British Mammals - Richard Herley

   2024; 355 pages.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Satire; British Fiction; Family Life; Romance.  Overall Rating : 8*/10.

 

    Take Colin Forrest’s advice: never break off a romantic relationship with an Albanian girl.

 

    Well, let’s tweak that just a bit.  Never break things off with an Albanian girl who has three psycho brothers who now feel you’ve dishonored their entire family and are about to come looking for you with guns and fists.

 

    It’s time for Colin to “disappear” into the hinterlands of England.  Maybe find a job up in the Norfolk area, and lay low for a while.  Make sure your name and picture don’t appear in any newspaper, at least until those three brothers quit searching for you and go back to Tirana.

 

    And for heaven’s sake, if an attractive girl crosses your path, don’t fall in love with her.

 

What’s To Like...

    Full disclosure: at its heart, British Mammals is a Romance novel.  But if you’re a male reader, don’t run away yet, there’s also a bit of violence in the tale, several dysfunctional characters to keep the personal interactions tense, and lots of nudity.

 

    The book is written in English, not American, and even though I’ve read plenty of British novels, there were oodles of new “Britishisms” in the text for me.  The most exquisite one is given below, but there were dozens more, such as: drumby, bint, twigged, posh totty, moggy, dekko, fizgig, wigging, yonks, hent, and coo, the last two of which I never did suss out.  I’m a language nut, so I loved all these new words.  There was even an Albanian phrase!  When’s the last time you ran into that language in a book?

 

    Colin finds a job as a groundsman at a resort called Bubthorpe Pines, which he thinks is a perfect low-stress, low-profile job.  Alas for him, and happily for the reader, such is not the case.  The resort is on shaky financial ground, and continued employment at the resort, for both the top dogs and the bottom-rung laborers, is iffy.  Tempers are short, solutions are few, and nudist resorts are losing popularity.

 

    I liked the nudism angle; it gives the opportunity for some comic relief in the storyline.  Resort employees, thankfully, do not have to "undress accordingly", but they do have to "bare witness" (pun intended) and cater to middle-aged practitioners who are developing wrinkles and sagginess.  Activities such as “beach cricket” and weddings take on a whole new aspect when done without clothes.

 

  As always with a Richard Herley novel, the character-building is excellent.  Each person's make-up is unique.  One of the main characters is a successful novelist, but presently dealing with some e-book issues at Amazon.  I appreciated the insights Richard Herley provides about e-publishing in general, and suspect he is drawing upon his firsthand experiences.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Playing Gooseberry (phrase) : an unwanted third party in a situation where two people want to be alone.

Others: many, many more.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.5/5 based on 2 ratings and 1 review.

    Goodreads: 4.50/5 based on 2 ratings and 1 review.

 

Kindle Details…

    British Mammals currently sells for $2.99 at Amazon. Richard Herley offers about 16 e-books for your Kindle; they range in price from $0.99 to $3.67.  He recently discounted his entire catalog of e-books to $0.99 apiece, which I greatly appreciated and used to grab a couple more of his novels.

 

Excerpts...

    ”What’s he like?  Do you fancy him?”

    “No.”

    “Surely there must be some eligible male somewhere on Earth who can melt the ice in your veins.  What, O frozen-hearted maiden, undisputed queen of the polar north, does he look like?”

    “Tall but not too tall, blond, with no hint of a man-bun.”

    “Do you find him handsome?”

    “Sufficiently.”

    “Amy!  Your fervour astounds me!  So you’re made of flesh and blood like the rest of us!  Have you been drinking in secret?  Antifreeze, I mean.”  (loc. 558)

 

    “Do you?”

    “Do I what?”

    “Think about the future?”

    “Sometimes.”

    “What do you think about it?”

    ”It’s worrying,” Benny decided.  “I worry about the future.  Of the Pines, I mean, and other things.”

    “Surely the future will be like the past.  It always has been, for as long as I can remember.  I mean. What was the future becomes the present and as soon as it does that it becomes the past.  There’s not much difference between them, all three of them, except that in the present one is present and in the past and future one is not.”

