Customer Reviews

Time and Chance

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Penman emerged long ago as one of the best historical novelists and continues to solidify her reputation with each new release. Her special genius lies in the bright and shining historical detail that she can weave into both plot and dialog (she's a very good student of history and at times is absolutely brilliant in conveying to us the workings of medieval minds).

Chronologically, this is the 2nd of her novels. It's also the 2nd in the Henry & Eleanor trilogy (the others are When Christ & His Saints Slept and Devil's Brood).

There is no doubt this trilogy will stand as a superior work for ages to come. There is certainly a very complex plot (because this era of English history was quite convoluted). Penman does an excellent job of keeping it all straight for us as she leads us through the maze of characters. Yes, it's complicated but if you read the history of these times you quickly come to see what a great job she did in her design of the story.

There are touching moments (the private verbal dueling between Henry & Eleanor are always memorable) and Penman is great at establishing dynamic moments for a wide range of events (the machinations of Becket, etc.). Although I suspected it was coming, I still found her negative characterization of Becket to be an amazing perspective (that I can easily imagine coming from the very mind of Henry himself - a remarkable piece of writing by Penman).

As always, Penman's true genius is the broad historical scope that is painted on top of the shimmering details of brief moments. It truly does feel as if you are living the story yourself, and it is this bringing us readers in as witnesses that stands as Penman's contribution to the art of the
historical novel.

If you prefer to read in chronological order:
1101-1154 When Christ And His Saints Slept (Vol 1 of the Henry & Eleanor Trilogy)
1156-1171 Time And Chance (Vol 2 of the Henry & Eleanor Trilogy)
12th Cent Devil's Brood (Vol 3 of the Henry & Eleanor Trilogy)- not yet released
1192-1193 The Queen's Man
1193 Cruel As The Grave
1183-1232 Here Be Dragons (Vol 1 of Welsh Trilogy)
1231-1267 Falls The Shadow (Vol 2 of Welsh Trilogy)
1271-1283 The Reckoning (Vol 3 of Welsh Trilogy)
1459-1492 The Sunne In Splendour

I've waited a long time for this book to come out. Sharon Kay Penman has long been my favorite author. This sequel to When Christ and His Saints Slept continues the story of Henry II and Eleanor. Penman is well grounded in the history of the period and her historical novels accurately convey the events of the time as well as acquainting us with the major players of the era. I was interested in the relationship between Henry and Eleanor and, knowing the ultimate outcome, read with fascination about Henry's growing flirtation with Rosamunde. The confrontation between Henry and Eleanor after she first learns about Rosamunde was, perhaps, my favorite scene in the book.

As another writer mentioned, many readers will already be acquainted with Thomas Becket's role in the story through movies. I thought Penman did a good job of describing him. We were not privy to his inmost thoughts, but rather had to try to figure him out as did Henry II. I thought this was a clever way for Penman to handle the question of his motivation. We don't know, neither did Henry or his other contemporaries, but we have enough to make our own conjectures.

If you haven't already, be sure to read Penman's other books--Sunne in Splendor (Richard III), and the Welsh Trilogy, starting with Here Be Dragons.

Penman, has drawn her magic pen once again, this time to tell the tale of the strongly interwoven relationships between Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, Thomas Becket and the Empress Maude.

Henry & Eleanor's relationship starts out as a breathtaking explosion of power and attraction but soon simmers into a broiling brew of discontent between such *high-maintance* personalities.

Becket is rightly shown as the enigma he was in life and in a gutsy move on Penman's part she allows the reader to make up their own mind about this complex and very *unsaintly* character.

She also includes a wonderful continuation of fictional characters from When Christ and his Saints Slept which as a side bar story...really eases the increasing tensions between Henry and Eleanor.

Penman isn't known as a fasnicating, accurate historical author without great reasoning and she doesn't disapoint with Time and Chance which is a tremendous building block to the final novel in the trilogy - The Devil's Brood.

An amazing read from an amazing author!!!

Sharon Penman has written some of the best historical fiction out there. Unfortunately, this book isn't up to her usually high standard.

The book is a sequel to When Christ and His Saints Slept and deals with Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine (always a great subject for historical fiction). Penman does a good job of bringing her characters to life but somehow the plot doesn't really work and, much to my surprise, I had a difficult time finishing this book.

