Island of Ghosts

It took me a while to get round to reading Island of Ghosts, but I'm so glad I finally did. I remember finding one of Gillian Bradshaw's other books slow but compelling: I read this all in one day, though I wouldn't call it a quick read. It is a compelling one, though, just as expected. I wasn't sure exactly what was so good about it, but by the time I was a quarter of the way through, I was determined to finish reading it today.

One of the factors is the main character, Ariantes. Full of honour, and in a position where revenge would be almost justified and certainly expected among his people, he is also practical and adaptable. He is willing to change for the good of his people, and he guides them to change as well. He's disabled, with a bad leg, but while this limits him somewhat, it doesn't keep him from doing what he needs to do. In short, he's an admirable character, and despite what seems like barbarism at first sight, an honourable and likeable one.

The other characters are similarly well-handled. There isn't anyone who we are expected to hate without cause, nor anyone who is portrayed as wholly evil. Even the main antagonists have their honour, or their weaknesses... whatever makes them human. It was refreshing that, though people take sides, the sides are not clear-cut, light/dark. Everyone is human.

As historical fiction, it's well-researched -- so far as I know, anyway, Roman Britain being something I know about only incidentally (though I do have an A Level in Classical Civilisations, for whatever that counts for). Certainly, it all reads believably.

I could go on: there's plenty to like about this novel. I can't think of much I actually saw as flawed. There was one point which used a plot device I don't particularly enjoy, but even that, I didn't find too jarring, and it was dealt with reasonably well even for a trope I don't like. ( )

My first Bradshaw, and not half bad. A barbarian prince, in the time of Marcus Aurelius, is despatched to Hadrian's Wall with his men. Adventure and trouble ensues. In the end the attempted rebellion is crushed and the good guys (including out protagonist) are rewarded.

I found this an enjoyable and fun read, but not overly engaging. There seemed few surprises, good guys v bad guys. Very little grit. Or maybe I am just getting old and cynical? ( )

I generally enjoy Gillian Bradshaw a lot, her novels of classical antiquity are historically accurate but still extremely readable. In this book as in several others she chooses a protagonist that is a bit of an outsider, in this case a Sarmatian who has ended up as an auxiliary to the Roman legions in Britain. The outsider perspective is a great choice, because in his struggle to understand and come to terms with unfamliar Roman ways, the protagonist explains things that a modern reader might not understand while still remaining entirely in character.

I often like Bradshaw's protagonists but for some reason Ariantes pretty quickly became one of my favorites. He was smart and honorable without being annoyingly or unrealistically perfect and yet just a little bit of an ox in ways that I found endearing. All the people in this novel felt real to me, and I liked very much that many of them changed during the course of the novel, it wasn't just the protagonist that was learning and changing but the people he was in relationships with were doing the same, so that alliances kept shifting as the people in them altered.

( )

An excellent, well researched historical fiction, Island of Ghosts by Gillian Bradshaw is about how Rome, with a need to constantly supply men to their own army, takes an oath of fealty from defeated warriors, transfers them to another place in the empire and uses them to help vanquish their enemies and keep the peace among those they have conquered.

Ariantes is a Sarmatian, a warrior-prince, uprooted and sent to the Island of Britain and posted to Hadrian’s Wall, Officially here to guard and fight the northern tribe of Picts, but he soon finds the real danger is not on the other side of the wall. Uncovering a conspiracy that will not only damage Rome’s control over northern Britain, but force his own people into choosing whether to break their oath and pick up arms against Rome, or fight on the side of the people that destroyed their own homeland.

I have found Gilliam Bradshaw to be a reliable writer of historical fiction, as a classics scholar, she blends actual facts with a great story to produce a read that is both adventurous, colourful, and rich in period detail. ( )

Island of Ghosts is the story of the clash of two cultures in 3rd century Britain. Ariantes is a prince of the Sarmatian nation, who made a deal with the Emperor to supply the Empire with troops.

As I’ve said before, I’m a little deficient in historical fiction set in ancient Rome or its colonies, and I was anxious to make up for that. It’s a fascinating time period, but I feel as though in this novel, the author takes an interesting subject matter and manages to make it uninteresting! I felt that the dialogue and the characters’ actions too modern to be believable. The novel is written in a very simplistic way; maybe this book was meant as YA? Maybe I’m just not in the demographic that this book was meant for.

Bradshaw is unlike any other author I’ve ever read, and I don’t mean that in a complimentary way—she manages to take her narrator and take him completely out of the story, so much so that you really don’t end up caring what happens him in the end. In fact, Ariantes’s character is a mess of contradictions, and what we see of him in this novel is totally at odds with the reputation he has. Ariantes also has an amazing skill, which I didn’t find believable: he instinctively understands and empathizes with both Sarmatian and Roman customs, which again is totally at odds with the back story he’s given us. After all, this is the warrior prince who is said to have turned an enemy’s head into a drinking cup! The author has clearly done her research on the period, but I felt that the book fell flat in many places, causing me to skim over several parts. If you’re looking for a really good, meaty historical novel about ancient Rome, then this book probably won’t be it. ( )