Dreaming the Hound: Boudica [Paperback]

It's volume three of Manda Scott's hugely successful fantasy about one of Britain's most famous warriors. Breaca, known as the Boudica, is back in Britain killing Romans and spending months agonising over her destiny at the head of the Eceni. In isolated tow is her younger brother, Ban, now known as Valerius, a deserter from the army and exile after the death of Claudius. Nero is on the throne and Britain is no longer safe.

Scott has our tortured, reluctant leader spend the first hundred pages hunting alone, struggling to deal with the choices facing her. Return with no honour to Mona or go east to the enslaved Eceni and the one-armed embittered Prasutagos. After facing multiple demons and spirits both without and within we end the first part of this latest novel with her in her own familial fellowship of her ex-lover Airmid her son and daughters, Cunomar, Graine and Cygfa and their protectors, Ardacos and Dubornos. With the ever faithful hound, Stone at her side she returns to the Eceni to take a position at Tagos' side as his queen, all the while tormented by images of her family enslaved and trying to establish a parental relationship with Cunomar and Graine. Meanwhile Valerius is living a quiet life as a blacksmith, an unwilling adopter of the boy Bellos and being constantly pushed by the Mona dreamer, Luain mac Calma, to take active part in Eceni life again..

The action really starts around page 170 or so when the British client kings and families are summoned to the Roman governor for a lesson in subjugation. The resultant death of Eneit and then Tagos' death in an ambush of Philius hands control of the Eceni to Breaca. Both she and Cunomar begin their assembalge of a war host, whilst on Mona Valerius finds himself reborn as a dreamer to both Nemain and Mithras. Longinus Sapdze returns at the vanguard of the legions under the command of Suetonius Paulus to take the island and ends up in a trap sprung by Valerius, captured and on the end of a shifting allegiance. Our explosive climax ends with the historically infamous flogging of Breaca and rape of Graine and Cygfa before Valerius and Corvus rescue them setting in motion the events that will lead to the most famous insurrection in British history.

I criticised Manda Scott's opener of this series as a somewhat directionless fantasy. However, the massive improvement that commenced with her sequel is surpassed in this stunning third. Here, for the first time, Scott was going to be measured against historical fact and has not been found wanting. Emotive characterisation, a solid merging of ancient Celtic culture and mythology with Roman modernisation, gripping plots, effusively described battle scenes and rending portraits of personal and familial pain make this everything Conn Iggulden is not.

If, like me, you weren't overly captured by the first novel, stay with it because this author does deliver in a big way in this novel and for one, this reader, awaits the fourth installment as soon as Scott can pen it.

Judging by the handful of reviews each book in this series has gotten, it seems that not many people have read Scott's Boudica series. This is unfortunate as any lover of historical fiction, and especially British fiction, would really enjoy the story.

As a previous reviewer said, it *is* slow-going, and very heavy. And Scott often uses an omniscient (and long-winded) authorial voice to tell readers things that might better have been described in other ways. It also would have been nice to have a brief summary of characters and the roles they played early on in the book- Scott gives us a pronunciation guide for a small number of characters, but not all. As it's been a while since I read the previous book, and it will probably be some time before I get a hold of the next book, some names and events were forgotten. But these are small quibbles when you consider the grasp of history encompassed by these books.

Being the penultimate book of the series, Dreaming the Hound has the least action. There are not so many outright battles with the Romans. Instead, most of the battles are internal: Breaca's children Cunobar and Graine, both trying to come into their own and earn their mother's respect; Breaca's brother, Valerius, who must determine his identity- Roman or Briton?; and Breaca's personal struggle to come to terms with her conflicting roles of warrior, "queen," and mother.

It is a well-written, thoroughly engrossing book. Highly recommended, especially if you are interested in Celtic tradition before it became Romanized. But be sure to read the first two books in the series beforehand- these are not stand-alones.

Manda Scott's "Boudica" series is nothing if not remarkably consistent. The third novel of a planned four-volume series, "Dreaming the Hound," possesses all the hallmarks of Scott's earlier novels, "Dreaming the Eagle" and "Dreaming the Bull." For the most part, this is a positive.

Scott has pulled off a magnificent achievement between her selection of a protagonist and her mastery of Roman-era Britain. We first met Breaca as a twelve-year old girl as she killed her first warrior. At the opening of "Hound," Breaca has grown into "the Boudica," the mightiest warrior of the varied Celtic tribes of England who is destined to lead the unified tribes against the legions of imperial Rome. Not much is exactly known about the Boudica, but Scott has created a fully three dimensional character whose emotions are even more powerful than her sword arm.

Scott has also recreated a mystical Britain where the local tribesmen live connected to spirits and ancestors the way the reader can only marvel at and the Romans can only fear. The Celtic warriors of Scott's imagination are tied tightly to dreams, and Dreamers are perhaps the most important figures of all -- even though the warriors get all the hatred and glory from Rome. It's not always easy to follow what is happening when the spirits get going in Scott's novels, but it's always interesting reading.

At the outset of "Hound," the Romans are firmly entrenched in the east of Britain, and the Celtic tribes control the west. But the Boudica must rally the remaining eastern tribes to her banner if she has any hope of kicking out the Romans, so she must journey into the wolves' den. Raising an army under Roman noses is a difficult task, particularly when Roman law prevents any tribesman from owning a blade more lethal than a butterknife. But the Boudica goes about it with her own brand of mysticism, daring, and determination.

Scott peppers "Hound" with several intriguing sub-plots, and the most interesting of these is the struggle for identity of the Boudica's brother Ban/Valerius, who was raised a Celt then spent years butchering Celts in Rome's service, and is now back with the islanders. Can he shed his Roman identity? Can he live with a foot in both camps?

As fans of Scott's earlier novels know, this is not a feel-good series. While there are occasional moments of levity, this is a rather heavy series -- deep emotions are felt deeply, horrific burdens are carried for years, and betrayal is the order of the day. Even positive emotions, such as the joy of redemption, are weighed down by soul-crippling guilt. Scott describes these emotions vividly, almost overly so, and there are many passages that will have you rubbing your forehead in sympathy with the characters.

The worst thing that can be said of Scott's "Dreaming" series is that the books are rather plodding. If you were the kind of reader who wishes Tolkien included a few more chapters about Tom Bombadil or went deeper into the dwarven genealogies, then you'll probably find Scott's books fast-paced thrillers. If, instead, you're more into Bernard Cornwell or Conn Iggulden (and I suspect there are more of you than there are in the former camp), then you're likely to find the "Dreaming" novels slow going. Ultimately, I think they are worth the investment, as Scott writes very well . . . but it's also fair to say that these are not "lean and mean" novels, too.

Not for the squeamish ("Hound" culminates with a brutal torture of the Boudica and her family at the hands of a corrupt Roman -- one of the few historical events we actually know about, so there's no spoiler there), "Dreaming the Hound" is a wonderful exploration of pre-Roman Britain. Melancholy, dark, and sometimes downright scary (and occasionally more than a mite slow), but wonderful nevertheless.

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