Review: Another Action Packed Adventure
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 26, 2014
In this second novel of the Ottoman Cycle, we find the former thief and street wise Skiouros  in Crete preparing himself for the revenge that he seeks against the person whose scheme to over throw the Sultan of Istanbul led to the death of Skiouros's brother.  With his dwindling funds he books  passage to Rome but once at sea he soon runs afoul of Hassan Ecti, a radical Muslim pirate pro temp whose zealous mission in life is to destroy all Christians and any vestiges of Christianity.The book seemed to start rather slowly with Skiouros studying and learning fencing.  I was a bit disappointed that Skiouros was no longer the street wise  character of the first novel. But, soon enough he and three new friends were up to their ears in a struggle for their lives against the crazed Hassan.  It soon became a book that became harder and harder to put down.  "How are they going to get out of this mess?" I would often wonder and had to resist the strong temptation to skip ahead a few pages to relieve the suspense.Skiouros was a loner in Istanbul living by his wits. In this novel we find that he is now concerned not only about himself but also about his new friends.  He himself has an internal struggle to come to grips with that.  That was an interesting aspect to see and, of course, there is a lot of action and descriptions of life  at sea, in Tunis and a few other countries and towns in the year 1492.  I look forward to the next book in the series.  It seems that our hero seeks refuge, as the story ends, on a ship called the Pinta that is sailing west.  Pinta? 1492? Oh, oh.