    This was an unusually long and profound disquisition on Effy’s part.  (loc. 1737)

 

Trying to pin Effy down on any topic was like knitting fog.  (loc. 2115)

    There's a moderate amount of cussing in British Mammals.  I counted 21 instances in the first 20% of the book, most of which were f-bombs and uttered by two of the characters, Tez and Bert.

 

    I was surprised by the abruptness of the ending.  The tension builds as the various plotlines are cleverly brought together, but things end with just one of them being resolved, and even that one was done verbally.  Yes, I could deduce how the other ones would likely be tied up, but it would have been nice to have those wrap-ups confirmed, or even better, subject to some plot twists.  Perhaps these storylines will all be addressed in a sequel.  One can hope.

 

    Enough of the quibbling.  The romance in British Mammals could have easily become a slog for me, but fortunately Richard Herley’s storytelling and writing skills kept me turning the pages.  I loved his depictions of the English lifestyle, especially on topics such as class structures, the institution of marriage, and ecological considerations, such as deforestation to build housing developments.  British Mammals was a delightful read for me, and I look forward to the author's next novel.

 

    8 Stars.  One last thing.  Let’s hear it for NIMBY finding its way into the text here.  It's one of my favorite acronyms!

The Relfe Sisters - Richard Herley

   2022; 330 pages.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Family Life Fiction; Romance.  Overall Rating : 8*/10.

 

    It was the best day of Clive Wilson’s life; it was the worst day of Clive Wilson’s life.

 

    On one hand, he saved an eleven-year-old boy’s life by pushing him out of the way of an oncoming Range Rover as he crossed the street.  All the locals are calling him a hero, so maybe this was his best day ever.

 

    On the other hand, Clive didn’t have time to get out of the way of the Range Rover himself, he got clobbered, ended up in the hospital, and now walks with a limp and a cane.  So maybe this was his worst day ever.

 

      Clive doesn’t feel heroic; he thinks that anyone else would have done the same.  So why should he view this as his finest hour?

 

    Well, because if he hadn’t saved the life of little Oscar Northfield, he never would have met Miss Sophie Relfe, the boy’s aunt.  And he never would have fallen in love.

 

What’s To Like...

    Amazon labels The Relfe Sisters a “Family Life Fiction”, which seems like an apt descriptor, although I’d hasten to add you could also call it a Romance.  Clive’s life-saving effort introduces him to three sisters who are all dysfunctional in their own way.

 

    Diana, Oscar’s mom, is the eldest sister and is suffering through a lucrative, but unhappy marriage.  Marianne, the youngest of the three, is divorced, a settlement from which has left her financially okay, but emotionally bitter.  Sophie, the middle sister, has had a couple of wild romantic flings, which have made her fearful of falling in love.  You might say she’s “twice bitten, third time shy”.

 

    The text is a vocabularian’s delight, partly because Richard Herley is an English author, and partly because he is a wordsmith par excellence.  That means there were a whole slew of fascinating terms to suss out.  My favorite one is listed below, but others include: skip-hire, kerb, Hilux, Teasmades, motor-yacht, wheelie-bins, splashback, Dysons, broody, nugatory, brolly, chin-chin, bolshie, pellucid, tannoys, twee, satsuma, coign, pelmet, and snaffled.  I'm a bit embarrassed to note that Spellchecker is familiar with almost all of these.

 

    There are a whole bunch of interesting characters to meet and get to know besides the three sisters.  Mrs. Blennerhassett was one of my favorites, so was Uncle Jerome.  As an American reader, I found Richard Herley’s depictions of modern-day life in England to be delightful, particularly riding the trains and preparing the meals.  The book’s settings, especially London and Surrey, also brought back fond memories, since I’ve visited both while in England on a couple of excursions.

 

    The ending was a very logical wrap-up to the tale.  There weren’t any this-changes-everything twists to it, but Romance lovers will find it satisfying.  The final chapter is a “flash-forward”, and made me say “awwww."

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Subfusc (adj.) : dull and gloomy.

