Customer Reviews

Libertas

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More than just an historical novel, "Libertas" explores the nature of people of First Century BC Spain, and the effect of Roman rule on their lives. Told through the eyes of a youth, living in an idyllic mountain community (where Julius Caesar will soon bring his legions to finish off the Pompeian residents), it appears well researched. There are some surprises. The hero, Melqart aka "Pito," is not your typical muscle-bound freedom fighter; he's a thoughtful and intelligent humanitarian, not opposed to the "best bits" of what Rome has to offer. He's also inventive. One useful contribution is the "sea spear," the forerunner of no less than the torpedo. The war scenes are cleverly written, rather than being page after page of blood and gore. It is from Melqart's point of view that we see his beloved town devastated by Caesar's brutality. His family members are sold into slavery, and it's up to Melqart to do what he can to rescue them, in an intriguing adventure that takes him to North Africa and Sicily. Let's hope that there will be more from Alistair Forrest, a new author who could easily rank among the likes of Cornwell and Scarrow, albeit with an added emotional and spiritual appeal. I highly recommend this book.As the Twig is Bent

If you like your fiction mixed with a little history, read on. ..

Alistair Forrest's "Libertas" is the thoroughly engrossing tale of Melqart, a young Spaniard whose life in the ancient town of Munda is about to change in a profound way. Melqart, or Pito as he also known, finds that he has to grow up quickly when he gets caught up in Rome's bloody civil war in the First Century B.C. He makes an unlikely ally in the son of one of Rome's greatest generals and when his family is enslaved, he begins a journey of spiritual discovery that will bring him face to face with an old enemy.

Melqart is not your average protagonist - he's young, but he's wise beyond his years and tends to use brains rather than brawn. This is what makes the story is so compelling - he is not your average action hero, but rather someone whose circumstances compel him to step up and take action. The cast of characters, both real and fictional, is fascinating. Mr. Forrest peppers the book with individuals from the time period and it's what makes the book really shine. Breathing life into these historical characters is where Forrest excels. These are no mere cardboard cut outs - rather, they leap off the page into the imagination. It's a knockout combination.

The writing is detailed without being superfluous and the dialogue is crisp and authentic. Mr. Forrest has created an extremely engaging and thrilling read about an important time in world history that you'll find very hard to put down.

If you're looking for something for the reader on your Christmas list, you may want to pick up a copy of Alistair Forrest's "Libertas." Or two - you'll want to keep a copy for yourself.

I am not usually a historical novel fan but I really enjoyed Alistair Forrest's book. It was educational, full of adventure and fun. An overall great read!

From That's All She Read[...]

My regular readers are watching me spread my wings and read novels from other than the Middle Ages. Thanks to the proliferation of independent publishing, and in the case of Libertas, many more small publishers, divers authors' love for and knowledge of so many more times and places is becoming available. This novel is a case in point.

The time is the first century BC, the place Roman Spain. I should say "grudgingly Roman" Spain, but then that is one of the themes of this novel. Pito is a young boy whose heritage goes back to the seafaring Phoenicians. He lives in a town in south central Iberia which has been "civilized" by Roman influences. The Romans did an excellent job of coming in to a culture, offering the best of their civilization, sewage disposal, clean wells, communications systems, and so forth, and winning their tacit support of "the Roman Way". The trouble is that the Romans did not stop there. Ultimately it was the sword they wielded to command loyalty. In Libertas what Pito and his people face is Julius Caesar just as he is angling to be God and Emperor. The two sons of the great Pompey are in Spain to try to keep it Julius-free, part of the on-going and fascinating struggle between republicanism and dictatorship throughout the Roman Empire. The younger, Sextus, is a charismatic and fun-loving fellow, very clever and just flexible enough to be a survivor. He befriends Pito, who turns out to have a flair for engineering and invention in general. He develops a signaling system to warn the republican armies of Julius Caesar's movements. Sadly the resistance is not successful, many of the leaders are killed, and the rest are refugees. Pito's family is enslaved and he leaves with no less a celebrity as Agrippa for Rome.

