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A review by darwin8u
Sword and Scimitar by Simon Scarrow
3.0
"We are all the prisoners of our history."
- Simon Scarrow, Sword and Scimitar
Typically, whenever I travel to a country I've never been before I try to read both historical and fictional books related to my destination. This summer I took my wife and kids to Malta. This book seemed to fit the bill for a good airplane read. Not too deep or nuanced, but good historical perspective on the Siege of Malta.
The problem was it was just a bit light. It reminded me of a lazy Ken Follett. And I'm not a big Follett fan. It didn't even begin to approach great historical fiction (Patrick O'Brian, Robert Graves, Hilary Mantel). It wasn't literary and when it tried to be literary the voice ended up sounding like a 20th century agnostic and not a 15th century skeptic. But still, it did provide a good basic understanding of the siege and wasn't overly melodramatic (oh, it did have its melodrama for sure...). Anyway, it didn't inspire me to stop reading nor inspire me to hunt out more Simon Scarrow books.
- Simon Scarrow, Sword and Scimitar
Typically, whenever I travel to a country I've never been before I try to read both historical and fictional books related to my destination. This summer I took my wife and kids to Malta. This book seemed to fit the bill for a good airplane read. Not too deep or nuanced, but good historical perspective on the Siege of Malta.
The problem was it was just a bit light. It reminded me of a lazy Ken Follett. And I'm not a big Follett fan. It didn't even begin to approach great historical fiction (Patrick O'Brian, Robert Graves, Hilary Mantel). It wasn't literary and when it tried to be literary the voice ended up sounding like a 20th century agnostic and not a 15th century skeptic. But still, it did provide a good basic understanding of the siege and wasn't overly melodramatic (oh, it did have its melodrama for sure...). Anyway, it didn't inspire me to stop reading nor inspire me to hunt out more Simon Scarrow books.