Lady of the Forest by Jennifer Roberson

 One of my all-time favorite movies was Robin and Marian, a story of Robin Hood coming home from the crusades an old man, renewing his battle with the Sheriff of Nottingham, while during his absence Marian has entered a nunnery, and they are all well past their prime. It contains what I consider to be one of the best declarations of true love I've ever heard.

I've loved Roberson's writing for many years, beginning with her Sword Dancer series, to which she continues to contribute to this day. 

This retelling of the Robin Hood story, beginning shortly after Robin's return from the Crusades, is a far more gritty and realistic version of events than we've seen in the Disneyfied tales we've seen over recent years. Roberson does a fantastic job of revealing all of the major and most of the minor characters' motivations and machinations, jockeying for power, wealth and position. The ending of this tale perhaps displayed a bit more realpolitik than one would ordinarily hope for in a historical fantasy, and less of the happily ever after, but all in all a truly enjoyable read.

The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell

I don't ordinarily read historical fiction, but it was a slow day at the library for SF and Fantasy, so I thought I'd take a chance on The Last Kingdom. I was pleasantly surprised. Cornwell writes a gripping tales of swords sans sorcery, set in the time of King Alfred. Blood, guts, and glory aplenty.

Flashman by George McDonald Fraser

A long time ago, I owned a copy of Flashman, and of one of the sequels by Fraser, Royal Flash, which I am sure I must have loaned out to someone and was never returned - a fairly common fate for some of my favorites over the years -  and when I saw that the local library system has an extensive collection of the series, I decided it was time to re-read the ones I've seen before and enjoy the rest for the first time.


There was literary device often used in pulp fiction (and perhaps earlier) where the author would purport to have found a package of letters or memoirs, left in a secret hiding place, or in a dusty old crate at auction, or some equally odd place, which he had merely translated, re-telling a true story. Such is the case with The Flashman Papers, a collection of historical novels about a fictional rogue who lived through the late nineteenth century, and got caught up in most of its battles, usually landing in a pile of ordure, yet coming out smelling of roses, Harry Flashman.


When the tale begans, Flashman is kicked out his boarding school for drunkenness, and returns home to visit his father. His father secures him a place in a cavalry regiment, and in return Harry sleeps with his father's mistress - a portent of things to come. He is doing quite well ingratiating himself with the commander of the regiment when his affair with the French mistress of another officer lands him in a duel. While he survives the duel, he is caught by the political repercussions and sent off to exile in Scottland, where he seduces the daughter of the merchant with whom he is quartered, and ends up in a "shotgun" wedding. Shortly after that, his braggadocio at a party ends with him sent off to India as the aide-de-camp to a British general.


It's one of those out of the frying pan types of stories that I've always enjoyed, and Fraser makes it quite a compelling read, with an antihero you just love to hate.

Impaler by Kate Paulk

Impaler is the first novel I've tried by Kate Paulk. Every so often, I'd get the feeling that I was missing something, whenever the protagonist, Lord Draculea, mentioned something that had happened earlier in his life. At first, the events seemed so adequately described that they could just be bits of background, but eventually it became apparent that there's a first novel in this chronicle. Goodreads, fortunately, enlighted me to its name - Born in Blood. Now I have to go hunting, I guess. Like Van Helsing

As I've perhaps mentioned before, the first instance I recall of a writer telling the Dracula tale from the good Count's point of view was Saberhagen's The Dracula Tape, which I've reviewed before. At this late date, seeing the vampire as a sympathetic character is pretty common, so it's no surprise when Impaler follows the tale of Wallachia's infamous ruler in first person. Having survived torture and abuse by the son of a Turkish Sultan when placed in that household as a hostage to his father's good behavior, Draculea nurses a deep hatred for the Turks who have overrun much of Eurasia. He also was cursed while in durance vile with the need to consume fresh blood, which conversely gives him strength and speed far in excess of most mortal men. Rather poetically, the curse rebounds upon those who cast it, as Draculea takes the fight to them in their strongholds in Wallachia and beyond.

Aside from the Dracula schtick, this novel really isn't in the fantasy or even horror genre, but more of a historical (if you accept a supernatural Dracula's historicity) novel. Yes yes yes we all know Vlad the Impaler existed, it's his undead nature that creates the mythos.

Draculea seems also to be cursed in an incidental manner in that those whom he cares for die off for various reasons. At the start of this novel, his father and brothers are gone, and his first wife dead, and at about the midpoint, his second wife and his unborn child die by miscarriage and hemorrhage. However, some mystical signs occur at her funeral, and his subjects decide that Vlad is guided by angels, ensuring their deeper loyalties, so it's not a total loss. Vlad is also forced to make hard decisions about how to spend his forces and the lives of his people in pursuing his vendetta, which creates a serious conflict with his eldest surviving son, Mehnea, who is still a touch naive about the ways of power.

A good tale, though quite brutal, which is to be expected in a tale about "the Impaler", kept my interest, and I'll definitely have to pick up some more of Paulk's fiction.