Others: see above.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.0/5 based on 4 ratings and 3 reviews.

    Goodreads: *.**/5 based on 0 ratings and 0 reviews.

 

Kindle Details…

    The Relfe Sisters currently sells for $3.58 at Amazon.  Richard Herley has 15 other e-books for you; they range in price from free to $4.99.  The freebies are The Penal Colony, Nature Writing, and The Stone Arrow, in three widely different genres.  I’ve only read that last one, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

Excerpts...

    Before her marriage she had worked as a librarian: it was at the public library that Julian had met her. Issuing his books one Saturday morning, she had, boldly for her, mentioned that she too was keen on medieval poetry, and Julian, who had never so much as summoned the nerve to ask a girl to the pictures, had thereupon asked her what time she got off, and would she like to have a cup of coffee with him and discuss Piers the Plowman?  (loc. 502)

 

    “I was telling Mr. Wickham here, London is overrun with foreigners.”

    “His name is Wilson.”

    “I know that very well.  I have been testing him.  I wanted to see if he would correct me and he did not.  Not once.  What are you doing with a milquetoast like that, my dear?  He looks like a bank clerk and behaves like one.  At least your other conquests had a bit of spark in them.  Maximilian, for example.  Why did you have to part from him?  He was streets better than this one.  (loc. 2775, and no, I have no idea what the phrase “streets better” means.)

 

“Marry me or be murdered.  It couldn’t be plainer.”  (loc. 3383)

    There’s not much to gripe about in The Relfe Sisters.  The cussing is sparse; I counted just 17 instances in the first 50% of the book.  There are some adult situations and sexual references mentioned, and unless I’m overthinking it, at least one gay relationship.

 

    Sophie definitely gets the most ink of the sisters.  Indeed, when I was about halfway through the book, I was questioning whether Marianne and Diana were impactful enough to merit being included in the title.  But their roles get bigger as the story went on.

 

    That’s all nits I can pick.  For me, The Relfe Sisers was a fast-paced, easy-to-read tale of human relationships that held my interest despite it being in a genre I normally don't partake of.  I wish that more Romance novels were written with this depth.

 

    Finally, if you purchase and read this book, and like it, I recommend next picking up Richard Herley’s Darling Brenda, which is in the same genre.

 

    8 Stars.  One last delightful word that I added to my vocabulary as soon as I ran across it in The Relfe Sisters: “forfuxake”.  Yes, I’m sure it’s a made-up word.  But jeez, it ought to be added to the dictionary.

The Drowning - Richard Herley

    2011; 352 pages.  New Author? : No.  Rumored to be Book #2 of the author's "Water" series.  Genre : Contemporary Fiction.  Overall Rating : 9*/10.

   Roland Singer has a rewarding job, albeit one that pays modestly  He is a live-in tutor for 12-year-old George Urquhart, who has been wheelchair-bound since birth.  Roland and George’s relationship is more than just teacher/student; they also have a deep and enduring friendship. 

    But Roland would also like to have a deep relationship with George’s 20-year-old sister, Elspeth.  Indeed, he is smitten speechless by her.  Isn’t it a pity that she is already spoken for?  Ah, but isn’t it a pity Roland and Elspeth are soul mates? 

What’s To Like...
    I’m going to call The Drowning a “situational” book.

    For starters, there are situational ethics.  Indeed, the book’s title comes from one – in World War 2, a captain of a sunken U-boat is clinging to life in the icy waters beside the British destroyer that just sank his ship.  Should the British sailors rescue him, or let him drown?  The decision will have consequences for generations to come.

    Then there are situational religions.  Richard Herley weaves a number of isms into the story – Buddhism, Catholicism, Anglicanism, Hinduism, Jewishism, and (if you can include it) Humanism.  Remarkably, all are given equal treatment.  They each serve a purpose for a given circumstance.  But none of them hold all the answers to life.

    There is also situational history, in the form of a very close-up examination of the 1960’s Biafran crisis.  Most of us remember it only as the big, bad Nigerians starving out the poor, defenseless Igbos.  While that is in fact true, Richard Herley suggests the situation was a lot more complex than that.

