Category: Blog

The Road to Vengeance – The Strongbow Sage, Book 3
by Judson Roberts
Author’s website

I couldn’t help myself. After finishing book 2 in this series, I had to pick this one up fairly quickly. The story is just that well told – you don’t want them to end.

Here’s the publisher (or publicist) description:

Halfdan Hroriksson is on the hunt.

 

Determined to find and fight his brother’s killer, Halfdan knows he must first gain experience as a Viking warrior. He’s been lucky so far. He gained passage on a ship and is quietly learning the strategies of war and conquest from the hardy crew. Now, with a prisoner in tow—the daughter of a wealthy aristocrat—Halfdan is finally starting to earn some respect, and a name for himself.

 

But he is not looking for praise. Halfdan is only biding his time, gaining strength and skill for his ultimate quest. Time and again he proves himself on the battlefield, using clever strategy and an uncanny talent with a bow and arrow. Halfdan is growing as a warrior, but will this be enough to beat a savage murderer?

 

Through epic battle scenes and intimate power struggles, Judson Roberts brings the Viking world to pulsing life in this next chapter of the Strongbow Saga.

 

I’ve raved about this series in two other reviews of them I did. If you’re the parent of a teenage boy, I’d highly recommend you pick these up and leave them around where he might pick them up. If you’re a male that once was a teenage boy, and still enjoy adventure stories – especially if you also like historical fiction – you should pick these up.

I will say I think the ending of this one wasn’t as well done as the ending of the last one. His next one will be published independently himself, and I’m looking forward to getting hold of it when it’s out.

Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History
by S.C.Gwynne
Author’s website

I picked this up expecting a slog through a dry history book. However, for some reason I’m greatly attracted to the history, culture, and story of the Comanche people, so I was willing to put up with the slog.

To my surprise and delight, this book is neither a slog or a dry history book. The author does a tremendous job of telling the history of a people (as best we can know it) in a way that’s engaging and entertaining. The detail and thoroughness is truly impressive.

The only ding I would give it is the clear “European centric” viewpoint of the author. His words, phrasing, and context tell the story from the perspective of “true civilization” – the way we white’s wanted it to be. In his defense, he’s extremely fair in describing the events in a way that’s even-handed and exposes bias, prejudice, cruelty, and injustice on both sides. However, it’s always from that “white-centric” perspective.

It may be that in his shoes, this is the most fair way to tell the story. He does appear, after all, to be white of European descent, so telling the story from another perspective might be a bit disingenuous. However, I did find it a bit off-putting on occasion.

Diaries of Adam and Eve
by Mark Twain
Author’s website

It has been a while since I read anything by Twain, and I’d forgotten just how delightful it is to read his stuff.

Folks who are pretty hung-up on political correctness will find it disturbing that Twain crafts his Adam and Eve characters around pretty common stereotypes of males and females. I wasn’t bothered by this at all, and found it quite interesting that the stereotypes from 150 years ago seem so consistent with our stereotypes from today.

This is a very quick read, but after finishing it, I found myself looking back through it and reading parts of it again. It’s full of little diary snippets where each of the pair describes both the Eden they live in, and this other creature that they have been paired and connected with.

I’ll be reading some additional Twain for sure, now that my taste for his wonderful wit and wisdom has been whetted again…

Dragons from the Sea – The Strongbow Sage, Book 2
by Judson Roberts
Author’s website

I read the first of these recently, and really enjoyed it. I believe these are actually classified as books for teens or older teens – clearly targeted at boys and young men. The last time I fell into one of those categories, the Beetles were still together…

Nonetheless, I really like these books.

Here’s what his publisher or publicist writes about the books:

In Dragons from the Sea, book two of the Strongbow Saga, Halfdan Hroriksson has escaped—for now—the enemies who murdered his brother and seek to kill him, too. Determined to avenge his brother’s death, Halfdan knows he must first gain experience as a warrior. He joins a Danish army gathering for an invasion of Western Frankia, for among its fierce chieftains and seasoned warriors he may find the allies he needs. But first he must prove his own worth in battle, and more importantly, he must survive, for he will face dangers not only from the Frankish enemy, but also from hidden foes within the ranks of the Danes. The Strongbow Saga is an epic tale of one man’s unstoppable quest for justice and vengeance that carries him across the 9th century world of the Vikings. This new edition of book two of the series contains maps showing Halfdan’s travels in this installment of the story, plus the route of the Viking fleet that invaded Frankia in 845 A.D.

