Robert Low (1) (1952–)

Reckonings!

A fascinating look at this time of 1548 Scottish history. A life of violence is Batty Coalhouse's heritage. Known for his abilities to get the job done he takes on an unasked for task; to rescue one Will Elliot, Lord of Newark in Fife's Steward, being held by reiver enemies. The rescue attempt leads to even more confrontations and conflict. There's the truly disgusting opportunist, a reiver, styling himself the Laird of Blackscargil whom Batty faces time and again.
And Batty's show more thoughts are true words,
"No matter that the war atween Scotch and English is trickling to a close, he thought; for the reivers it is just a better excuse to shake loose the Border."
Trapped by his reputation as a hard fighter, trapped by the more powerful and trapped by his, almost melancholic inner voices. No way out! But then Batty "has a fire for vengeance." Batty "has shaken forth the Border" not because he wanted to but because others have unwittingly set him on that path. That path takes him into increasingly dangerous situations. Along the way he faces both friends and old enemies. His reputation makes him a target.
The battles, the fighting and carnage descriptors, with accompanying atrocities are brutal. These aspects are not a read for the faint hearted.
Despite all this Batty Coalfield is a reluctant anti hero with heart.

A Canelo ARC via NetGalley
Please note: Quotes taken from an advanced reading copy maybe subject to change show less

This is the third book in the Oathsworn Trilogy, this one set in 972 AD. Once again we are following the adventures of Orm Ruriksson and his band of Vikings known as The Oathsworn. After trying to settle down on a homestead Orm realizes that the rumor of a mountain of silver that only he knows the whereabouts of is still swirling around, and he and his people will never be left in peace.

Once again the Oathsworn must take to the whale road, and along the way, they manage to raid and burn an show more old enemy’s homestead. They rescue a strange, young boy who claims to be a prince. At Novgorod, they run into this old enemy and the young boy, called Crowbone, kills his hated captor but causes them all to be thrown in prison. They are in danger of being put to death so Orm trades his story of the silver for their freedom. This places them under the thumb of a young Russian prince who needs the silver to buy men and arms to establish himself as the legitimate heir over his two brothers.

Their journey takes them across the frozen steppes in the worst of winters in their quest of returning to Attila’s tomb. With blizzards and frost bite to face, but of course the greatest danger is ahead of them at the tomb.

After following these characters for three books I am sad to see it end, but this has been a great series. An epic adventure story, with well researched, realistic details and enough black humor to offset the violent parts. The White Raven is a great ending to this series. show less

I have to four this for the experimental style. Which was at its most intense early on, I think, and let up as the plot had to be followed. Early on, we move from person to person and see their inner experiences. Whether or not the persons are important to the story, whether or not their thoughts are relevant. In real life, of course, people’s thoughts aren’t too often relevant, and I loved the reality that this achieved. I was confused as to who’s who (without much Scottish history to show more help me either) but I just forged ahead: it sorts itself out, and for me, a little confusion prevents boredom, keeps my intellect engaged, not to say challenged.

However, I had a strange time with the book, in that I quickly felt that the contents were less adventurous than the style, and I even had a sense of incongruity. So... I read for how he wrote rather than what he wrote, and I wished he’d go further, stretch expectations in other ways... This one is obviously a departure from a more standard kind of style – I know his ‘Whale Road’ isn’t much like this. There was a repetition of imagery that wore on me, though I bet you can argue that’s the building-up of a feel for the novel.

It’s on the grimy side in atmosphere, and I’m not talking Bruce and Wallace – whose history I scarcely know, though both began to interest me here as (partly-drawn as yet) characters – but the world and the people in it were anti-romantic. There’s the Dog Boy to latch your sympathies onto, and Hal, both fictional and less-important-people – the Dog Boy doesn’t even have a name. And the Auld Templar had a tarnished kind of glory to him, I think?

I admired other things. He made random deaths hard-hitting – not because the people were likeable, in fact they were very average specimens of humanity, nevertheless you saw them alive a few pages back.

Have to mention the languages. What with Scots, French, English and other, these people were only half-intelligible to each other, and he finds brilliant and funny ways to portray that. Don’t be anxious about the languages: he translates for you when you need a translation, and if he doesn’t you don’t need to know.

It was hard to review. But I was enchanted by those early scenes and his ‘rules? what rules?’ approach to the writing. The only rule is whatever works, and to a large extent this worked for me. show less

My thanks to the Author publisher's and NetGalley for providing me with a Kindle version of this book to read and honestly review.
Quality writing and research I have come to expect from this Author, having thoroughly enjoyed his brilliant Viking series of books, I expected a lot from this book and was not disappointed. A clever mix of fictional and real historical characters, particularly 'Batty' and 'Mintie' who I hope to meet again in further stories. Atmospheric authentic descriptive show more storytelling with a real feel for time and place. Plenty of action scenes and often quite gruesome violence. The only slight downside the occasional need to explain some Scottish descriptions and words.
Completely and utterly recommended. show less