    Finally, there is situational love.  Just because you’re soul mates, doesn’t mean that mistakes and wrong choices can’t be made, and they too have far-reaching and long-lasting consequences.

Kewlest New Word...
    Oik (n.) : an uncouth or obnoxious person.  (aren't Britishisms kewl?)

Excerpts...
    Just now Bel had been showing Elspeth her new Beatles LP, entitled, appropriately enough, Help!  Elspeth had once asked her which of the Beatles she would wed; Elspeth herself quite fancied George Harrison.  “I’ll have Lennon,” Bel had said.  “Or McCartney, I don’t mind which.  Think of all the royalties.”   (loc. 1589)

    “But … what’s bad about twins?”
    “Multiple births were an abomination to pre-Christian Igbos.  Only animals were supposed to have more than one young.  Twins were killed at once or left out in the forest to die, and the mother had to go ritual cleansing.”
    “But that’s just superstition.  They’re beyond that now, surely?”
    “We still touch wood for luck.  That goes back to Viking times.”  (loc. 3299)

“The wheel has many spokes, but only one hub.”  (loc. 5517)
        There is much more to like about The Drowning than the situationals.  As usual, Richard Herley’s skill as a writer shines through, and his descriptive passages are once again superb.  I especially liked the depiction of 1960’s Britain that starts off Part 2.  He gives nods to various other writers, including Chinua Achebe, and Ted Hughes, the poet laureate and erstwhile spouse of Sylvia Plath.  Indeed, I wonder if making one of the major characters wheel-chair bound is a tip of the hat to Robert Heinlein.  Plus, my favorite town in England, Chertsey, makes a cameo appearance, and that always gets a thumbs-up from me.

    The book’s title and blurb are misleading.  Although The Drowning certainly does explore the consequences of the fateful decision regarding the U-boat captain, that isn’t its main focus.  This is about Roland and Elspeth, their lifetime-spanning love, and the obstacles to it that are thrown up by the choices each makes along the way.

    This is the sixth Richard Herley book I’ve read, and they’ve all been a treat.  But The Drowning  sits a tad above the others for two reasons.  First, because the various situational complexities are so deftly woven together that the overall story remains coherent.  I gotta think that was not an easy thing to do.

    Second, because of a superb ending that will both surprise you and leave a lump in your throat.  I don’t think any of the other five RH books finished this strongly.  9 Stars.

Darling Brenda - Richard Herley

    2012; 281 pages.  New Author? : No.  Genre : Historical Romance.  Overall Rating :  8*/10.

     It’s 1955, it’s London, and Brenda Vale is looking for a rich young man to marry.  She has found romance, but unfortunately for her plans, it is in the form of a German girl named Grete.  Can she have her cake and eat it too?

     Nigel Dodd is young and will eventually be rich.  But he still lives at home with his wealthy parents, so his inheritance is a long way off.  And he is happily married.  Well, at least he’s content with it.  So he is hardly a suitable target for Brenda.

     But Fate is about to turn Nigel’s life upside-down.

 

What’s To Like…
    There is drama; there is intrigue; and there is subtle humor.  Yet at its core, Darling Brenda is a love story.  There’s not a lot of action, but Richard Herley laces the plotline with twists and gives you three characters that you will genuinely care for and worry about.  Brenda is jaded; Grete is stoically world-wise; and Nigel has the cluelessness of a Bernie Wooster without a Jeeves to look after him.  They’re all in love (although each defines it a bit differently), and you will find yourself pulling for each one.

    The book is written in “British”, and that’s always a literary treat.  There are some deep insights about same-sex relationships in the 1950’s.  It was not a good time to be (forgive the anachronism) “gay”.  You didn’t have a lot of options other than the closet.

     For me, the biggest delight about Darling Brenda  is the author’s skill in giving lush, detailed descriptions of 1950’s England. You can "sit" on the porch of the Dodd estate, and “see” the lake, the cars, and the surrounding countryside.  At one point, Herley spends a dozen sentences telling you about a pair of candlesticks that have no bearing on the story.  I ate it up.  

