Conn Iggulden

This book comes storming out of the gates and tramples the reader. Ironically I feel that our main character is the least developed in the story. That may change. But overall the tension, pace and tone of the book is great. I read the author's Genghis Kahn series and thoroughly enjoyed it. So far this one is shaping up to be better. The great thing about this being historical fiction is that you know what is going to happen eventually but what you don't see coming is the artistic license show more that the writer uses to draw the parallels. Not too keen on the use of the word "LAD" Very misplaced.
I do see some repetition of the same formulas and concepts used in the authors other novels. This could very easily become a weakness in literary structure but it seems Iggulden can use it to his advantage in story telling. I do not know how I did not see it coming. But the end of this book slapped me in the head and elicited a loud "No Way" out of me, as I finished. Great ending. Very excited about book two. show less

Set in the year 934, Dunstan by Conn Iggulden is the story of a young boy raised to become a Benedictine monk, but who went on to become an Abbot, Bishop and Archbishop and reform the English Church.

Dunstan was canonised after his death and became England's favourite saint for almost 200 years, but according to this reimagining of his life, in addition to defeating the devil, he was also a liar, murderer and maker of Kings.

Despite being set over a thousand years ago, Dunstan's first person show more perspective cut through the years like a knife and it wasn't what I was expecting at all. We begin at the end of Dunstan's life with a Prologue:

"Perhaps I will consign these precious sheets to the fire. No one will disturb me now; I have earned that much. These hands that hold the quill are just bones and paper-skin, so like vellum themselves as they whisper against each other. Brother Talbot once said they were a workman's fists, all scarred and thick. Well, time served him well, didn't it, with his delicate scribe fingers? I have trod down the soil over his dead face with my bare heels, and only the moon as witness." Page 2

Right from the beginning Dunstan hints that he might be a murderer, yet this didn't deter my interest in his story at all. Dunstan's upbringing alongside his younger brother in the abbey at Glastonbury was brutal and I was caught up in the drama between the boys and Dunstan's creativity in the struggle for dominance and power.

Dunstan performs exceptionally well at his studies, takes an interest in architecture, blacksmithing and medicine and seems to excel in every area he applies himself too. He's also unashamedly ambitious, and weaponises his religion to further his own prospects.

"I have worked my whole life, from six years old when I first piled bricks for workmen on my father's land, in exchange for crusts of bread and a draught of cider. I have prayed and I have dropped my sweat onto the forge. I have made swords and I have used them. I have made a cask or two of wine in my time, taking grapes from different vines. I have pissed in a bottle once or twice as well, when I did not like a man - and I have watched him smack his lips and tell me it was so smooth and extraordinarily fine that I was half tempted to try my own vintage. I have loved a woman and she ruined me. I have loved a king and yet I ruined him. And all I have gained in return for my lifetime of labour is fame and power and servants and an abbey." Page 2

Dunstan's ambition takes him to the court of King Æthelstan, the first King of England, and throughout the course of his life he will be involved - to varying degrees - in the politics and conflicts of the newly emerging England.

"I have known seven kings in all. Three were brothers: Æthelstan, Edmund and Eadred. Two were sons of Edmund: rash Edwy and Edgar the Peaceful. The last were two sons of Edgar: Edward and Ethelred. I am an old man. It breaks my heart." Page 438

Iggulden does an exceptional job of ensuring the reader is able to keep track of these seven kings. Each character was unique and memorable in their own right and their relationships with Dunstan varied to an enormous degree; one of them even sent him into exile!

"I tried to form the words to tell him I forgave him, because I had no other way to take revenge and I wanted him to wince when he recalled me ever after. Vengeance is a fine thing, but forgiveness can be just as cruel." Page 7

The 14 page Historical Note at the end of the novel was a welcome addition and I spent time looking up the Glastonbury Tor and abbey as well as some of the battles and places mentioned in the book after reading.

Originally published in 2017, it's taken me a long time to finally read Dunstan by Conn Iggulden but I've been rewarded with an unforgettable character and a fascinating tale of talent, intellect, vengeance, duty, miracles, exile and ambition.

Highly recommended! show less

I have to give Iggulden some credit here. The author takes a historical figure that has limited documentation and makes him shine. Too often Hollywood will give us a horrendously illiterate account of Genghis Khan. It could very well be true, we just don't know. But what the author does...and he does it very effectively is structure a life and give this intriguing figure a face and personality to guide us. By taking and blowing up possible events in Temujin's life we get a sense of what show more possibly shaped and molded him into the stone cold tactician and warrior that history tells us he was. This book focuses on his early life and the lives of those around him. The story is quickly paced and downright savage in many areas...as to be expected. The campfire scene will stay with me for a while. Kind of hard to unsee that. His attitude towards his mother's home tribe and the decision he makes regarding them....they can't say he was not pushed toward that action. He had more than one reason to lash out at them. This is the first of Iggulden's books I have read. I bought his entire catalogue at once. That was risky and so far it seems to have paid off. Two thumbs up on this work. I feel it can only get better as I launch off into the second book. show less

Conn Iggulden's cavalier approach to historical fact in the first four books of the series catches up with him here. Having anachronistically made Octavian one of Caesar's commanders during the subjugation of Gaul, he has to wind time backwards here and make him 20 in the aftermath of Caesar's assassination 15 years later. The real Octavian was a toddler during the Gallic wars, and so Iggulden has painted himself into a corner.

The novel itself suffers from the absence of Caesar from the show more stage. Octavian is simply not as interesting, and the complex--if again anachronistic--Brutus is too rarely on stage. As ever, though, Iggulden excels in the battle scenes, and although we know the outcome of the Battle of Philippi, the depiction of the conflict is electric.

I'll be interested to read his "Conqueror" novels, where my knowledge is so scanty that I am less likely to be distracted by historical inaccuracy. show less