One of the greatest weaknesses of the book was her focus on her own fictional characters, Ranulf (Henry's uncle) and his blind Welsh wife, Rhiannon. Ranulf's story of divided loyalties (is he Welsh or Norman?) should make for a great story but Penman never manages to create and maintain this tension. In fact, Ranulf and Rhiannon's story became less interesting to me as I read on in the book.

The book would have been more interesting (at least to me!) if she had focused on Eleanor and Henry---and their incredible relationship. Even if she had focused solely on Henry's political ambitions and struggles the book would have been a better read.

Buy this if you are a serious Penman fan but otherwise give it a miss and read her other books instead (esp. The Sunne in Splendor).

Another enjoyable book from SKP, but I didn't find this quite as interesting as her others, and a bit slower than When Christ and His Saints Slept. It's probably just me, but I didn't find the whole Thomas Becket saga all that fascinating, albeit it is an important part of English history. I did like the fact that the author continued with the Welsh side of the story, as so many authors of English history paint the Welsh as pagen barbarians.

I am anxiously awaiting the publishing of the last in this series, The Devil's Brood, which I suspect will be the most fascinating, as it covers the period when the animosity between Henry and Eleanor heats up and the power plays for her sons. I read on the author's website that she's had health issues that have slowed down completion of the book, hopefully out in 2008.

Sharon Kay Penman never fails to please as far as I'm concerned. Her books are long and complex and rich in period detail. Her characterization of these famous medieval people is wonderful! My only complaint about this book was that it was so long in coming out to continue the saga started in the book When Christ and His Saints Slept. After reading the afterword I found out why - Ms. Penman was ill for quite awhile. I'm just glad she's better and is willing to continue the story of Eleanor and Henry II. This formidable couple cut a wide swath in English history, and Ms. Penman does an admirable job of recreating their life for our pleasure and enlightment. We even got a rare glimpse into the life of St. Thomas Beckett. Unlike a previous reviewer, I didn't think the book suffered from a lack of information about this strange and enigmatic man.
I find that Ms. Penman's books are spellbinding and can pull the reader into a story and a time very far-removed from the present frenetic lifestyle that we all lead. I cannot wait to read the last book in the series.

Sharon Kay Penman may be the best writer around of historical novels about medieval England, France, and Wales. She takes only minor liberties with the facts so her novels can be considered an enjoyable way to amplify your knowledge of medieval history.

"Time and Chance" is the well-known tale of the struggle for power between Henry II, King of England and about one-half of what is now France, and Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The fabulous Eleanor of Aquitaine is Henry's competent wife and Queen. (My picture of Eleanor will always be that of Katherine Hepburn in the "The Lion of Winter.") Henry and Becket, for those who have forgotten the story, are best friends - until Henry appoints Becket as the Archbishop and, suddenly, the friendship dissolves in a bitter Church/State struggle. It's a disappointment that the author doesn't make much of an effort to unravel the mystery of Becket's character. For me, Becket comes across as more of a fool than a man of principle. As one of the characters says "a wise man ought not to let his tongue cut his own throat."

A weakness of the novel is that it begins with a heavy emphasis on Wales and Welsh characters, but Wales becomes increasingly irrelevant as the story unfolds. Don't spend too much time trying to figure out who's who among the Welsh, because it doesn't really matter much in the scheme of things. An effort to comprehend the complex ecclesiastical disputes and sort out the churchly characters in the novel would be much more rewarding.

Criticisms notwithstanding, this is a fine novel, telling an excellent tale about some of the most momentous events of the Middle Ages. A sequel can be expected that will continue the story of Henry and Eleanor and their sons who include Richard the Lion Hearted, everyone's favorite medieval hero, and John, everyone's favorite medieval villain. Penman sets the scene for a little different twist on these two in her next book.

With "Time and Chance", Sharon Kay Penman comes back to her roost as a entertaining historical novelist. This book, the second in a planned trilogy concerning the lives and rule of Henry II of England and his consort Eleanor of Aquitaine, starts off pretty much where its predecessor, "When Christ And His Saints Slept" left off, with the twenty-one-year-old Henry firmly on the throne of England. Penman, as usual, deftly steers the reader through fifteen years, the centerpiece being the conflict between Henry and his chancellor turned Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket. As other reviewers have noted, Penman has always had the gift of making the predictable suspenseful, and that's extremely hard to do in a context where an author knows the majority of her audience is familiar with the territory she's traversing. I will, however, disagree with the assessment of her treatment of Becket. Certainly any book dealing with Henry II has to cover Becket, but Penman has always made her royalty and relatives of royalty the main characters, and the point of view will always be from those characters. Henry is shown as not knowing Becket very well, and Penman simply puts the reader in Henry's position.