    Some of the nuances of the intrigue eluded me, but that’s neither here nor there.  The bad guys want money; Nigel doesn’t have it.  The rationale for why they think Nigel should pay is not important.  The consequences of failing to pay are.  The ending felt a little forced, yet it was both logical and satisfying.

Kewlest New Word...

    Doolally : Feeble-minded or deranged (Britishism.  Is that a kewl word or what?!)

 

Excerpts...

    Brenda began to wonder if she had made a mistake.  This would deflect her yet further from her ambition: to find and marry some pliable man with money.  So far she had met plenty of men, but few had been pliable, and even fewer had any money.  She liked going to bed with them, perhaps too well; but always there was something else, something better, out there, waiting for her, just as Grete had been waiting today.  (loc. 38)

    "I can't sign this," Nigel said.
    "Why not?"
    "Apart from everything else, it's not even grammatical.  Look.  'To sincerely apologise'.  Unforced split infinitive.  And why a capital letter for 'Client' or 'Purchasers' or 'Property'?  And this is pleonastic.  'Very sorry when there's a regrettable lapse'.  Besides all which, I'd rather hang myself than creep to a man like that."  (loc.1296)

Kindle Details...

    Darling Brenda is $3.99 at Amazon.  Richard Herley's books range from that price all the way down to free (The Stone Arrow), and so far I've enjoyed them all.

 

"O Nigel, you are a chump."  (loc. 3088)

    I’ll be honest; reading Romance novels is not my shtick.  But this is not some sappy Harlequin lust story (*) ; it is a powerful piece of historical drama.  And I confess that Darling Brenda was a page-turner for me.  As much for the vivid scenes of England as for finding out how both the business and the love tangles were going to be resolved.

    8 Stars.  Add another star if you actually like to read Romance.

(*) : That genre is left to my wife.  I read a line from the book she’s currently reading last night.  It went something like this : “His powerful tongue split her lips like a knife.”  Argh.

The Earth Goddess - Richard Herley

    1984; 256 pages.  New Author? : No.  Book 3 of The Pagans trilogy.  Genre : Historical Adventure.  Overall Rating : 7½*/10.

    Time marches on.  The Hunter-Gatherer tribes are no more.  Paoul, Tagart's adopted son, is taken in by the "civilized" people and is destined for the Red Priesthood.

    The Hunter-Gatherers would be appalled.  The farming and mining communities are dangerous enemies; the Flint Lord's soldiers even more so.   But the Red Priests, with their tattooed 5-pointed stars on the left hands, are said by Tagart to be the most-feared of all.  Time marches on.

What's To Like...
    The Earth Goddess has a different tone than the first two books of this series (reviewed here and here).  The focus is now on Religion, so not surprisingly, there is a lot less fighting and killing.  Indeed, after an initial spate of it, most of the subsequent bloodshed occurs offscreen.

    Richard Herley sets this third book about 8 years after Book 2.  Tagart, Fodich, and Lord Hewzane serve as a bridge between the two novels.  Rian and Ika also have lesser roles.  For the most part, we are treated to a new cast of characters, and new lands to explore.  Paoul, the hero, is not of Tagart's bloodline, and that's a nice change-of-pace.  Like Tagart, he has his flaws.

    Despite the paucity of gore, TEG is not a boring read.  The writing is strong, and the pace, with one exception (the details of the Red Priests' dogma), moves along at a nice clip.   The major characters are well-developed (maybe that's the upside to less bloodshed), and there are some deep insights about Religion in this story that are still applicable today.

    The ending seemed a bit hurried to me, but it had some neat twists and there is a kewl epilogue.  All the major plotlines (Paoul's heritage, religion, and love issues; plus Hothen's lot) are tied up,  I like this better than some other neverending series I've read (WoT, GRRM).

Kewlest New Word...
Stultifying : causing to appear foolish or absurd.

