Honour and the Sword

This is going to be another book post. It's actually a random book I came upon in the library while waiting for my friends during our last karaoke session. You know what? I LOVE this book!

Okay although it's obvious in the picture, I'd still have to give the author credit. It's titled Honour and the Sword by A. L. Berridge. The following is actually what's written on the back cover since I do not yet trust the power of my own words to interest potential readers.

It is 1636 - the height of the Thirty Years War, one of the bloodiest and most destructive conflicts Europe has ever seen. As the campaigning season begins, the Spanish armies swell out of the Artois region of the Netherlands – flooding into King Louis XIII's France.

The sleepy border village of Dax-en-roi stands in their way. Facing the overwhelming might of the Spanish forces, the Chevalier de Roland rallies a valiant defence, but in vain – his household guard no match for the invaders. There is only one survivor as the Roland estate is razed to the ground, one soul who escapes the Spanish brutality: the lone heir to the Roland name, the son, a young boy by the name of André de Roland, the new Sieur of Dax . . .

Upon this young nobleman's shoulders all hope lies. He alone must bear the honour of the Roland name and, with it, the fate of his people.

So this is one of the few books I read that actually invested a LOT of time developing the characters (which I love) and still somehow kept the story interesting enough to keep you turning the pages right through the end! Since you spent so much time on following the characters' development, you actually get the feeling that you know the characters personally. That made all the surge of emotions felt more intense and you would actually want to lash out at that hateful person in the book or embrace those poor hurt souls and give them solace. Did I say that I loved this book?

The story's written in a first person perspective, which also adds to that personal attachment to the characters. Sometimes I also thought that I was with the characters right there and then. The thing about first person perspectives is that you know from the very start of the story that the character wouldn't be dead in any way and would survive any ordeal hurled at them, cutting back some of the suspense. But also, it gives you the thrill of dreading those moments where things could go wrong for the character and also those times when you knew the character's tragic flaw would go off and something bad is bound to happen to me, wait, it's not me, it's just the guy in the book.

I have to applaud the author for painting the world of a growing boy so perfectly well, the author's a she by the way, which I applaud to even more! It came as a shock during a random morning search on the internet when I found out that it's a woman who wrote the book. With all those intricate details, you would've thought insisted that it was a male author. Well, there you go, it's a female author. Also I found out that there's a SEQUEL to the book!!! I went like OAO literally. Unfortunately, the second (and final) book In the Name of the King also by A. L. Berridge (duh) isn't available at the library, or so the online sources say. LIBRARY Y U GOT NO SECOND BOOK IN SAME SERIES!? It's time like these when frantic searches on e-bay and a friend who frequently shops on the site (i.e Miss Abs) comes in handy. Oh yes, it is that good that I wouldn't even wait for the library to buy the book even though I filled in the suggestion form and had to have it for myself!

A note to TeeKay, it has that tinge of the specific genre of anime that we like, just a tinge, so don't get your hopes up too high. I did say the author is great at painting boys' world right? I might as well make this a note to Miss Lust as well, who is currently away at Kathmandu searching for the Enlightened Being's one true love - Kumar (not his real name) XD I'm just kidding though, Miss Lust is searching for hers. XDD But who's to say she can't multitask right? XDDD

All that said, I'll have to say I really enjoyed this book. It's what people would call a good read? Don't take my word for it, go read it for yourselves! And please don't be bored by my words because it really is a good book, and I don't say that about every book I read.

Here's the look of the second book.

Here's another book I read Siege of Heaven by Tom Harper, also borrowed from the library. The background of the story is the first crusade (ooohh) and it is about a man too far away from home, caught in the middle of the struggles between the great powers of the world with his family hanging in the balance. This is actually the finale to the Crusade Trilogy (I wouldn't know, would I?) and is really quite moving. The first and second books are The Mosaic of Shadows and Knights of the Cross respectively. So, you'd be better off starting from the first book.

 

You might have guessed it by now, but I'm going to tell you anyway that  I'm also a total sucker for swordplay, which both books feature and Honour and the Sword features it strongly. It keeps going like parry, riposte, riposte battement which I have completely no idea of but I guessed that battement is a defensive move since it keeps coming up when the characters are in a bad state. Sadly I have no luck with fencing so I guess I'll just harbour that deep interest and be intent with watching (and reading) other guys do it then.

Currently waiting for the arrival of In the Name of the King..