Customer Reviews

Gloriana's Torch

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It is very difficult to write a review on one of Ms. Finney's books. Her books are very complex and they are quite brilliantly written. This book is even more sweeping and majestic than the previous two in the David Beckett Series (Firedrake's Eye and Unicorn's Blood). If you want explosive historical fiction that is absolutely beautifully written and plotted, then I recommend this series. You probably shouldn't read this particular book on it's own either since the other two are required in order for the reader to fully appreciate all of Ms. Finney's characters. This book is written about the Spanish Armada and the Spaniards attempt to take England in 1587. It gives quite a unique perspective to this historical fact, and the book is peopled with characters who are also brilliant and alive. We see our old favourites - David Beckett and Simon Ames, but we meet some wonderful new characters - Merula, Snake, the Padrone and some truly evil villains - Pasquale and Edward Dormer. This book is not for the faint of heart either because Ms. Finney is just as descriptive with her killings, maimings and tortures, as she is with her bird's eye view of the sea from the deck of a Spanish galliasse and the most descriptive portrayal of an early sea battle that I've ever read! This is a wonderful, heartwarming and heartrending book that will tear you apart as you read it.

This is the third book in a series by Patricia Finney, all centered around Queen Elizabeth I and the unsung heroes of her regime. This time Simon Ames (alias S. Anriques) and his old friend David Becket have no smaller task than attempting to foil the greatest threat to challenge Elizabeth's reign-- the Spanish Armada. There's a mysyery to be solved first, though, known as the Miracle of Beauty, which somehow plays a crucial role in the Spanish scheme for the conquest of England.

Finney's greatest talent is putting the history we know in the eyes and mouths of characters who might really have particpated in history. There are no dry historians or exuberant poets or slighted aristocrats for our heroes, but a slender expatriate Portugese Jew and a street-tough Tar from the underside of Elizabethan London. Both have faults, and become very dear to the reader as the book develops. She weaves them, and all of her characters, into the historical backdrop so skillfully that they seem to become real; a part of that nameless group of individuals who turned the tide of history yet go unheard of in the annals as we know them. Best of all, there is real grit to the language they speak and events that they experience, and Finney never minces words or excludes the worst of human nature from her narrative. The courage and loyalty of our heroes stands out all the more remarkably in contrast.

This is high historical fiction, and a suitable successor to Patrick O'Brian or Dorothy Dunnett for the best that the genre has to offer. I recommend only that you start with the first book of the trilogy, Firedrake's Eye, to get to know Ames and Becket better before embarking on this book.

A gorgeous book, stand-alone but probably most effective when read after the first two, FIREDRAKE'S EYE and UNICORN'S BLOOD.

GT is about the Armada, and features the characters from the earlier books, damaged warrior David Becket and clerkly but surprisingly resilient Simon Ames, as well as new personalities. Merula, the African shamaness, is portrayed skillfully, as a real person rather than a stereotype. Elizabeth, as in the earlier books, is a both powerful and human figure.

My favorite part of this book was the dream sequences, alternative-history bits in which the Armada actually lands; but I really wanted one more sequence, one offering resolution for Becket, who is seen at a very important moment only through Merula's point of view. I wasn't crazy about the repetition of events in different POVs; usually Finney had shown the character's reactions already from another character's point of view so that the repetition really wasn't needed. In general, though, I felt the plot was fast-moving, plausible and gripping.

Finney's work in general and this book in particular should appeal to readers who enjoy the work of Mary Gentle and Dorothy Dunnett.

Gloriana's Torch is the third in a trilogy of Elizabethan thrillers. It can be read and enjoyed by itself but it is helpful to have read the previous two (Firedrake's Eye and Unicorn's Blood). The story centers around the Spanish Armada and the race to uncover the mystery of the Miracle of Beauty. It is peopled with a cast of absolutely fascinating and complex characters-spies, inquisitors, galley slaves, fanatical priests, a knife wielding dwarf and a mystical African princess. No stereotypes or literary cliches here! The writing is beautiful, almost poetic in places. And it is obviously well researched without becoming pedantic. But its the drama of the story that will suck you in. There are fiery battles at sea, clandestine meetings between master and spy, desperate sword fights, passion, courage, betrayal. If you abandon yourself to the books twists, turns, surprises and resolutions you will finish breathless and with your heart in your throat. Lets hope Ms. Finney doesn't keep us waiting for her next masterpiece.