 

This is a book I was wishing wouldn’t end so quickly. The storytelling is outstanding, even if the character development is a bit simple. But again, these books are written for young men / teenagers – I’m not sure they’d appeal to that group as much if the author got into more complex character development.

In talking to Peggy about this book, (who often gets asked for recommendations as she’s blissfully librarianing away), and told her I thought this (and the series) would be one to recommend right alongside “The Three Musketeers” by Dumas.

Now, for the other stuff.

I understand that Judson Roberts has struck out on his own, leaving the publishing company who published his first 3 books. He is preparing to publish his fourth book on his own. I LOVE to see authors doing this – especially authors like Roberts who are good and proven writers. I’d like to encourage readers to support these literary entrepreneurs, who are the equivalent of a small business-person trying to eek out a living among multinational giants.

I loved the first 2 books, and have started the third. If you like adventure stories, pick these up and read them, and then find ways to stay connected to Roberts as he rolls out his next in the series – his first as an independent.

The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Author’s website

Not sure how I missed reading this classic in high school, but I must have, because I remember nothing about it. It’s pretty common fare for high school literature classes, and I think my kids have all read it.

Here’s the Amazon description of the book:

“In 1922, F. Scott Fitzgerald announced his decision to write “something new–something extraordinary and beautiful and simple + intricately patterned.” That extraordinary, beautiful, intricately patterned, and above all, simple novel became The Great Gatsby, arguably Fitzgerald’s finest work and certainly the book for which he is best known. A portrait of the Jazz Age in all of its decadence and excess, Gatsby captured the spirit of the author’s generation and earned itself a permanent place in American mythology. Self-made, self-invented millionaire Jay Gatsby embodies some of Fitzgerald’s–and his country’s–most abiding obsessions: money, ambition, greed, and the promise of new beginnings. “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter–tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther…. And one fine morning–” Gatsby’s rise to glory and eventual fall from grace becomes a kind of cautionary tale about the American Dream.

It’s also a love story, of sorts, the narrative of Gatsby’s quixotic passion for Daisy Buchanan. The pair meet five years before the novel begins, when Daisy is a legendary young Louisville beauty and Gatsby an impoverished officer. They fall in love, but while Gatsby serves overseas, Daisy marries the brutal, bullying, but extremely rich Tom Buchanan. After the war, Gatsby devotes himself blindly to the pursuit of wealth by whatever means–and to the pursuit of Daisy, which amounts to the same thing. “Her voice is full of money,” Gatsby says admiringly, in one of the novel’s more famous descriptions. His millions made, Gatsby buys a mansion across Long Island Sound from Daisy’s patrician East Egg address, throws lavish parties, and waits for her to appear. When she does, events unfold with all the tragic inevitability of a Greek drama, with detached, cynical neighbor Nick Carraway acting as chorus throughout. Spare, elegantly plotted, and written in crystalline prose, The Great Gatsby is as perfectly satisfying as the best kind of poem. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.”

What a great story it is though. It reminded me of how “cheap” words have become in these days when we can all crank out so many of them on a keyboard at 100+ WPM. I’m as guilty as anyone else. As someone trying to build a living as a writer, it’s quite critical for me to get lots of “stuff” out there in the market. To publish lots of blog postings, and do lots of guest posts, and send out many emails.

But in the end, the written word suffers. In Fitzgerald’s writing, you can feel the depth of the prose, and understand clearly the care that went into the construction of each sentence. It was really a rich reading experience, and made me realize how “cheap” words have become today, and how rare it is to read something with the sort of richness you can find in an author from this era like Fitzgerald.

As enjoyable to me as the richness of the prose was the depth of the characters he built. This is one I listened to as an audio book, and Tim Robbins was the actor who read it. I suspect that some of that character depth may have been the really excellent job that Robbins did, but even accounting for that, I really enjoyed the characters. Gatsby especially was a character whom I could see and feel deeply as the story moved around him.

