I have read a book
May. 9th, 2011 11:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunn I stayed up far too late last night reading Island of Ghosts by Gillian Bradshaw, and now I have finished it. It was a lot of fun.
You know that post about 'Romanisation' I linked to recently?
Well, Gillian Bradshaw has written an entire novel all about how it might feel to become Romanised, and why people ended up doing it! And it's set in Roman Britain in the second century!
And it has Hadrian's Wall, and Roman Cavalry (though not Roman Cavalry Choirs, because that is a mishearing, which is very sad) and loot, and wagons, and slaves, and Sarmatian armour and legionary armour, and the merits of different sorts of bow, and the advantage of paperwork over memory, and turning your enemy's head into a beermug, and balancing the budgets, and the horrifying exposure of unwanted infants, how to keep draughts out of your wagon, and how a hypocaust might be even better, unpleasant nature of Roman horse furniture, and a whopping great Princely Duel at the end.
Oh yes, and TWO flavours of druid, and a sprinkling of early Christians, some of which get fed to wild beasts despite being really nice.
What more could one possibly want?
You know that post about 'Romanisation' I linked to recently?
Well, Gillian Bradshaw has written an entire novel all about how it might feel to become Romanised, and why people ended up doing it! And it's set in Roman Britain in the second century!
And it has Hadrian's Wall, and Roman Cavalry (though not Roman Cavalry Choirs, because that is a mishearing, which is very sad) and loot, and wagons, and slaves, and Sarmatian armour and legionary armour, and the merits of different sorts of bow, and the advantage of paperwork over memory, and turning your enemy's head into a beermug, and balancing the budgets, and the horrifying exposure of unwanted infants, how to keep draughts out of your wagon, and how a hypocaust might be even better, unpleasant nature of Roman horse furniture, and a whopping great Princely Duel at the end.
Oh yes, and TWO flavours of druid, and a sprinkling of early Christians, some of which get fed to wild beasts despite being really nice.
What more could one possibly want?
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no subject
Date: 2011-05-10 07:53 am (UTC)Explosions? Or is that only in films? ;-)
Even when I listen very, very carefully, I still can't hear it as anything other than "Roman Cavalry choirs." I imagine them as being rather barbershop in style.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-10 09:38 am (UTC)I don't require explosions in books : books are so much more multimedia than films that explosions seem unnecessary.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-10 09:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-10 09:41 am (UTC)I can however think of many other books where 1000 elephants would liven things up no end. 'The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists' leaps to mind, and also anything by Agatha Christie.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-10 12:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-11 07:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-14 03:47 pm (UTC)I used to like Coldplay, but that line 'Roman Cavalry Choirs' makes me cringe. I keep having visions of a bunch of centurions singing the Roman equivalent of 'I'm A Lumberjack'.