Customer Reviews

Dreaming the Bull

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

 

 

The second of Manda Scott's Boudica trilogy opens with the somewhat older Breaca (known as `The Boudica', Bringer of Victory) ambushing Romans in modern Wales. Removed from the Eceni, now of Mona, she has a son and a husband, Caradoc whilst on the other side of Britain, Ban, now firmly known as Julius Valerius, a duplicarius, is aiding Corvus in planning how they will defeat the Britons. Valerius has lost his powers as an Eceni and now is subservient to Mithras Sol.
Over the first hundred pages we follow Julius as he sweeps into the Silures territory in Rome's bid to disarm the tribes. One by one they find the blades of the Britons and destroy them, best epitomised when he locates Casselliovanus' sword and gives it to his new friend, the Thracian master of the Horse, Longinus Szvede. Together, under the guide of the Prefect Regulus they become the scourge of the Britons and the focus of the hatred of Breaca, Caradoc, Durogenes at al. After breaking out of one `salmon trap' laid by the Eceni, after Corvus nearly died and after Longinus and Julius also suffer injuries it culminates in Cunomar, Caradoc, Cygfa and Durogenes capture by Julius and removal to Rome for the Britannia Triumph.
Whilst there Caradoc manages to delay their executions by offering to prevent the Dreamers from killing the superstitious Claudius from afar in return for their lives and earns a temporary respite. This denied it is only during the Triumph itself where he challenges the emperor that he manages to secure all their lives in return for Claudius' own safety. During this period what is of more import is Caradoc's realisation that Julius is in fact the not-dead Ban and all the enormity that comes with that. Julius states his belief in Aminios' lies to Caradoc's frustrations though his own struggle with the inner voices of the Dreamers shows that he must eventually weaken to the truth.
On Claudius' death, they are freed and taken by Julius to freedom, though hotly pursued by the representatives of the newly elected Nero. After Caradoc is left alive but on the Italian shore the remainder return to Breaca and the inevitable hostile reunion as Ban and his sister meet again and she realises who he is. It ends with her sending him to Hibernia.
This second effort by Scott is much...much better than the first. Gone is the heavy insinuation that Celtic Britain was dominated by totem spirituality and more focus is on providing a tautly narrated story at the end of the invading Romans and the struggle to stop them by the British. The characters are more rooted in reality and likeable, their actions more in tune with their ages. Rome factors far more heavily in this and whilst there is a lack of actual scenery in Rome, the narration of the relationships during this time means it is not overly missed. Ban/Julius' inner struggle is more plausible and whilst you want him to return to his heritage, you suspect that complete acceptance of what he has done and how much he has betrayed his own people would cause an immediate breakdown. It'll be interesting to see how Scott resolves that dilemma in the next installments. One minor annoyance is the continued insistence by Scott on calling the Druids, `Dreamers', but it is not overly important.
I stated that first installment from Scott was easily put down, that it lacks any sort of gripping edge. Not so this one. It's not quite a one sitting read but it's close and certainly ensures I will look for eagerly for the third installment.
A major improvement.

Like most intelligent authors whose jumping-off point is history, Scott has woven her magic around a fictional character, with whose fate an author can take more liberties. We see and understand Boudica and Co. in the light of the story of Ban (Valerius), her fictional brother.

Scott reveals a depth of historical research in a vision of how things might have been. It's spellbinding, bewitching, drawing the reader in as if you are a participant. In the process, she weaves a heart-pounding tale of innocence, degradation, transformation, and redemption. She sees as the Dreamers do, both the larger patterns behind the everyday, and how the great events of history are driven by motivations quite personal and small.

It's breathtaking to stand with her and see patterns taking shape, to watch a soul be heated and hammered on the anvil of the gods.

Ban is a character more dimensional and fully-imagined than any I have ever read. You see a human soul in torment, who breathes and moves in his own personal hell. The innocent boy has become a man, molded and used, trying to balance the teachings of his tribal youth with the beliefs of his "civilized" manhood. The theme of blacksmithing runs through the books, and you see a human soul ripped from the earth of his native land, heated to glowing, pounded and shaped, plunged into darkness and cold, forged into a weapon of astonishing brightness and strength.

Scott really has a gift for opening and ending each book with a bang--she reaches out and wrenches your emotions, just to remind you how truly enslaved you were, and will be again. If you have interest in the human side of history, of ancient Britons in particular, these books are not to be missed.

