Reviews with content warning for Gore - Essex Dogs

Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Essex Dogs by Dan Jones

14 reviews

improbablemoose's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

catherine_t's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

1346: The Essex Dogs, a company of mercenaries, join King Edward III's campaign in France. Led by Loveday FitzTalbot, they are a motley band that includes a fallen priest, a stonemason wanted for murder, a Scot, and two Welsh archers. FitzTalbot's main goals are to keep the band together and make sure they're paid at the end of their forty-day contract. As they march across Normandy, though, they are on a collision course with destiny near a small town called Crecy...

Dan Jones is best known as an historian, and it's as an historian that I've read his work previously (and listened to his fantastic podcast, This Is History). I was a wee bit leery of this, his first foray into fiction. I've always enjoyed his style, but I worried that the historian would overrule the storyteller.

Boy, was I wrong. And glad to be so. Jones creates a cast of characters that readers can empathize with and cheer for as they fight their way across France. The details bring the whole scene to life: you can smell the blood and gunpowder, almost feel the mud and sweat, as you read.

This is the first book of a trilogy, and I'm eager to get on to the next installment.

Content Warnings

moss_shrubbery's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous dark informative tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

Content Warnings

spookfish's review against another edition

2.0

dark slow-paced

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Profoundly disappointing. I only pushed myself to finish it so I felt I could review it fairly, my opinion has barely changed since the beginning though. The entire time slogging through this I was BEGGING that this had been drafted and edited way more. The quality of the writing moves from sloppy, to tolerably middle-of-the-road, either that or I simply got used to it as I got near the end. The rough language was overused and became grating, the problem with writing down swearing how it may be spoken, is that it makes it sound incredibly childish. Jones did not balance this well.
The characters, if you can even call them that, are hollow. Nothing more than stereotypes and a loose role to play. I cannot describe some characters beyond their name, because they have no character, they are simple 'Scotsman' etc. I did not care when any one of the supposed main characters died, I was not given a reason to care. There were moments where I wasn't sure if Jones was dancing with making

Romford

gay, which was perhaps the only thing that kept me intrigued. I'm still unsure if it was intended to come across this way, considering the fact that the environment in the novel is intensely homophobic (I cannot speak for any historical accuracy on this behaviour).
Something I gave the benefit of the doubt to early on but quickly lost hope for was the way Jones writes about his fat characters (namely Sir Robert). Argument could be made for historical attitudes towards them, and it being in character, however the prose which is disconnected from a voice also describes the fat characters as something grotesque, to recoil at. As the Essex Dogs are removed from Sir Robert's company, these descriptions lessen as the character is put in the background, but they are still there.
I will not be reading the rest of the series.

Content Warnings

olliev15's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous dark funny medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

i’m not usually a fan of battle fiction, and i really did not enjoy the battles in this book. however, some of the characters are absolutely amazingly written, and well worth sticking through the slower paced plot.

Romford’s character development was very interesting, and really i wish there was more time spent on his character. Father was interesting in a mysterious way, and i wish we learnt more of his backstory. Northampton was iconic - every line of his was comedy gold even though it wasn’t suppose to be. and finally, Scotsman was ride or die throughout, and it was heartwarming to read.

so yeah. the plot was rather inconsequential to me, because the characters and their interactions was really what i was reading for.

Content Warnings

sai_like_sigh's review against another edition

4.5

dark emotional tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

dreadspawn's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

katie0528's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

This book is not a grand tale of knights and chivalry and King Arthur. This is a tale of a group of foot soldiers during the 100 Years War, just trying to survive long enough to get paid as they're subjected to the horrors of medieval warfare and the whims of the kings and nobles who do not particularly care if they live or die. It's up to the leader of the Essex Dogs, Loveday, to keep his men alive as they pillage their way across France. But everyone single Dog has ghosts, Loveday included, which makes the task far easier said than done.

Content Warnings

lovetlr's review against another edition

2.0

adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

nyhofs's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

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