A review by romanvs91
The Rebels of Ireland by Edward Rutherfurd

4.0

I always enjoy books by Rutherford, so it is sad that I have just finished the last of them. This two book format though is a bit unwieldy. I struggled to recall the family tree by the end, which is a shame. The ability to recollect the family journey is one of the best aspects of Rutherford's style. It also lacks the realism of his other books. Usually, the guy gets the girl, the evil man never prevails, these sorts of things. In most of Rutherford's work this sort of thing doesn't happen. The bad guy gets the advantage of the good guy, that sort of thing. While it is true that this book is not entirely lacking in these, and that bad things happen to likable characters, these are more predictable things, such as death during the Great Famine. It would have unbelievable to have no characters die, nut there were too many instances of "common" fates in this latest novel. There is for instance, a section where a guy runs onto a ship and asks a girl to marry him. This is a bit unbelievable; Rutherford's style in previous books would have had him realize this missed opportunity too late. Still, I like this style of book and look forward to his next offering.