Excerpts...
    "I ... I want to know why I have been brought here.  Am I ... am I to be sacrificed?"
    The old priest looked amused.  "What gives you that idea?"
    "I once heard someone say..."
    "Say what?"
    "That children were sacrificed to the Earth Mother.  By the red priests.  By you."
    "I'm sorry to disappoint you.  Here we cut no throats at all."  (loc. 761)

    "Pagans", they were called; but who were the real heathens, the criminals who abused the greatest faculty of man?  There could be no going back to the forests.  It was too late for that.  The marvels of Tagart's age had gone.  Man was coming to another age, not of decay, as the Order so cynically had it, but of potential unfulfilled.  It never could be fulfilled if he were deprived of the single faculty on which the world's welfare hinged, the faculty indivisible from that which Paoul loved and worshipped most in Yseld: the human spirit.  (loc. 3065)

Kindle Details...
  I bought The Earth Goddess for $2.99 at Amazon.  Book 2, The Flint Lord, is also $2.99.  Book 1, The Stone Arrow, is free for the downloading.  You really can't ask for a better deal than that.

"Above all, remember Gauhm."  (loc. 1019)
    For me, the overlying theme throughout this trilogy was the merits of civilization (as we define it) versus the merits of those who we would call savages/pagans.  The first book examines farming vs. hunting as a lifestyle.  In Book 2, the focus is on the two sides' abilities in warfare.  And here, the topic is an organized religion vs. nature worship.

    In each case, the pagans acquit themselves admirably.  Yet their victories are bittersweet and Pyrrhic.  Hunter-Gatherers may survive a single encounter, but in the long run, the Agrarian way of life always wins out.

    I enjoyed The Earth Goddess, in part bacause the other reviews at Amazon alerted me to the change in tone.  For that matter, I enjoyed the trilogy as a whole.  7½ Stars for TEG; 8 Stars for the series.

The Tide Mill - Richard Herley

    2008; 352 pages.  New Author? : No.  Genre : Historical Fiction.  Oerall Rating : 8½*/10.

    Life's been rough on young Ralf Grigg.  His father's carpentry business has failed, saddling the family with overwhelming debt, and rendering them FVT (Fishing Village Trash).  They are still freemen, but they're just one step above the lowly serfs.

    Ralf is content with his lot, but Fate throws his life a twist when he saves the (local) baron's son, Godric, from drowning in the saltings.  Despite the difference in their social status, the boys develop a keen friendship, which opens new doors for Ralf.  But not always for the better.

What's To Like...
    The Tide Mill is a fine piece of Historical Fiction, set along the south coast of England in the 1250's AD.  Richard Herley gives vivid and detailed descriptions of the flora and fauna, the homes and furnishings, and the daily lives of everyone from nobility  to serfs.  The segues from story to settings are smoother here than in the other two of the author's books I've read (reviewed here and here).

    Of course, the Fiction is equally important to Historical Fiction, and here the storyline holds its own quite well.  Ralf is gifted in both art and engineering, but Herley also makes him a Shakespearean tragi-hero, smitten with a girl he cannot have.

    There is action, there is drama, there are several romances, and there is political tension between the Church and the Crown.  The characters are deep and likeable, and I liked the ending.  Through it all, we follow the construction of the ingenious Tide Mill.  Tide mills really exist, although today they are obsolete.  The Wikipedia article on them, including a couple great pics, is here.

Kewlest New Word...
Immured : Enclosed or confined against one's will.

Excerpts...
    A baron was a vassal of the King.  The King was a vassal of God.  The archbishops who had presided at his coronation derived their authority from the Pope.
    The King was sovereign, above all.  His court, his treasury, and his army were the visible symbols of his might; but the wealth and power of the Church, more shrewdly exercised, were no less.  The revenues of the Alincester diocese alone were rumoured to be greater than the King's.  (loc. 524)

    Last night Godric had professed himself fascinated.  He knew little more of mathematics than Ralf himself, whose prior experience had only been of the addition, subtraction, and simple geometry used in bench carpentry.  Linsell's knowledge derived from Master Hampden and the masons who had raised the Cathedral.  Having glimpsed its potential, Ralf now burned to have it for himself, and to go much further, to know what Diccon and Parfett knew.  Mathematics was like Latin, the future Latin, purer and more important, the language of engineering, and Ralf daily badgered his father for lessons.  (loc. 2137)

Kindle Details...
    The Tide Mills sells for $3.99 at Amazon.  Full disclosure : The author generously gifted me a copy of the book for my enjoyment and review.  Thank you, Richard Herley, sir!

