I really appreciated the chance to read this book as I love historical fiction - the cover, with its striking red seal really drew me in and I was really keen to learn more about the Thirty Years War, a period of history about which I knew very little.
The story follows Jack Fiskardo who we first meet as a boy in the opening chapters of the novel. He is then drawn into a quest to find out the truth about his father - a quest that puts him in danger.
This is a huge book and one that covers a lot of ground, from the docks of Amsterdam to various parts of France and Germany as Jack embarks on his journey. While this is beautifully done and each setting explored well, it is a bit overwhelming in scale. I did find that I needed to use the character list at the front of the book a lot!
There is a lot of brutality in this book and I did struggle a bit with Jack's aggressive nature - while this can be seen as admirable in terms of fighting for his own survival, I did find it took a while to warm to him after his actions at the start of the novel.
The brutality is somewhat tempered by some warm and sometimes humorous characters and events along the way. I really liked Cornelius at the start of the novel and the exploits of his cat, Catarina, and was quite sad when Jack left Amsterdam (and them) behind.
Personally, I found that the book was on too great a scale for me to really get to grips with the characters fully - I think I'm really motivated to read by insights into various characters, their motivations and emotions. While Harvey does this well, I found the cast too big and varied to really engage with as I wanted. I think this book would be better suited to readers who are more interested in plot as there is no shortage of that!
I'd recommend this to those who like their history with lots of grit, violence and pace. It is well-written and researched, but ultimately was not really for me - although that shouldn't deter anyone from trying it for themselves.
The story follows Jack Fiskardo who we first meet as a boy in the opening chapters of the novel. He is then drawn into a quest to find out the truth about his father - a quest that puts him in danger.
This is a huge book and one that covers a lot of ground, from the docks of Amsterdam to various parts of France and Germany as Jack embarks on his journey. While this is beautifully done and each setting explored well, it is a bit overwhelming in scale. I did find that I needed to use the character list at the front of the book a lot!
There is a lot of brutality in this book and I did struggle a bit with Jack's aggressive nature - while this can be seen as admirable in terms of fighting for his own survival, I did find it took a while to warm to him after his actions at the start of the novel.
The brutality is somewhat tempered by some warm and sometimes humorous characters and events along the way. I really liked Cornelius at the start of the novel and the exploits of his cat, Catarina, and was quite sad when Jack left Amsterdam (and them) behind.
Personally, I found that the book was on too great a scale for me to really get to grips with the characters fully - I think I'm really motivated to read by insights into various characters, their motivations and emotions. While Harvey does this well, I found the cast too big and varied to really engage with as I wanted. I think this book would be better suited to readers who are more interested in plot as there is no shortage of that!
I'd recommend this to those who like their history with lots of grit, violence and pace. It is well-written and researched, but ultimately was not really for me - although that shouldn't deter anyone from trying it for themselves.