Sunrise in the West

This is the first book in the Brothers of Gwynedd quartet. The main focus is on the children of Griffith, the illegitimate heir of a Welsh prince, as they try to maintain Welsh independence in the face of English attempts to take over some of the marches. The second son of Griffith, Llywelyn, is adamant that Wales should be united under a single ruler; if they focus on making sure that all the princelings have their own turf, it will be easier for the English to pick off the princelings one by one and erode the boundaries of Wales.

This is a shortish book for historical fiction and a bit of a slow burn, in the sense that there are three other books in the series and the whole series could feasibly be treated as one long book. The show more narration by Samson, Llywelyn's clerk and servant, is detailed and realistic about what he would have seen and known, and his own story is brought in without overshadowing the narrative of Llywelyn. There isn't all that much dialogue (or at least less than I might have expected), so it took a while for me to settle into the rhythm, but overall I enjoyed this book and was suitably happy/sad/surprised at the appropriate places. I'll have to read the second book fairly soon, but not immediately. show less

It read more like a history than an historical novel but there was plenty of history to get through to start to tell the story of the princely families of Wales in the 1200s, a history that I really know very little about. It is still well-written and makes it all come alive and I'm looking forward to the remaining three books.

The first in The Brothers of Gwynedd Quartet this is a solid historical novel chronicling the early years of the four grandsons of Llywelyn Fawr, Prince of Gwynedd. Most of them brought up in various forms of imprisonment. The eldest by his uncle in Wales and the two youngest in the Tower of London. The desire for personal freedom and an independent Wales underlies the story. Well researched with solid characters this is a fascinating look at medieval Wales. I will be moving on to the rest of the quartet very soon.

The twists and turns of how Llewellyn become Prince of unified Wales.
I found most of it a dry read, long descriptions of thoughts, not much dialogue. Mainly battles and princes switching sides. I thought there would be more about discovering Samson's (the clerk narrator) father. Even the love story is mainly he meets her and falls in love but is tormented because he can't have her. But nothing about why he is so in love with her or why she doesn't love her husband. Maybe there will be more answers in the following 3 books, if I can get through them.