Reviews

Sovereign by C.J. Sansom

rebeccazh's review against another edition

3.0

3.5 stars. This was a bit slower paced than the spectacular Dark Fire and at times the story felt like it was really meandering. I guessed the culprit fairly early on but still enjoyed the mystery, tension, and the detailed descriptions of England during the time of Henry Viii.

fellrnr's review against another edition

informative slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

eleni12's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

ran_sophia's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

The story was excellent and I really liked the writing style.  The pace of the writing was brisk and went pretty quickly.  The development of the characters was excellently written.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Blood, Antisemitism, Death, Violence, and Torture

Moderate: Physical abuse

chrisscrivens's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful medium-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

5.0

gfarinas's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

jgintrovertedreader's review against another edition

3.0

Matthew Shardlake has been summoned by Archbishop Cranmer to assist with some law work as King Henry makes a royal progress through the rebellious north. He must also try to keep a prisoner alive for later questioning. But conspiracies still abound in the area and Shardlake's life is endangered when he stumbles onto something.

Reading this felt like slogging through the mud created by the never-ending rain in the book. It just dragged on and on and on. Finally, in about the last hundred pages, the action picked up and everything started to get interesting.

I enjoyed reading more about Shardlake and Barak, but overall, I have a lot of problems with the book. There were a lot of typos that drove me crazy. The Bealknap case (remember that from [b:Dark Fire|138683|Dark Fire (Matthew Shardlake #2)|C.J. Sansom|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172096995s/138683.jpg|4595372]?) is still. dragging. on. C'mon and let it die already! With Shardlake being in the barbarous north, he obviously doesn't really understand the dialect. The explanation of some of the more common terms was unbelievably clumsy. One character basically says out of the blue, "Oh, by the way, old boy, did you know that gate means street up here?" Yes, it really was that bad.

Reading this so soon after [a:Ken Follett|3447|Ken Follett|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1197600287p2/3447.jpg]'s [b:The Pillars of the Earth|5043|The Pillars of the Earth|Ken Follett|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165517379s/5043.jpg|3359698] was actually pretty interesting. In Pillars, we get to see how important the monasteries are and the hard work that goes into building a cathedral. In Sansom's books, the pendulum has swung the other way and they're being destroyed. I've never really thought too much about how much art, architecture, and history was lost in these kinds of purges, but the juxtaposition of the two books really brought that home for me.

I'll keep reading, and if you've read the others, I would recommend you do the same. It was still decent, and I do look forward to the next in the series. I just hope it's better.

tvrandhavane's review against another edition

5.0

Sansom is intelligent. He has proved that in Dissolution and Dark Fire by weaving a mystery in a historical background. He continues the Shardlake story in Sovereign with another mystery.

Sansom's characters have an inherent characteristic according to which they behave in joy, in fear, in disappointment and in anger. For Shardlake it was his goodness, for Barak it was his loyalty. You can see this in the characters of this book too.

This book has many plot twists and it's unpredictableness keeps you hinged to the book. Sansom's characters are clever, you will find no action that is not supported by a reasonable cause. Sansom's knowledge of the people is evident.

didactylos's review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Amazing detail and clever plotting. I spent three years at York University so was able to visualise the streets and the locations. Indeed I had my 21st party in Kings Manor!

sas_lk's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This series is one I know I can always pick up to get me out of a reading slump, and this book did just that.  

In this world, the world greatly expands and our characters find themselves in the middle of highly political environments and situations. I enjoyed it, however, I feel this was the least enjoyable from all the books I've read so far. It was 600 pages of basically not much happening, and then all of a sudden we had a stressful and tense ending. 
I will keep reading the series because I love it, but I do hope the pacing and plot in the next sequel are a bit better. 
That said, I still love these books and characters, and I believe that the author is very talented and has taught me a lot about England in that era. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide attempt, Torture, Suicide, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Ableism

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death of parent, Vomit, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Infidelity, Pregnancy, Cancer, and Confinement