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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Religious bigotry
A very different type of book for Matthew Reilly. No huge action scenes, save for a few quick fights, and no fantastical technologies or magical items. But it is a great read, well plotted, fast paced, and interesting characters. The setting is well described and the background event is unusual and very interesting.
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape
adventurous
informative
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Matthew Reilly gets better and better! While his books won't always be for everybody - they're plotted faster than a runway maglev train - he weaves absorbing stories, and this one is no different.. Except that it's set in the 16th century Elizabethan era! Matthew Reilly doing historical dramas, you stutter in shock? It wasn't the train wreck it sounds like - in fact, the way Reilly incorporates what's a good old whodunnit into a tale that's ostensibly about chess and history, only shows that good storytellers can work with any setting.
Historical settings are risky - any verifiable assertions in the story, even with the disclaimer about it being 'all fiction' (Reilly actually doesn't include such a disclaimer, which is commendable) can easily *be* verified with Google and Wikipedia only a hundred milliseconds away - but Reilly manages to construct his tale while keeping major aspects of the real historical people included, mostly intact. I thoroughly enjoyed the history lessons plotted into the story, and while most people might write off Reilly's books as light 'popcorn' reads, this one led me to spend hours on Wikipedia brushing up my Ottoman, so it wasn't so light was it?
If there's a flaw with the book, it's the misplaced sense of moral superiority espoused by some of their major characters, that you can't help but trace back to the author's voice. While opposition to slavery, opposition to barbaric punishments by law and the support of women's rights are admirable, by no means was the England of Henry the VIII a paragon of virtue when it came to these issues. However, Reilly occasionally does take care to point out the hypocrisy of judging the Ottoman rule as barbaric with Henry VIII as your own king, so the moralizing isn't terrible..
Historical settings are risky - any verifiable assertions in the story, even with the disclaimer about it being 'all fiction' (Reilly actually doesn't include such a disclaimer, which is commendable) can easily *be* verified with Google and Wikipedia only a hundred milliseconds away - but Reilly manages to construct his tale while keeping major aspects of the real historical people included, mostly intact. I thoroughly enjoyed the history lessons plotted into the story, and while most people might write off Reilly's books as light 'popcorn' reads, this one led me to spend hours on Wikipedia brushing up my Ottoman, so it wasn't so light was it?
If there's a flaw with the book, it's the misplaced sense of moral superiority espoused by some of their major characters, that you can't help but trace back to the author's voice. While opposition to slavery, opposition to barbaric punishments by law and the support of women's rights are admirable, by no means was the England of Henry the VIII a paragon of virtue when it came to these issues. However, Reilly occasionally does take care to point out the hypocrisy of judging the Ottoman rule as barbaric with Henry VIII as your own king, so the moralizing isn't terrible..
This story idea had so much potential, alas it was just silly and weird.
Excellent book! Loved the historic references and the intrigue and the characters , even Elsie-sorta...
interesting but not historically accurate. very much a Matthew riley book
Check out this and many other reviews on my blog https://throwmeabook.wordpress.com/2015/07/27/the-tournament-by-matthew-reilly/
The year is 1546, and by invitation of Suleiman the Magnificent, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, a young Elizabeth I accompanies her teacher Roger Ascham and England’s best chess player Gilbert Giles to Constantinople, where they are to take part in a chess tournament that will determine the champion of the world. In the midst of this magnificent and opulent landscape, a horrific murder takes place and soon Elizabeth and Mr. Ascham find themselves unwittingly thrown into a web of intrigue and treachery to rival any chess game, with mystery and danger at every turn.
Having garnered much of his success with high intensity, action-adventure novels, Matthew Reilly has switched gears with The Tournament to try his hand at historical fiction, with great success. Although subdued in the action and adventure department, The Tournament is not for the faint at heart and delivers an excellent dose of mystery, intrigue and subterfuge. Mathew Reilly has seamlessly blended fact and fiction together, and has captured the beauty as well as unimaginable horrors and brutality of 1546 Constantinople perfectly, with such enthralling and vivid prose that the reader is transported to this wondrous time if only in his or her imagination.
The characters are well thought out and researched, described in the same vivid manner used throughout the book that they seem to come alive before your eyes. Whether intentional or not, and adding to the books appeal tremendously, The Tournament reads as a non-fiction account of the time and quite often I wondered (and often hoped) that some of the events described actually took place.
Overall, another great success for the talented Matthew Reilly. An excellent read, highly recommended to lovers of both the action and historical fiction genre. The Tournament has it all!
Thank you to NetGalley, Goodreads First Reads and Gallery Books for providing me an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
The year is 1546, and by invitation of Suleiman the Magnificent, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, a young Elizabeth I accompanies her teacher Roger Ascham and England’s best chess player Gilbert Giles to Constantinople, where they are to take part in a chess tournament that will determine the champion of the world. In the midst of this magnificent and opulent landscape, a horrific murder takes place and soon Elizabeth and Mr. Ascham find themselves unwittingly thrown into a web of intrigue and treachery to rival any chess game, with mystery and danger at every turn.
Having garnered much of his success with high intensity, action-adventure novels, Matthew Reilly has switched gears with The Tournament to try his hand at historical fiction, with great success. Although subdued in the action and adventure department, The Tournament is not for the faint at heart and delivers an excellent dose of mystery, intrigue and subterfuge. Mathew Reilly has seamlessly blended fact and fiction together, and has captured the beauty as well as unimaginable horrors and brutality of 1546 Constantinople perfectly, with such enthralling and vivid prose that the reader is transported to this wondrous time if only in his or her imagination.
The characters are well thought out and researched, described in the same vivid manner used throughout the book that they seem to come alive before your eyes. Whether intentional or not, and adding to the books appeal tremendously, The Tournament reads as a non-fiction account of the time and quite often I wondered (and often hoped) that some of the events described actually took place.
Overall, another great success for the talented Matthew Reilly. An excellent read, highly recommended to lovers of both the action and historical fiction genre. The Tournament has it all!
Thank you to NetGalley, Goodreads First Reads and Gallery Books for providing me an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
A thrilling tale of intrigue set in 16th century Constantinople. Follow future Queen Elizabeth I as an impressionable 13 year old as she learns about chess and the dark worlds of sex and murder.