I love books about Abe Lincoln. I don't know why, but he's always been my favorite historical figure. I was excited when I got to download Lincoln's Little Girl by Cecelia Holland. I had never heard the stories about Julie and her diary. I didn't hear about her brothers who were invited to pl...
Laeghaire of the Long Road, from Tralee, no less, an Irish mercenary knight, a devil of a fighter and, well, a devil in general, finds his way, indirectly, into the employ of William of Normandy. The two make an impression on each other in the course of a Summer campaign, but to say much more tha...
I always feel that I should enjoy Cecelia Holland's books more than I actually do - I am always fascinated by the periods that she chooses to write about, and she's great at building atmosphere, and The Death of Attila was no exception. However, she also has a tendency to string together a bunch ...
In the thirteenth century the Mongol hordes swept out of Mongolia to over-run half the world. This novel follows Psin, a Mongol general, through the military campaigns in Russia and Europe, among his own family and in his own heart.
Holland clearly is an experienced writer with considerable competence. She can construct a good scene, build up suspense and her characters are nuanced and complex, yet this book utterly failed to captivate me.In part it was the constant, minor inaccuracies that nagged me like flies. No, it’s no...
Courage of a king, Strength of a knight, Heart of a woman"A literary phenomenon." -New York Times Her father is a robber baron... Her husband has grand ambitions and a quick temper... She will become...the Great Maria. A lush portrait of the eleventh century that l...
This book was split into two halves: the first is the modern discovery of the tomb on Tutankhamen by Howard Carter, and the second half goes to ancient Egypt, to Tutankhamen's final year. The Carter story ended abruptly, and the second part bears no resemblance to actual history (as presented and...
Cecilia Holland is not a science-fiction writer. Any person familiar with the genre will notice her lack of grasp on some of the fan's favorite science-fiction features, mainly the scientific and the gadget sides. The novel use of paraphernalia is ridiculously poor and stamps it irremediably from...
A struggle for the throne of ninth-century Byzantium, pitting the ruthless Empress Irene against the wealthy John Cerulis, is a dark undercurrent of the exotic Byzantine life discovered by Frankish nobleman Hagan.
Set in Iceland in 1100, this is an effort to capture the tone and mood of the great sagas. The hero is a pagan, striving to maintain his values in a Christian world.
As the Dutch Revolt against Spain explodes in the late 16th Century, a young Dutchman joins the pirate rebels who lead the resistence.
In this, her sixth brilliant novel, Miss Holland demonstrates once more that the novel of history can incorporate the most serious purpose with the color and excitement of large adventure. At the book's heart stands the 12th century Earl of Stafford, complex warrior-knight, whose private conflict...
Johanna said, briskly, “Oh, I think this is much better.” Edythe and the other waiting women led in the porters, and Lilia pointed out where they should put the trunks and chests. After the cramped deck of the galley the tent seemed huge, and Edythe felt like leaping and dancing in and out of the...
He had been coming out the door when this man suddenly approached him; he swept a sharp look around the courtyard again, still wary. Around him were only his own men. He lowered his eyes to the note. It occurred to him he had never seen her written hand before. It could be false. He said to the r...
The road was straight and wide; I made good speed most of the time, although I had to slow down through the villages. It was a hot day, and the heat climbed as the sun climbed across the sky. In the broad fields, graded to a perfect slope by millennia of floods, the fellahin tilled the rows of co...
With his foot he nudged a long, flat plank, not wood, which clinked when his boot struck it. There were three of these and they had been brought ashore like babies, each wrapped in its own coat of thick cloth and laid carefully down on blocks. The grunting soldiers were hauling a frame up from th...
Nicholas Dawson, waiting on the stony shore of the Tiber, began to shiver in the cold. He tucked his hands into the folds of his coat and swayed a little from one foot to the other, and cast a look around him, from the river to the swampy meadow behind him, stinking of rot. &nbs...