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A review by arevikheboyan
The Castle in the Wars of the Roses by Dan Spencer
4.0
First of all, allow me to appreciate authors, publishers, and NetGalley for the opportunity to review the eARC of the book.
Secondly, want to point out the impossible amount of research this book required, the impossible number of historical characters, the huge number of castles, and geographical locations discussed in this book. The number of characters and castles reviews is the strongest aspect of the book, and, unfortunately for me, also the weakest aspect. Allow me to elaborate. The author is undoubtedly is an expert in the field of medieval history and military history, however, due to the number of people discussed, it was very easy to lose the silver lining during reading. Certainly, the author knew what was being discussed, but it seems that the author and publisher expect the reader to have some level of advancement in medieval history and historical characters, to appropriately appreciate this wonderful work of non-fiction.
The book perfectly represents all the functions castles were playing from the 11th to 16th centuries, the transition of functions with the transition of a political and social atmosphere, and the lifestyle of royals. aristocrats and military elite, from being a symbol of wealth to the representation of architectural taste to military operations headquarters to jail...
And most importantly, the military elite and royals using castles as operational and strategic tools, ways of representing powers, and keeping allies close.
The work is an amazing overview of medieval military history and as the name suggests, mainly the important role of castles, from symbolic to strategical roles and functions of castles during the War of Roses.
We were discussing so many characters at the same time, on the same page, we may see up to 10 different people discussed and it was very easy to completely confuse what we were discussing and who are we discussing at last.
We were jumping so much from person to person. I wish by the names we would have identifiers to which party a person belonged to, as (Y) for York to Lancaster(L). Knowing medieval England history, I am not export by any means, and it was very hard yo keep up with all the people discussed in the book.
Also, I wish we had more images ( considering this was an eARC and the final version may have better visualization), just to understand what exactly are we talking about.
Overall, the writing vas accessible, my personal issue was information amount and organization.
Considering the amount went into this work, I really feel bad for rating as a 4-star read, but I was really lost during the reading.
Secondly, want to point out the impossible amount of research this book required, the impossible number of historical characters, the huge number of castles, and geographical locations discussed in this book. The number of characters and castles reviews is the strongest aspect of the book, and, unfortunately for me, also the weakest aspect. Allow me to elaborate. The author is undoubtedly is an expert in the field of medieval history and military history, however, due to the number of people discussed, it was very easy to lose the silver lining during reading. Certainly, the author knew what was being discussed, but it seems that the author and publisher expect the reader to have some level of advancement in medieval history and historical characters, to appropriately appreciate this wonderful work of non-fiction.
The book perfectly represents all the functions castles were playing from the 11th to 16th centuries, the transition of functions with the transition of a political and social atmosphere, and the lifestyle of royals. aristocrats and military elite, from being a symbol of wealth to the representation of architectural taste to military operations headquarters to jail...
And most importantly, the military elite and royals using castles as operational and strategic tools, ways of representing powers, and keeping allies close.
The work is an amazing overview of medieval military history and as the name suggests, mainly the important role of castles, from symbolic to strategical roles and functions of castles during the War of Roses.
We were discussing so many characters at the same time, on the same page, we may see up to 10 different people discussed and it was very easy to completely confuse what we were discussing and who are we discussing at last.
We were jumping so much from person to person. I wish by the names we would have identifiers to which party a person belonged to, as (Y) for York to Lancaster(L). Knowing medieval England history, I am not export by any means, and it was very hard yo keep up with all the people discussed in the book.
Also, I wish we had more images ( considering this was an eARC and the final version may have better visualization), just to understand what exactly are we talking about.
Overall, the writing vas accessible, my personal issue was information amount and organization.
Considering the amount went into this work, I really feel bad for rating as a 4-star read, but I was really lost during the reading.