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selkis's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I love historical fiction with a magical twist. So when I found The White Mare I knew I had to read it, and I'm glad I did.
The story is set in Scotland during the time of the Roman conquest. Agricola, the governor of Roman Britain, wants to extend the border and conquer the lands of Alba.
When the Irish price Eremon and his companions arrive on Alba's shores they meet the Epidii and form an allegiance with them to fight the Romans. To buttress this allegiance Eremon marries the former king's daughter Rhiann, who is not happy at all to be given to a man like that. Due to her traumatic and violent past the marriage doesn't start well. But the Roman threat is looming ...
I loved the writing style. Jules Watson's prose is beautiful and fits the story perfectly. Her descriptions of the culture of the Epidii, their religion and values paint a vivid picture of how life could have been back then. Of course, not everything is historically accurate, as a lot is still unknown. But that's the beauty of historical fiction - you can fill in the gaps. And Jules Watson does an amazing job.
The fantasy elements are a nice touch too. I love historical novels that treat the myths and religious believes of a people as true. The religious rituals in The White Mare add another interesting layer to the story.
I love the characters she created. Both Eremon and Rhiann (the main characters) are interesting, multi-faceted and have their own complex reasons for their actions. All their misunderstandings, betrayals and stubbornness made me want to tear my hair out at times. But in a good way, of course.
The story kept me glued to the pages and I couldn't put it down. I really wanted to know what would happen next.
Bonus points for the historical note at the end of the book. I'm always happy and grateful if authors include a short chapter on the history behind the story.
Overall, a wonderful story, and I'll definitely continue reading the trilogy. I highly recommend The White Mare to everybody who's interested in history, especially Roman and early British history.
The story is set in Scotland during the time of the Roman conquest. Agricola, the governor of Roman Britain, wants to extend the border and conquer the lands of Alba.
When the Irish price Eremon and his companions arrive on Alba's shores they meet the Epidii and form an allegiance with them to fight the Romans. To buttress this allegiance Eremon marries the former king's daughter Rhiann, who is not happy at all to be given to a man like that. Due to her traumatic and violent past the marriage doesn't start well. But the Roman threat is looming ...
I loved the writing style. Jules Watson's prose is beautiful and fits the story perfectly. Her descriptions of the culture of the Epidii, their religion and values paint a vivid picture of how life could have been back then. Of course, not everything is historically accurate, as a lot is still unknown. But that's the beauty of historical fiction - you can fill in the gaps. And Jules Watson does an amazing job.
The fantasy elements are a nice touch too. I love historical novels that treat the myths and religious believes of a people as true. The religious rituals in The White Mare add another interesting layer to the story.
I love the characters she created. Both Eremon and Rhiann (the main characters) are interesting, multi-faceted and have their own complex reasons for their actions. All their misunderstandings, betrayals and stubbornness made me want to tear my hair out at times. But in a good way, of course.
The story kept me glued to the pages and I couldn't put it down. I really wanted to know what would happen next.
Bonus points for the historical note at the end of the book. I'm always happy and grateful if authors include a short chapter on the history behind the story.
Overall, a wonderful story, and I'll definitely continue reading the trilogy. I highly recommend The White Mare to everybody who's interested in history, especially Roman and early British history.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape
Minor: Violence
incrediblemelk's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I always begin the year’s reading with light genre fiction, and I’d had this on my shelf for ages. It’s quite a chunky historical novel set during the Roman conquest of Alba (now Scotland). I had recently refreshed my taste for this period by watching the German series ‘Barbarians’ on Netflix, which I really appreciated because the Romans’ dialogue was actually in Latin rather than posh English accents. Here, everyone can conveniently speak British (Brythonic? Pictish?), even the Irishmen from Dalriada.
This book faces the problem that any narratives set during this time do: most archival evidence of them comes from Roman and Greek sources, or much later sources, while archaeology can only tell us so much, so the author has to fill the gaps with their own imaginative leaps.
I found Watson’s creative decisions more plodding than Ilka Tampke’s thematically very similar Songwoman (which tells the story of the conquest of Albion further south, and also follows a female healer and priestess who undertakes a political marriage to a stranger who turns out to be her love interest, and is undermined by a gross Druid who hates women’s power).
Tampke does a much better job of conveying the characters’ ties to country, how it might feel to embody the complex spirit-world, and the joy and mystery of ritual and song.
She’s also a more skilled writer than Watson, whose prose leans on certain stock phrases that I’ve read a lot in fantasy and romance writing:
Women always have “a mass of hair”;
Objects are “hefted” in people’s hands;
Sex happens “in the furs”;
Good-looking people are “comely”;
and there are so many “rutted cart tracks”. (Can’t these people smooth out their cart tracks? Well, I guess Rome ends up doing that…)
This is a very hefty book that follows the main characters for nearly two years, and it’s the first in a trilogy, so a lot of plot is left unresolved. The main storylines are “will the prince of Erin unite the tribes of Alba against the Roman invaders?” and “will the heroine recover from the trauma of her rape several years ago?”
I found it comforting to read but sometimes slow-paced. The dialogue in the fight scenes was a bit cringeworthy and expository, and the characters often took ages to realise things that had been hinted at much earlier on, e.g. that certain characters they trust are actually in league with Rome. This made me impatient with their slow wits. How can they not even identify the fucken evil Druid as their enemy, even at the end? They’re like, “well he’s just being anti.”
This book faces the problem that any narratives set during this time do: most archival evidence of them comes from Roman and Greek sources, or much later sources, while archaeology can only tell us so much, so the author has to fill the gaps with their own imaginative leaps.
I found Watson’s creative decisions more plodding than Ilka Tampke’s thematically very similar Songwoman (which tells the story of the conquest of Albion further south, and also follows a female healer and priestess who undertakes a political marriage to a stranger who turns out to be her love interest, and is undermined by a gross Druid who hates women’s power).
Tampke does a much better job of conveying the characters’ ties to country, how it might feel to embody the complex spirit-world, and the joy and mystery of ritual and song.
She’s also a more skilled writer than Watson, whose prose leans on certain stock phrases that I’ve read a lot in fantasy and romance writing:
Women always have “a mass of hair”;
Objects are “hefted” in people’s hands;
Sex happens “in the furs”;
Good-looking people are “comely”;
and there are so many “rutted cart tracks”. (Can’t these people smooth out their cart tracks? Well, I guess Rome ends up doing that…)
This is a very hefty book that follows the main characters for nearly two years, and it’s the first in a trilogy, so a lot of plot is left unresolved. The main storylines are “will the prince of Erin unite the tribes of Alba against the Roman invaders?” and “will the heroine recover from the trauma of her rape several years ago?”
I found it comforting to read but sometimes slow-paced. The dialogue in the fight scenes was a bit cringeworthy and expository, and the characters often took ages to realise things that had been hinted at much earlier on, e.g. that certain characters they trust are actually in league with Rome. This made me impatient with their slow wits. How can they not even identify the fucken evil Druid as their enemy, even at the end? They’re like, “well he’s just being anti.”
velocitygirl14's review against another edition
2.0
I wanted to like it, but this book just made me go meh. After putting it down and coming back to it over and over again and seeing it as a chore, I’ll give it a pass. DNF.
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