I'm not sure what to say about this book. It is well written, it is well plotted but...in spite of the author's skills I'm not sure I liked it. It was a lot of action and adventure but at times it becomes far to graphic in it's descriptions of life in all it's ugliness 500 years ago. I learned a lot of stuff I really didn't need to know and it didn't actually add much to the story. Maybe it's me. I'm older, I grew up with books that were driven by characters. Authors now are being asked to compete with other sources of entertainment that are consistantly more violent so they feel the need to shock. For this book's author it is kind of shame. Ms. Finney is a fine writer, she doesn't neet to pander quite so much. In short, if blood and guts and somehow disturbingly graphic descriptions of smells are your thing, this is a good book. If you want a bit more pagentry, romance and history presented in a softer more flattering focus you won't like this one.

The Spanish Armada is ready to strike at the Queen of England, King Phillip of Spain seeking to conquer by force what he could not accomplish in marriage. Elizabeth's spies have done their best, enduring great dangers in foreign ports to bring critical information to defeat the Spanish forces. One critical clue remains unknown, the key to success or failure, the secret of the "Miracle of Beauty", the most carefully guarded element of the Spanish plan. Calling on those who have come to her aid in another dangerous adventure that threatened the crown, Elizabeth gathers her confidants: Tomasina, the Queen's Fool; David Beckett, once tortured by the Inquisition and mistakenly by the Queen's own men; Simon Anriques, a Jewish merchant-spy loyal to the Queen; Rebecca, Simons' wife who will go to any length to save her husband's life; and Merula, an African slave of extraordinary talents, her heart as large as her powerful body.

The enemy drawing nearer by the day, a bold plan is put in place to gain knowledge of the Miracle of Beauty and an effort to recover Simon, who has been taken by the Inquisition while in port, and Merula's son, sold into slavery before his mother could save him. At the crux of the enterprise are the guns and ordnance to turn the firearms into killing machines. All these threads are woven into an intricate plot that brings the threat of war to the very shores of England. Finney tackles her story from every perspective, her characters fulfilling their varied destinies, the Queen, David Beckett, broken in the past but dreaming of a more noble future, Merula, acquiescing to the demands of the "white ghosts" while searching for her son, Edward Dormer, a seminarian turned assassin, Joseph Pasquale, an Inquisitor with spiritual pretensions and demons of his own and Simon Anriques, who endures the Inquisitor's torture and the hardships of imprisonment as a galley slave in hopes of reuniting with his wife. Even Suleiman, the Padron of the galley salves, is humanized as he whips his crew into shape in the filthy, death-laden holds of the galleons where slaves are worked to death.

The author goes beyond the simple retelling of an historical event, her characters defined by personal ambitions and a rigid society, the carefully layered classes from noble to slave that turn the great wheel of the kingdoms, from heroes to cowards, aristocrat to peasant, a fascinating cross-section of history at a pivotal time on the world stage. Finney puts some fine satirical points on individual characters, particularly the righteous Spanish priests who defend their purity with rabid zeal to disguise the concupiscence that torments them, clutching denial as desperately as their hair shirts and prayer books. Balancing the converging events and individuals, Finney tosses a great salad of 16th century religious conflict, intrigues, traitors, scoundrels and fanatics, all headed toward a climactic ending that will either bring Elizabeth's destruction or her triumph. There is always a contemporary message in history and Gloriana's Torch is no exception, Finney's tale inspired and beautifully crafted. Luan Gaines/ 2006.

Unlike a previous reviewer who thought the dream sequences one of the best parts of the book - they drove me to distraction. As did the constant jumping from season to season and character to character. Why must each of her books (well, at least the two I have read) have character's with mental problems in them -- and why do I have to unscramble their visions? This did not add to the story for me. I do so want to like this author - the plots are good, many of her characters are interesting, and she can write well - but I find the writing style to be too confusing and hard to follow.

Having read Firedrakes Eye and now Gloriana' Torch, it is time to call it quits. The stories are both obtuse; the action has no flow. Worst of all, I cannot bring myself to care about any of these characters - each is deeply and unsympathetically flawed. David is a man who invariably descends back to his violent past; Simon can never hope to rise above the fact that he uses thumb screws to question people. Simon's wife, Rebecca, is only sympathetic in relation to her husband; she scarcely hides a dark and violent side of her own.

The description of sixteenth century european life is gratuitously graphic and unbalanced by characterizations of the 'humaness' of all life that surpasses eras. Not only must we know that a character hides a weapon in his rectum, but we must be reminded every three or four pages for a seemingly endless time. For me, the joy of historical fiction is not to gawk at the differences from centuries away, but to identify closely with the all too similar lives we all live, no matter how fancy the costumes or the set.