"None of us is free.  Only God.  Only God is free."  (loc. 3107)
    For me, the overriding theme in The Tide Mill was that no one in medieval life was truly free.  Not the serfs, not the freemen, not the Baron and his family, not the priests, and not even the King and the Pope.  Everyone has a pre-defined role to play, and woe to anybody, great or small, who tries to shirk his duty or change the system.

    I am a History buff, so I thoroughly relished being immersed in 13th-century English life.  My Kindle's glossary contained most of the medieval words, and it also helped that Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael series (set in England a century earlier) had already introduced me to a lot of these terms.  The design and construction of the tide mill was at times quite technical, but I think engineers would delight in it.

    8½ Stars.  It's nice to see that there still is some fine Historical Fiction being written.

The Flint Lord - Richard Herley

    1981; 224 pages.  Genre : Action - Adventure.  Book #2 in The Pagans trilogy.  New Author? : No.  Overall Rating : 8*/10.

    Brennis Gehan Fifth needs more land.  For farms.  To feed his flint mining operation.  Southern England in 3000 BC has plenty of acreage.  But it's being used by its original inhabitants, the Hunter-Gatherers.

    There are quite a few of the latter, but they're spread out among a number of tribes.  It is time to annihilate them and take their land.  Brennis will need lots of mercaneries, imported from the mainland.  They will cost lots of money and lots of food.  But in the long run, it will be worth it.  And after all, he is The Flint Lord.

What's To Like...
    Tagart is back from the first book, The Stone Arrow (reviewed here).  He has first-hand experience as to how dangerous Lord Brennis is, but before he can convince others of that he needs to get assimilated into his new tribe (his old clan is no more), and resolve some serious woman issues.

    The action starts immediately and doesn't let up.  But here it is more complex than in The Stone Arrow, and more believable.  Brennis Gehan is a worthy adversary - cunning, ruthless, determined, and resourceful.  The Hunter-Gatherers' counter-plan to his invasion goes badly awry, and that's unusual but pleasant change-of-pace.

    The rest of the characters are somewhat thinner.  Rald and Ika seem to exist only to set the standard for civilized depravity.  Klay has the misfortune to be Tagart's rival.  And don't trust any of the women.

    The ending is well thought-out, and has a kewl twist.  It resolves the main issues and leaves some loose ends for a sequel.  But ANAICT, Book 3, The Earth Goddess, starts a generation later, which would seem to leave those loose ends (e.g., Rald and Ika) dangling.  We shall see.

Kewlest New Word...
Eyot : a small island in the middle of a river (a Britishism)

Excerpts...
    "Who is the man?"
    "Just a slave."
    "Why is he being beaten?"
    "The overseers say he tried to escape."
    "And did he?"
    "He will not work.  In the mines he causes only trouble.  It is salutary to the others to provide an escapee now and then."  (loc. 35)

    There were over a hundred villages, stretching seventy miles along the coast and up to twenty miles inland.  Some were prosperous, with palisaded compounds, wood and stone houses, granaries; most were squalid collections of huts whose inhabitants lived in constant fear of starvation.  Over the centuries these people had come to the island country to escape oppression in the homelands: it was important to ensure that things did not get so bad that any were tempted to return.  It was important, too, to allow them a measure of hope, for this was a most effective stimulant to hard work.  (loc. 1195)

Kindle Details...
    Amazon sells The Flint Lord for $2.99; same price for The Earth Goddess.  The first book, The Stone Arrow, is a freebie, which is how I got hooked into reading this series.  I consider this a most effective marketing ploy.

