Review: More History Textbook than Novel
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 09 19, 2013
There are so many characters that I finally gave up on trying to remember who was who and just read on.  Kindle doesn't make it easy to reference the List of (60) Principal Characters at the beginning of the book.For instance, it was hard to remember that just one character, Guy FitzRichard, was the son of Richard FitzRobert the elder son of Robert de Cuille the lord of four manors in the High Peak and constable of Perevel Castle, squire to Triston de Cuille baron of the Cheviot and father of Humprey de Cuille as well as son of Hugo de Cuille and twin brother of Robert de Cuille.Much of the book reads as a history textbook rather than as a novel.  The plot line would be that  Stephen of Blois and Empress Maud both want the throne of England and fight for it for 19 years. During this time England is mostly lawless with barons and earls pillaging and fighting each other to seize land.  When one Baron attacks another baron (again) to seize his barony it is written in text with no dialogue. Very factual; very textbook.It is all very interesting history but I wish there were fewer characters so the author could concentrated on more character development.  I have read the preview chapter of the next book in the series "Caging the Lyon" and have  ordered it. It looks like it has a good plot line and more three dimensional characters.