Thanks to mischance Pito winds up in Sicilia, which just happens to be where Sextus has flown. He remains and helps this old friend to develop some improvements in weaponry in exchange for Sextus finding and rescuing his family, who are now slaves in Rome. It is the downfall of Julius Caesar, "Et tu, Brute" and all that, that facilitates their emancipation. Pito and family return to Spain where they discover that in Caesar's wake the petty warlords they set up have gone to town, especially Arsay, Pito's long archenemy. Arsay is a real S.O.B. and is crucifying people right and left. The mountain people, Celts I assume, are only too happy to help Pito and his friends fight Arsay's force. They are outnumbered and "outgunned" and though encouraged by a talking eagle who tells Pito to get over himself, Pito is not so sure they can win.

There are several things I really liked about this novel. One is that it takes place in a new time and place for me. I mean, I have read about the depredations of Julius Caesar in Gaul in Druids by Morgan Llywelyn, and about the Peninsula Wars in Portugal and Spain in Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe novels, but putting Spain and the Roman era together was fascinating. I am starting to want to know more and more about more and more times and places. I personally find historical fiction offers a more human and identifiable way of telling about a place and time, so I am in hog heaven with books like Libertas.

One thing I have discovered about myself is that I am most drawn to novels with what they call in Hollywood "a good ensemble cast". Translated to novels, that means distinct characters who are believable because they think differently, they talk differently and they act differently. Forrest did a fine job with this. Besides Pito, who is daring but painfully aware of the odds he is up against, and Sextus who is not surprisingly bound to become a sort of swashbuckling pirate, there are Liandra, Pito's early girlfriend who becomes a leader and warrior in her own right - nicely done, Alistair! - Ziri, the Berber who is mystical, Pito's mountain friends who are rather like Native Americans in that they live on the land, value it, and stick to themselves, Agrippa, valiant and capable, and, of course, Arsay, the epitome of the big dumb bully who is nevertheless able to take over.

The spirituality in this novel tends to an amalgam of polytheism, angels, mystical monotheism, and Earth religions. Eagles symbolize for Pito and the reader the overwhelming power of the elemental. One eagle promised Pito he would be a light to his people. And in regard to that, the next thing I liked about this novel is how Pito handles this knowledge, not at all the brave and bold hero but with self-doubt, fear he has to fight to control, and plenty of humility.

"Libertas" in this novel is not just freedom from oppression of the Romans but Pito's invitation to and initiation into what the author calls "covenant", a bonding and promise between people that is their free choice, and the sort of freedom symbolized by the eagles and their flight, their oversight of all below. In contrast, the villain Arsay subscribes to eagles as a spiritual force, but he wore eagle feathers, as a way to co-opt the power for himself.

My single favorite thing in the novel is one line, describing Agrippa's men's departure from the nomad camp where they have stayed for some days: "the hardened soldiers among us were moved, waving last farewells to the women each had befriended." Befriended! What a wonderful way to describe the bonding, even temporarily of sexual partners! What a female-positive and refreshing approach to the whole issue of soldiers and the women they take to their beds while in foreign places. I think Richard Sharpe would understand that line. Along with Liandra and her companion Cassia it is clear from this characterization of friendship between the sexes that Forrest embraces the strength of women. Bravo!

There were times when I thought the action skipped forward too abruptly,the plot becoming ragged. Aetna eripts while Pito is in Sicilia, but I am unsure what the point of this was as it did not seem to me to advance the story. Nevertheless this was a thoughtful and at the same time exciting novel.

The publisher, Queastor, sent me a copy of the digital file of this book in exchange for a review, which I have finally gotten to. I read it using the text-to-speech feature on my Kindle 2.

I really liked the emotional/spiritual aspect in this novel - it takes away the "brawn" from what one might associate with the war scenes of a historical fiction piece. Pito's respect for nature (amongst his other fine traits), makes him stand out all the more as a/the hero (and for some reason, makes me think about my own spirit/place in the world as well).

As someone who has grown up very accustomed to history "on screen" and via the computer (History Channel / movies like `300' and `Gladiator' / the wonderful settings of games like Tomb Raider / Heretic II - they draw from history/culture a lot, for the settings!)...I found the vivid visual imagery and setting of Libertas to provide the exact same visual experience that I am used to. There was that same, familiar, realistic walkthrough experience that satisfies one's natural curiosity to surroundings.

