When Adela discovers she has a terminal illness, her thoughts turn to Tereza, the American-raised daughter she gave up at birth. Leaving behind her moody, grown son, Roman, in their native Czech village, she flies to the United States to find the long-lost daughter who never knew her. Yet the country, in the year 2029, is steeped in surveillance and has adopted an unapologetic nationalism – a very different place from the open and accepting one Adela experienced decades earlier, when, as a teenager high on the promise of America, she eloped with a filmmaker and starred in his cult sci-fi movie.

Now, in New York City, with time running out, Adela reunites with Tereza, who is working as the star researcher for two suspicious biotech moguls hellbent on developing a “god pill” to extend human life indefinitely. But before Tereza can find a cure for Adela, her mother dies mysteriously. Unbeknownst to Tereza, her body is whisked away by the American government to a mass grave for undocumented immigrants in the swampy wastelands of what was once Florida. Distraught, Tereza travels to the Czech Republic to convince Roman, the brother she’s never met, to join her in rescuing their mother’s remains from oblivion, with the intent of bringing her home to rest in Czech soil.

A Winter GraveA Winter Grave by Peter May (eARC, Quercus via NetGalley)

It is the year 2051. Warnings of climate catastrophe have been ignored, and vast areas of the planet are under water, or uninhabitably hot. A quarter of the world’s population has been displaced by hunger and flooding, and immigration wars are breaking out around the globe as refugees pour into neighboring countries.

By contrast, melting ice sheets have brought the Gulf Stream to a halt and northern latitudes, including Scotland, are being hit by snow and ice storms. It is against this backdrop that Addie, a young meteorologist checking a mountain top weather station, discovers the body of a man entombed in ice.

The dead man is investigative reporter, George Younger, missing for three months after vanishing during what he claimed was a hill-walking holiday. But Younger was no hill walker, and his discovery on a mountain-top near the Highland village of Kinlochleven, is inexplicable.

Cameron Brodie, a veteran Glasgow detective, volunteers to be flown north to investigate Younger’s death, but he has more than a murder enquiry on his agenda. He has just been given a devastating medical prognosis by his doctor and knows the time has come to face his estranged daughter who has made her home in the remote Highland village.

Arriving during an ice storm, Brodie and pathologist Dr. Sita Roy, find themselves the sole guests at the inappropriately named International Hotel, where Younger’s body has been kept refrigerated in a cake cabinet. But evidence uncovered during his autopsy places the lives of both Brodie and Roy in extreme jeopardy.

As another storm closes off communications and the possibility of escape, Brodie must face up not only to the ghosts of his past, but to a killer determined to bury forever the chilling secret that George Younger’s investigations had threatened to expose.

The New LifeThe New Life by Tom Crewe (eARC, Chatto & Windus via NetGalley)

After a lifetime spent navigating his desires, John Addington, a married man, has met Frank, a working-class printer.

Meanwhile Henry Ellis’s wife Edith has fallen in love with a woman – who wants Edith all to herself.

When in 1894 John and Henry decide to write a revolutionary book together, intended to challenge convention and the law, they are both caught in relationships stalked by guilt and shame. Yet they share a vision of a better world, one that will expand possibilities for men and women everywhere.

Their daring book threatens to throw John and Henry, and all those around them, into danger. How far should they go to win personal freedoms? And how high a price are they willing to pay for a new way of living?

BirthrightBirthright by Charles Lambert (ARC, Gallic Books)

Sixteen-year-old Fiona wants for nothing: hers is a life of comfort and privilege. But not of happiness. Her already distant relationship with her mother is stretched further by the sudden death of her beloved father. When she discovers an old newspaper clipping of an unknown woman with a little girl who looks exactly like her, she sees her chance to escape and find her true family. 

Aided by Patrick, her charming but manipulative boyfriend, she tracks down her sister Maddy, in Rome. And with her, the mother she always dreamed of.

But to Maddy this strange girl wearing her face seems to want more than to reconnect. She seems to be stalking her every move and wants to claim Maddy’s life for her own. Maddy wants nothing to do with this unsettingly familiar stranger. Unfortunately, those around her have other ideas.

Caught in a game of cat and mouse, Fiona and Maddy are both fascinated and repulsed by one another. But they aren’t the only ones playing and soon the girls must decide who to trust, and who to protect. Will blood prove thicker than water?

The Echo ChamberThe Echo Chamber by John Boyne (Penguin)

What a thing of wonder a mobile phone is. Six ounces of metal, glass and plastic, fashioned into a sleek, shiny, precious object. At once, a gateway to other worlds – and a treacherous weapon in the hands of the unwary, the unwitting, the inept.

The Cleverley family live a gilded life, little realising how precarious their privilege is, just one tweet away from disaster. George, the patriarch, is a stalwart of television interviewing, a ‘national treasure’ (his words), his wife Beverley, a celebrated novelist (although not as celebrated as she would like), and their children, Nelson, Elizabeth, Achilles, various degrees of catastrophe waiting to happen.

Together they will go on a journey of discovery through the Hogarthian jungle of the modern living where past presumptions count for nothing and carefully curated reputations can be destroyed in an instant. Along the way they will learn how volatile, how outraged, how unforgiving the world can be when you step from the proscribed path.

Perfume RiverPerfume River by Robert Olen Butler (No Exit Press)

Robert Quinlan is a seventy-year-old historian, teaching at Florida State University, where his wife Darla is also tenured. Their marriage, forged in the fervor of anti-Vietnam-war protests, now bears the fractures of time, both personal and historical, with the couple trapped in an existence of morning coffee and solitary jogging and separate offices.

For Robert and Darla, the cracks remain under the surface, whereas the divisions in Robert’s own family are more apparent: he has almost no relationship with his brother Jimmy, who became estranged from the family as the Vietnam War intensified.

Robert and Jimmy’s father, a veteran of WWII, is coming to the end of his life, and aftershocks of war ripple across their lives once again, when Jimmy refuses to appear at his father’s bedside.

And an unstable homeless man whom Robert at first takes to be a fellow Vietnam veteran turns out to have a deep impact not just on Robert, but on his entire family. 

The Coldest WarriorThe Coldest Warrior by Paul Vidich (No Exit Press)

In 1953, Dr. Charles Wilson, a government scientist, died when he “jumped or fell” from the ninth floor of a Washington hotel. As his wife and children grieve, the details of the incident remain buried for twenty-two years.

With the release of the Rockefeller Commission report on illegal CIA activities in 1975, the Wilson case suddenly becomes news again. Wilson’s family and the public are demanding answers, especially as some come to suspect the CIA of foul play, and agents in the CIA, FBI, and White House will do anything to make sure the truth doesn’t get out.

Enter agent Jack Gabriel, an old friend of the Wilson family who is instructed by the CIA director to find out what really happened to Wilson. It’s Gabriel’s last mission before he retires from the agency, and his most perilous. Key witnesses connected to the case die from suspicious causes, and Gabriel realizes that the closer he gets to the truth, the more his entire family is at risk.

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

  • Blog Tour/Book Review: Bellatrix by Simon Turney
  • Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Books Releasing in the First Half of 2023
  • Book Review: My Father’s House by Joseph O’Connor
  • Book Review: The New Life by Tom Crewe
  • Book Review: My Mother’s Shadow by Nikola Scott