Customer Reviews

Daughters of Fire

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Barbara Erskine is a history graduate and no doubt this has helped her a great deal in her writing of historical novels. She has several best selling internationally acclaimed novels and these help to demonstrate her love of history and also her interest in the supernatural. She lives with her family in an ancient manor house near Colchester, a place that is, itself steeped in history, particularly around the time of the Roman occupation.

Much to my shame I always used to think that good historical novels were always written by men, which of course is complete nonsense and Barbara Erskine is one of those female authors who prove the point. This book switches between the past, Roman Britain and the present day, where history impacts quite dramatically on the lives of three women.

The novel features Cartiimandua, a young woman destined to become the ruler of one of the greatest British tribes, the Brigantes. As her power grows her life becomes ever more complicated. She knows that she enemies on all sides, not only from the Roman invaders but people much closer to her. She has to make a choice that will change the future forever . . .

In the present day, Viv Lloyd Rees a historian has specialized in the tales that abound about the Celtic queen. She becomes so immersed in her work that she starts to have visions of Cartimandua herself. Viv's obsession with the subject becomes even greater when she takes possession of an ancient brooch. A piece of jewellery that provides a link with the past. Then suddenly without warning the past intertwines with the present and Viv finds herself in danger of her life.

If you enjoy historical fiction with elements of the paranormal, you will probably enjoy this novel.

Starting in the present, Edinburgh based historian, Viv Lloyd Rees, has immersed herself in the legends surrounding the Celtic queen Cartimandua. She has written a book about Cartimandua and is a working on a dramatisation of her life. Viv 'borrows' a brooch which is considered to have ties to Cartimandua and increasingly becomes caught up in what appears to be the life and times of Cartimandua.

This experience is not confined to Viv: others associated with her also become caught up in what appears to be a reliving of key events from the life and times of Cartimandua.

The switches between the present and the past, and the points of view of different characters, are both intensely irritating and an important part of the plot.

I enjoyed those parts of the novel set in the past far more than those set in the present.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Daughters of Fire is written like alot of historical fiction is written these days- a character who lives in the past and a character who lives in the present, and how their lives are intertwined; with the actions of the past affecting the characters of the present. This story follows the lives of Cartimandua- a pagan queen of the Brigantes during the roman invasion, and Viv- a modern day historian who has a passion for 'Carta' and has written a book about her.

Viv gets premonitions from Carta, which is how she has been able to write a detailed life about this maligned queen, but has caught the attention of her boss Hugh, who believes that Viv has let her imagination run away with her and is putting the integrity of the university she works for (and the department he runs) in danger of becoming an academic joke. The more premonitions Viv gets though, the more danger she puts herself in and those around her (who of course she loves), until the book reaches its dramatic (and largely unbelievable and boring) conclusion.

When I read the blurb for this book I stifled a snort- I mean, come on, how generic can you get? But I was shocked at this author's ability to transport you to another period of time. Erskine's prose was fluid and confident during the parts about Carta, but stilted and awkward in the parts about Viv, and needless to say, I preferred the parts of the book that revolved around Carta. It is my opinion that Erskine's novel would have been just as good without adding the overly dramatic Viv into the mix, as Carta's life was dramatic and turbulent enough as it was.

I found that I ended up skipping the parts that involved Viv and only read the parts that revolved around Carta, which is why I am giving it three stars instead of two. Overall, this book was enough to interest me in Erskine's other works, although I have been led to understand that they are all pretty much in the same vein as this one.

3 stars, for Carta.

As usual, historical novelist Barbara Erskine does a fine job of crafting a tight little fascination with a fine plot line, weaving the past with the present. In her hard-to-duplicate trademark style, she involves believable open-minded modern characters that cannot help but channel disgruntled personages from Britain's darker age. In "Daughters of Fire", Erskine hones the fast paced, easy to get into technique for which she is noted, creating historical personalities that ring with an authenticity that reminds one of the well-thought-out sequences in Marion Zimmer Bradley's "Mists of Avalon" that transport the reader to another time and place while providing a convincing and plausible glimpse into an ancient culture primed with rituals, traditions and a completely alien manner of looking at life and its forces.