I found myself getting nicely lost in the story - which is a good thing! The book kind of reminded me of `The Alchemist', with regards to the whole quest/mystical story of the lead character - including the people and various situations he finds himself in along the way.

What I liked best is that the lead character was/is an intelligent, compassionate character/youth-hero. A good role model, and the fact that it is a historical piece gives it that "classic" element (which somehow enhances the time-tested true qualities the character embodies).

One more thing to add - I thought Libertas was very well researched, despite what the author says about him not being a historian (heck, I know of geography professors who think that Kuala Lumpur is the capital of Indonesia, hehe).

P.S. I personally witnessed the flight of a bald eagle yesterday afternoon (it happened to be flying very low) - and I immediately thought: LIBERTAS!

--Jess C Scott, Author of EyeLeash: A Blog Novel

Cruelty and torture is rife and horribly convincing, and the details of early mechanical weaponry - the scorpio, for example - are painted in with precision. Sexual excesses too, of course. But neither Caesar nor his army is demonized - there are marauding tribes and pirates who are just as bad - and there is plenty of room for the other side of things. Some of the heart-rending farewells and reunions make you think Forrest has one eye on the screenplay. Most interesting for me was the ingenuity of the central character, Melqart. His shortcomings as a warrior are exposed throughout, but greatness is thrust upon him anyway because of his wit and imagination. There's a wonderful lighter scene involving Games in Sicily where he invents the centre-board in order to win the sailing race. Every kind of adventure is in this book: massed battles in Spain, hair's breadth escapes at sea, attacks on the Berbers in northern Africa by Egyptian slavers - what more do you want? For me it's more a question of what less do you want. There's a little too much mysticism for my taste, and the style is heavily adjectival at times, but after a while you don't care about such things as you're swept along by the sheer narrative power. Great read.

Libertas was a wonderful surprise. Usually historical fiction is plain old biff and bash hero stuff or period romance. Well Libertas definitely has the history, the climax of Julius Caesar's civil war as it impacted on an idyllic mountain community in southern Spain where the final battle was fought against the sons of Pompey. It has all the flavor and charm of the ancient community that lived there and how the main character, Melqart aka 'Pito', and his family deal with it. But there's so much more. Pito encounters the eagles that live there and they have a very strong presence throughout this remarkable tale, especially in a fascinating climax. So Libertas has nature and spirituality woven into it. And then there's the inventiveness of this reluctant participant in Rome's empire-building - Pito brings his smart thinking to bear on several problems and comes up with some amazing results! Buy this book - you won't regret it!

Peggy Headings (Author of "The Adventures of the Muffin Family" and "When God unfolds the rose")

I was hoping for more than the usual 'sword and sandals' from this book, especially after seeing the eye-catching cover. And my, it has the extras in spades. Libertas explores the fascinating relationship of a country youth, Pito, with the new power of Roman rule. He befriends one of the sons of Pompey and, though he gets drawn into the last stages of Caesar's civil war, he is not an all-action hero. He's a thinker, and he cares. He is also extremely inventive and his contributions are so believable. I found the relationship with nature, especially the eagles and the healing herbs that grow in that part of Spain, very appealing. There's so much in this brilliant book for women while the men who like a battle scene or two won't be disappointed. Forrest could be the next Cornwell, Iggulden or Scarrow with added value!

I am very selective when it comes to historical fiction - so reading Libertas was not something I did without good reason - it was so well recommended by a friend that I was compelled to do so...and the praise heaped upon it was entirely justified!

This is a story that had me turning every page - names from history, with some added twists made each character come alive....this book is NOT just for the fans, everyone who enjoys a great read will want to get their hands on Libertas!

5 Stars!

I wasn't too sure about getting this book, but it was well recommended by a friend who knew my tastes...and boy, was she right!

I loved watching the Sharpe series on TV and reading the novels, and later reading the historical novels of Rome by Colleen McCullough...so historical fiction is my bag...so I thought this would be an 'ok read' - well - the fact is - I was unable to put it down!!!!

Its just a fantastic great read! Forrest can put it together, and he delivers... I'll be reading it again soon.

A 10 out of 10!!!