"Dreaming the Bull" is the second of Manda Scott's Boudica quadrilogy,and while much of the first instalment understandably dwells on the mysticism and culture of Ancient Britain which takes some getting used to, the plot certainly quickens throughout this instalment, a fact which may appeal more to many readers. The main characters are now in their adulthood and therefore take on better definition and purpose, the reader now able to comprehend the momentum building up towards the inevitable clash between the Roman and Celtic worlds.

Breaca (Boudica) is now a mature woman, a hardened warrior, and, along with her consort Caradoc, leader of the combined armies of Britain. In "Dreaming the Bull" we get to see the more feminine side of Breaca in her private life, as she juggles her martial responsibilities with those of being a wife and mother. In addition to a son, Cunomar (named for Caradoc's young nephew who was killed during the initial Roman invasion)she is now mother to Graine, a little girl who shows all the signs of inheriting unique psychic powers like her long-lost uncle, Ban. In addition to Graine, Caradoc has a spirited daughter, Cygfa, from a previous relationship. The reader can well sense the mounting fear of both Breaca and Caradoc for their young children as the clash with the brutal Roman war machine intensifies, and the unique bond both share with each other.

Meanwhile, Ban is now known as Julius Valerius, and is a battle hardened veteran officer in the Roman auxiliary cavalry. He has grown to be a morose, sharp tempered and dangerous man who is respected and feared by his men and loathed by his own people as a traitor. Valerius is trapped in his own private hell. He has long realised the terrible error he made in throwing his lot in with the legions, but now can see no escape from it, and is haunted by the numerous ghosts of those he has slain or betrayed. Cut off from his unique birthright, he seeks escape by joining the cult of Mithras and finds some relief in his close friendship with his second in command, Longinus Sdapeze, a Thracian by origin. When Caradoc is betrayed to the Romans by the spurned Queen Cartimandua of the Brigantes tribe, the unwilling Valerius finds himself summoned to Rome to take command of Caradoc's custody, and he is forced to confront his torn loyalties and the consequences of his past acts of brutality once and for all.

There are some wonderful set pieces in this novel, such as the famous meeting of Caradoc with the Emperor Claudius and the unexpected result that stunned many in the Roman world (Caradoc - Caractacus to the Romans - was given an imperial pardon). The battle scenes are gritty and intense, the wonderfully rich descriptions of the British world continue to impress in their detail and realism. But for this reader the best is Ms Scott's superb rendering of the emotions of the central characters and the agonising decisions they ultimately must make. The best is saved for last when Breaca and Valerius meet for the first time in over a decade - Valerius confronting the sister he once thought dead and Breaca confronting the brother she had once vowed to kill. Both are now complete strangers to each other, and this extremely tenuous reunion provides fine material for a continuation in the next book in the series, "Dreaming the Hound".

As this reader has stated previously, Ms Scott is a thinking person's writer and there are often multiple meanings in much of her prose, particularly when dealing with the dreamers (druids)and their movements. But the 'Boudica' series provides much fodder to entice the reader to continue in this excellent series, and leaves the reader thinking about it for some time afterwards. This, in this reviewer's opinion, is the sure mark of a quality read.

I am hooked on this series and it wasn't possible to get it in Oregon. Amazon came through

In the second book of the Boudica quartet, Breaca and Bán - sister and brother, each believing the other is dead - unknowingly seek to destroy one another. Breaca and Caradoc try to raise a family while warding off the Roman invasion. Bán, through circumstances and poor choices, finds solace in becoming a Roman warrior. Both leaders without realizing who they target, vow to kill each other.

As in the first book, two stories - one surrounding Breaca and Caradoc and the other centered around Bán - run parallel until the end. Bán captures Caradoc, his first wife, his oldest daughter and his son, Cunomar, along with the singer, Dubornos, and takes them to the Roman emperor. As Scott explains in the historical note at the end, history is uncertain about what actually happened between Claudius and Caradoc. But Caradoc survived and lived in captivity.

Breaca, meanwhile, leads her people against Roman occupation. Breaca's story is secondary to Bán's. She is a new mother again - to a daughter this time. But Scott puts the spotlight on Bán, his guilt and descent into self-destruction while leading the Roman occupation.

Toward the end, some of Caradoc's group escapes and returns to Mona. The reunion is heartwrenching, and there is no happy ending. The set-up for the third novel is perfect.