A bonus of this audio version was a series of letters Fitzgerald wrote in the years as he was trying to get Gatsby published – letters to his publisher and others. I think I enjoyed listening to these letters almost as much as to the story.

I will say that had I read this book in high school, I don’t think I would have gotten nearly as much out of it. My identification with and enjoyment of the characters could happen because life’s experiences have given me a deep pool from which to draw empathy, and my appreciation of the prose is enhanced in comparison to what I feel capable of as a writer.

Viking Warrior – The Strongbow Saga #1
by Judson Roberts
Author’s website

First and foremost, I really liked this story. I think the author does a really good job as a writer and storyteller, and it seems to be well-edited. I have already bought book 2 of the series, and downloaded it to my Kindle. For that, I give the book 4 stars – it meets my criteria as a book I really enjoy a lot.

Now for the disclaimers, and I’m going to do a little comparison here. I think this will be helpful to anyone who reads my reviews, and might also assuage those who are real fans of the “Cave Bear” series, which was a series I didn’t really enjoy.

This is clearly a book written for males, both adults and young adult. I unashamedly admit I’m a junkie for those sorts of adventure stories. I’m the guy folks write these sorts of stories for. In addition, I have a huge love of historical fiction. This book falls into both categories, so I’ll enjoy even mediocre writing.

That said, Mr. Roberts has clearly written a story that is well above mediocre. Like I said, it’s well-written, well-told, and well-edited. It’s the story of a young slave in Scandinavian culture of 1000 years ago, who rises to warrior status. It’s not overly graphic in its violence, and certainly not graphic sexually. I felt it did a really great job of painting a picture of Scandinavian culture of that era that Mr Roberts appears to have researched well, often dispelling popular myths about said culture. It’s right up the sweet spot of what I love to read about.

I want to use this as a point of comparison to the Cave Bear series that I struggled with. In my review of those books, I admitted that I was probably not the audience – the author seemed to be aiming at women, and in particular adolescent girls. If someone were addicted to genres that targeted that audience in the same way I’m addicted to adventure stories and historical fiction, they probably overlooked a lot just because the story was written for them.

Mr. Roberts has written these stories for me. If you’re not a fan of either historical fiction or adventure stories, you might find many faults that I never noticed – I can’t predict that. If you like either of these genres, I think you’d really enjoy this story.

Now, for some additional information. If you read my blog you know I’m a writer who publishes independently. This means I write what I want and publish it myself. It also means I don’t have a big publishing house providing lots of marketing muscle to get my book out in the market – I depend on loyal fans who love what I write.

There are pros and cons to traditional publishing (big publishing houses and literary agents) vs the independent route I take. One of the big cons to the traditional route is the control the publishing house has over your life, your career, and what it is you write. I’ve already pointed out one of the pros to the publishing house route – a big gorilla pushing your book in the marketplace…

That fact is relevant here. In reading Mr Roberts’ website, it appears that he had a “deal” with a big publishing house to publish the first 3 books in the series, and an option on the fourth book. After 3 books, they apparently sat on the option – preventing him from publishing it – before finally releasing the option recently. This allows him to now publish the 4th book, and it will be interesting to see whether he publishes it independently or through another contract with a publishing house.

I’d certainly encourage him to go independent. He has a great story and a great brand, and it seems to me he could make a good go of this on his own. Of course, here again, I have a bias toward the independent route, due to the freedom it gives an author from both a business perspective and a creative perspective. As writers, we each must decide whether we want the big sales numbers that a publishing house might bring to the table, or the freedom to give what our core audience wants from us.

The key in this is the core audience – the fan base. As independents, we absolutely survive or perish based on the support we receive from you – our core fan base. If you like what we write, we really depend on you to spread the word, to “like” us on Facebook or Google+, to read and comment on our blog, and to recruit other fans who might buy what we have to offer – or at least read what we write.

I’m a new fan of Mr. Roberts. I’ll buy his books, and assuming they stay as good as the first one, I’ll try and get others to read his stuff as he publishes more in the series (assuming he does so independently).

Thanks for reading!