"Who is there with strength to carry the mace?"  (loc. 642)
    Story-wise, The Stone Arrow is good; but The Flint Lord is better.  Historical Fiction-wise, the opposite is true.  There are a signficant number of anachronisms in this book - maps, charts, longbows (!), catapults (!!), paper cones (think megaphones), dog sleds, etc.  At least there were no candles.

    I suspect Richard Herley consciously sacrified historical accuracy for the sake of stoty-telling.  I doubt there were a lot of variations in 3000 BC when it came to weaponry, furnishings, tools, etc.

    So enjoy The Flint Lord as a fine action-adventure story, replete with brutality, bloodshed, and a bit of kinky sex.  All the forces involved have difficulties to face, and you will be challenged to guess their outcomes.  8 Stars; a bit less if you're a Historical Fiction purist.

The Stone Arrow - Richard Herley

1978; 224 pages.  New Author? : Yes.  Genre : Action Adventure.  Book #1 of "The Pagans" trilogy.  Laurels : winner of the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize.  Overall Rating : 8*/10.

    The time is ca. 3000 BC.  In southern Britain, a scourge is sweeping the land, uprooting fauna and flora, and displacing the local hunter-gatherers.  The scourge has a name.  It is called Farming.

    One farming village decides to speed up the displacement of a neighboring clan of hunter-gatherers.  They raid the encampment at night, killing everyone there down to the last man.  But they miss that last man, Tagart.  So what?  What can one angry man do against a fortified village of 170 people?

    Bad mistake, farmers.  Very bad mistake.

What's To Like...
    The Stone Arrow is literally non-stop action.  Tagart is resolved to avenge his tribe by killing as many of the villagers as he can.  Anyone else getting in the way will suffer the same fate.  There will be no mercy, so there is a lot of gruesome violence.  You have rape, dismemberment, torture, and cold-blooded murder of men, women, and children.  This is not a book for the squeamish.

    Richard Herley does a nice job of recreating neolithic England at this critical time in civilization.  Things like the towns, animals, and landscape are described in vivid detail, maybe a bit too much so at times.  There's some romance, and even a little humor.  At one point Tagart's ambush fails because he drops his bundle of arrows while perched in a tree.  How droll!  The pacing is frenetic, and the ending is satisfying, despite being used to set up the next book in the series.

Kewlest New Word...
Periapt : an item worn as a charm or amulet.  (archaic).

Excerpts...
    Hernou was afraid.  The savages were killers.  It was the way they lived, by hunting and killing.  They thought no more of blood and murder than did the farmers of soil and harvest.  The harsh forest life streamlined their tribes and made them strong and ruthless, like the animals they sought for their prey.  Their discipline, their life, were impossible to understand.  For them to swim free in the seasons, not to have precise tasks for each week and day, but to wander the land by whim: this alone thrust the savages far beyond comprehension.  (39%, location 1296)

    He waited, as if he were waiting for deer, exploring his thoughts.  The water-bottle lay at his side.  No mistake.  Fifty miles to Burh.  He could not risk using the Valdoe roads.  A forest route, then.  Twenty miles a day, his usual speed, would be too much for him in his present state.  Fifteen.  Allow three days.  Four at most.  Burh in four days.  Four back to Valdoe.  That left two spare days before Crale Day.
    It could be done.  He could get the girl out somehow.  (67%; location 2181)

Kindle Details...
    This was, and still is, a free download at Amazon.  The next two books in the series, The Flint Lord and The Earth Goddess, are reasonably priced at $2.99 each.

"Look what the savages have done."  (5%; location 189)
    I do have a couple quibbles with some of the historical details.  In particular, using bolas as weapons, the sport of falconry, and the wearing of (presumably metal) armor and helmets.  Were any of these really present 5,000 years ago in Britain?

    But The Stone Arrow is primarily an action tale, and only secondarily a piece of historical fiction.  So we'll forgive a few anachronisms, and be happy that Richard Herley made the effort to set the story in such a fascinating time.  8 Stars.  This is as good of a freebie download of contemporary fiction as I've found yet at Amazon.  Quite likely I'll be reading the sequels in the next couple of months.