Erskine presents her players with skill and panache; Viv, an historian with Edinburgh University has finished a historical novel about Cartimandua, Celtic queen of the Brigantes tribe during the Roman invasion of Britain. Hugh, the newly widowed head of the Viv's department, senses that Viv's information regarding the details of Cartimandua's life has been reworked by Viv's vivid imagination causing compromise to cast an unscholarly shadow on the university's credibility. Until he receives supernatural communication from Venutios, Cartimandua;s long ago husband and power rival, he cannot fathom the uncanny source of Viv's font of knowledge regarding this little known period of the Celts---through visions Cartimandua relates her story to Viv in the form of dreams and fugue states. As Viv's novel becomes increasingly popular, Hugh's self-righteousness gathers strength and together with a cursed artifact from the time period restructures a vortex of unsettled emotions leftover from the Celtic world, seeding Viv, Hugh and their acquaintances with the scattergun effects of love, revenge, misspent power, and retribution.

While remaining true to her earlier successes in "Lady of Hay" and "Kingdom of Shadows", unfortunately Erskine follows her own popular formula resulting in a story that after about 100 pages smarts with a disappointing predictability. Like her more recent bestsellers, "On the Edge of Darkness", "Whispers in the Sand" and "Hiding from the Light", she overdoes the danger element emanating from the past, in this case conducted by the artifact which allows one of Cartimandua's rivals to realize her ancient and unfulfilled grudge against the queen.

The actual historical tale of Cartimandua and the reconstruction of the world of wise Druids, battle worn warriors and deceitful Roman emissaries, fascinates as well as urges the reader to turn those pages just a little faster to learn more of this strong and aggressive female leader. However, the modern day story of supernatural possession and the settling of misunderstood scores becomes redundant----reminiscent of the tired technique utilized in Erskine's more recent works.

Regardless of the obviousness of her plotline, Erskine emulates Scheherazade in her ability to convey the reader to another time and place that is unfamiliar to our modern sensibilities. Rather than employing the timeworn evil construct of a tainted brooch or other artifact, I implore Ms. Erskine to concentrate on the churning emotions of all the characters with more insight and subtlety and conjure up more twists to the rather linear storyline that will surprise and uplift even her most jaded readers.

Recommended for new readers of Erskine or diehard fans with the following caveat: be prepared for foreseeable and banal happenstances. Those most familiar with Erskine's other novels will anticipate the outcome within the first 100 pages. Newer readers will perhaps enjoy Erskine's considerable talent in telling this type of a tale. As this tome is over 550 pages, all reader's pleasure will rapidly diminish on an inverse proportionate basis as the obvious conclusion comes to its anticlimactic and frustratingly humdrum ending and the players seem too familiar to others fashioned in her other books.

As usual, historical novelist Barbara Erskine does a fine job of crafting a tight little fascination with a fine plot line, weaving the past with the present. In her hard-to-duplicate trademark style, she involves believable open-minded modern characters that cannot help but channel disgruntled personages from Britain's darker age. In "Daughters of Fire", Erskine hones the fast paced, easy to get into technique for which she is noted, creating historical personalities that ring with an authenticity that reminds one of the well-thought-out sequences in Marion Zimmer Bradley's "Mists of Avalon" that transport the reader to another time and place while providing a convincing and plausible glimpse into an ancient culture primed with rituals, traditions and a completely alien manner of looking at life and its forces.

Erskine presents her players with skill and panache; Viv, an historian with Edinburgh University has finished a historical novel about Cartimandua, Celtic queen of the Brigantes tribe during the Roman invasion of Britain. Hugh, the newly widowed head of the Viv's department, senses that Viv's information regarding the details of Cartimandua's life has been reworked by Viv's vivid imagination causing compromise to cast an unscholarly shadow on the university's credibility. Until he receives supernatural communication from Venutios, Cartimandua;s long ago husband and power rival, he cannot fathom the uncanny source of Viv's font of knowledge regarding this little known period of the Celts---through visions Cartimandua relates her story to Viv in the form of dreams and fugue states. As Viv's novel becomes increasingly popular, Hugh's self-righteousness gathers strength and together with a cursed artifact from the time period restructures a vortex of unsettled emotions leftover from the Celtic world, seeding Viv, Hugh and their acquaintances with the scattergun effects of love, revenge, misspent power, and retribution.