A highly recommended 5 stars for those who enjoy and even mix of history and imagination as well as a page-turning adventure story.

This is the second in a planned series of four books on Boudica. However, it's made fairly obvious from the beginning of this book that it is not *only* about Boudica. Ban, her (fictional, I believe) brother also gets a large amount of space dedicated to his life, as does Boudica's family. It's nice to get more points of view, from all over Italy and Britain and the places in between, but it also seems to veer a bit. That may be because still, at this point in the narration, very little actual history about Boudica is known. More is known about Caradoc, and so Scott spends a great deal of time on him.

While the Roman scenes are somewhat long, they are also highly charged and I really enjoyed reading them, for the emotional value they added to the book. The characters are very well-rounded and this book, more than the first, certainly made them flesh and blood.

Boudica herself doesn't get as much of a focus in this book, though I think that's mainly to allow the other characters to develop. I hope that she will come back in the next two books to make the decisive impact that she had on British and Roman history.

I enjoyed reading this book- it had more action than the first one, and was even more engaging as the characters became less "black and white" and more "gray." If you enjoyed the first book, then I recommend going on with the series. And even if you weren't TOO thrilled with the first, I'd give the second a try. But I wouldn't read the second until after finishing the first.

Manda Scott continues her Boudica Trilogy with "Dreaming the Bull," a shorter sequel to her "Dreaming the Eagle." While the first story focused primarily on the rise of Breaca from promising girl to overpowering woman, "Dreaming the Bull" spends most of its time tracking the hellish existence of her brother, Ban. While we miss reading about Breaca, who is one heck of a character, the struggle for identity being fought by the soul of Ban/Valerius makes for some compelling reading.

In the first novel, Ban is separated from Breaca following an ambush. Mistakenly believing her dead and betrayed by Caradoc (the love of her life), Ban finds solace in the Roman army invading Britain and becomes known as Valerius to the Romans, and as the dead-eyed decurion on the pied horse by the Britons. Valerius abandons the gods of his ancestors, adopts the ways of the Roman soldier-god Mithras, and brings death and destruction to the Britons in his quest for vengeance against those whom, he believes, killed his beloved sister.

Breaca, mistakenly believing that Ban is dead, swears personal vengeance and undying hatred against the decurion who has slain so many of her people. "Dreaming the Bull" builds toward a fairly obvious climax -- the reuniting of Ban/Valerius and Breaca. Even though this reunion is expected, Scott tells her story with such style and power that both the journey and the reunion are worth the read.

Much of this novel is spent in Rome, and Scott shows a command of Roman life and politics - she shows that she is equally adept at creating the world of Breaca out of almost whole cloth as she is writing about Claudius' Rome, of which so much more is known. Eschewing the revisionist pro-Claudius take that has been in vogue thanks to Robert Graves' "I, Claudius," Scott gives us a Roman emperor who is delightfully corrupt, craven, and brilliant. Indeed, the entire Roman court seems appropriately populated by vipers, spiders, and other assorted dastardly vermin.

"Dreaming the Bull" is a story motivated primarily by sorrow and loss, which makes for a depressing read at times. Breaca's world is under dire threat, and both her larger society as well as her immediate family are in the gravest danger for the entire work. "Dreaming the Bull" is over 100 pages shorter than "Dreaming the Eagle," so the book is not nearly the slog that the first novel was, and the constant drumbeat of war is not nearly as numbing as it was the first time around. Perhaps "slog" is not fair -- Scott writes very well, and creates many scenes of great poignancy (the death of a beloved hound can be as moving as the death of a cherished parent), but the emotions are rather one-note, thanks to the war.

Scott has chosen to end "Dreaming the Bull" in a cliff-hanger of almost movie-serial proportions, leaving virtually no guidance as to how the next novel will play out. I, for one, am eagerly looking forward into diving into the final novel of this powerful, poetic trilogy.

I liked Dreaming the Bull because I had already fallen in love with the whole story by Scott in Dreaming the Eagle. I didn't like it as much, because we dwelt in Rome a lot.

Not that Scott's writing fell down, to the contrary; in fact, one of my favorite characters was acquired on the continent, the intractable pied Crow, the-former-Ban's new mount.

This is a necessary book, and the troubles the former Ban goes through, and the ways his life continues to continue (against his will) does seem to intimate that the gods have something planned for him.

I'm waiting anxiously for Dreaming the Hound and the following "Dreaming" books.