Not that "Time and Chance" is perfect, however. Penman is developing the romance novelist habit of using dialogue as an historical lecture, which is annoying. Also, the fictional characters of Ranulf Fitz Roy and his family (including the straight-outta-Harlequin-named wife Rhiannon) is another ploy used by lesser historical novelists for a "ooh, just look where I happened to be!" overview of history, although to be fair Penman doesn't have Ranulf showing up at every major event. "Time and Chance" is not Penman's strongest work, but she's still one of the best when it comes to making medieval history fascinating, readable, and human.

Ms. Penman's early works, in particular The Sunne in Splendour (about the final years of the War of the Roses and Richard III's brief reign) and the Wales Trilogy (about the struggles between the Welsh Prince Llewelyn and his allies (Simon de Montfort) and the English Crown (first King John, then Henry III and finally the brutal and ruthless Edward I), are dense, psychologically complex, and intricately plotted masterworks of historical fiction. However, Time and Chance and to a much lesser degree When Christ and His Saints Slept lack the sophistication that are the hallmark of Ms. Penman's earlier work. Although Time and Chance concerns itself with three of the most extraordinary figures in English history - - Henry II, Eleanor of Acquitane and Thomas Becket - - they remain flat and one-dimensional throughout the story. Perhaps the subjects themselves are simply too big to capture in such a panoramic scale. The only character Ms. Penman feels comfortable with is Ranulf, Henry II's half-Welsh uncle who is present in the novel more as a literary device than as an actual character whose actions spur forward the plot. The problems with character are magnified by the fact that the plot is so flimsy. Compared with Ms. Penman's early novels in which a number of complex major plot lines were being woven along with a number of minor ones, Time and Chance's rather singular and linear plot line is disappointing. All that being said, it is only a "disappointing" book compared with Ms. Penman's earlier works. If it had some other author's name on the cover, then I likely would have read it happily and would have been glad that another decent writer cared about the Plantagenents.

Much to my astonishment, Ms. Penman's Sunne in Splendour managed to transform me into an avid lover of English medieval history. My only lament now is that it is difficult to find in print good fiction set in England or even France during the time period of 1066 to 1450 or so. That is why it is particularly upsetting when Ms. Penman, normally one of the best writers in this genre, produces such a light-weight read. I've read Shakespeare's history plays which, of course, are marvelous. Edith Pargeter is rather enjoyable. Her style is sparse but you find that her characterizations nevertheless linger with you long after you have finished the novel. Try A Bloody Field By Shrewsbury which is about Henry V when he was a young man and his complex relationship with his father and with his surrogate father Hotspur. Although set during the Renaissance, Dorothy Dunnett's novels about the Scottish noble Francis Crawford of Lymond are really quite good, try The Game of Kings. However, Francis' utter perfection and his propensity for needless (self-inflicted) suffering as well as for being misunderstood by his loved ones can get a bit tiresome. I recently read Bernard Cornwall's An Archer's Tale which has a pretty interesting description of Crecy; if you are willing to read "fantasy" then I also recommend George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones which is set in a world very similar to 1300-1450 England. He seems to draw a lot of his inspiration from the War of the Roses, e.g., the usurping royal family is called Lannister instead of Lancaster. There is not that much magic in it at all, it reads more like alternative medieval historical fiction.

I always look forward to a Sharon Penman novel I have not read before, this one kept me interested throughout the book. She has the ability to make the reader feel they are there with the characters in the book, no mean feat.
The book is about the turbulent relationship between Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Starting in 1156 the couple have been married for four years. The birth of their sons has ensured the succession to the throne, but civil war has seen the country torn apart.
Henry needs to defend the borders of England against France and Wales, but his most daunting task is his fight with the church to stop them from infringing on his power.
This fight culminates with his one time friend Thomas Becket, whom Henry has made Archbishop of Canterbury being murdered in Canterbury Cathedral.
Sharon Penman is not a prolific writer, which is understandable considering the amount of research that must go into each of her books. This book stands out among historical novels.