While remaining true to her earlier successes in "Lady of Hay" and "Kingdom of Shadows", unfortunately Erskine follows her own popular formula resulting in a story that after about 100 pages smarts with a disappointing predictability. Like her more recent bestsellers, "On the Edge of Darkness", "Whispers in the Sand" and "Hiding from the Light", she overdoes the danger element emanating from the past, in this case conducted by the artifact which allows one of Cartimandua's rivals to realize her ancient and unfulfilled grudge against the queen.

The actual historical tale of Cartimandua and the reconstruction of the world of wise Druids, battle worn warriors and deceitful Roman emissaries, fascinates as well as urges the reader to turn those pages just a little faster to learn more of this strong and aggressive female leader. However, the modern day story of supernatural possession and the settling of misunderstood scores becomes redundant----reminiscent of the tired technique utilized in Erskine's more recent works.

Regardless of the obviousness of her plotline, Erskine emulates Scheherazade in her ability to convey the reader to another time and place that is unfamiliar to our modern sensibilities. Rather than employing the timeworn evil construct of a tainted brooch or other artifact, I implore Ms. Erskine to concentrate on the churning emotions of all the characters with more insight and subtlety and conjure up more twists to the rather linear storyline that will surprise and uplift even her most jaded readers.

Recommended for new readers of Erskine or diehard fans with the following caveat: be prepared for foreseeable and banal happenstances. Those most familiar with Erskine's other novels will anticipate the outcome within the first 100 pages. Newer readers will perhaps enjoy Erskine's considerable talent in telling this type of a tale. As this tome is over 550 pages, all reader's pleasure will rapidly diminish on an inverse proportionate basis as the obvious conclusion comes to its anticlimactic and frustratingly humdrum ending and the players seem too familiar to others fashioned in her other books.
Diana Faillace Von Behren
"reneofc"

There is this incredibly annoying sticker on the front of my copy of this book that says, "Find out why millions of readers love Erskine!" Now, I hate stickers on books. They mess up the covers and make them look shabby. And aside from that this book is not a particularly good example of why millions of readers love Erskine; in fact I am not sure millions of readers love Erskine, I certainly like her but it is a like born of a combination of amusement, genuine enjoyment and deep frustration. I will explain. If you are not familiar with Barbara Erskine she writes novels that combine history with the paranormal, normally by means of possession or ghosts or past lives-always with some kind of tragic romance thrown in that failed in a past incarnation/ghost history....but has hopes of succeeding in this life.

This book is pretty typical Erskine, following the mold above. Like all her novels it's frustrating because of the inexplicably evil people/ghosts, the ease of fixing things in the end, the way people shift from being afraid to exultant in the situation within a matter of minutes.

The story: Viv is a history professor with a penchant for married men who has written a book about Cartimandua, a Celtic queen contemporary of Boudicca, only instead of rebelling against Rome she became an ally of the hated invaders. Viv's book has pissed off her widowed superior who she's in love with, Hugh, because her sources can't be verified because....she dreamed the past! The queen has come to her in her sleep and told her the story of her life. Now her contemporaries come through as ghosts or sprit and a whole bunch of confusing stuff happens which features murder, romance and madness!! Very typical for Erskine, and very frustrating.

While in the beginning this book has a tight feel and everything seems to make sense it unwinds as it goes on, until I was a little lost. Still the adrenaline of the ending makes up for some of it. And there this there issue the book brings up about history.

It's very easy for me to view Cartimandua as a traitor, being of Celtic descent myself. However reading this book I have decided that it is impossible to judge history. You can observe, deduce, find evidence, make conclusions, but no matter how well informed or educated or creative you are you'll never know what was really going on, what Cartimandua was really thinking or feeling or her true motives. This of course does not apply to people like Hitler, but rather to historical people of disputed personality and morality.

Anyway, this book is not a total waste of time. Its typical Erskine like I said, which is difficult but can be fun. This isn't the best book I've read by her ("House of Echoes" creepy but not overdone), but it's not the worst ("On the Edge of Darkness" which was just awful.)

Three point five stars.