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2.0 out of 5 stars
You realize of course, this means war, Jan 17 2004
I was drawn to this book, its armed queen gazing darkly at me from its cover. The plot focuses on the real Queen Boadicea (or Boudicca) who fought the invading Roman hoardes in Britain in 62 A.D. Told from the perspective of Boudicca's faithful harper Cadwan, the story follows the young queen from her birth to her death at the hands of the Roman hoards. It is a dark story, filled with images of bloodshed and violence.
The book was certainly written with teens in mind. I myself was more than a little shocked when I found a particularly violent passage. In it (just prior to fighting back) Boudicca is whipped half-naked before the Romans whilst hearing her teen-age daughter screaming as they are raped. This scene is meant to be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel's back, forcing Boudicca to round up the different native tribes into her war host. Just the same, don't go handing this book to a ten-year-old who's interested in battlescenes. I'd even be a little hesitant to hand it to a fifteen-year-old, but that's just me.The author's writing is rather lyrical in its passages. There are beautifully evocative lines describing, "The dark, lifeless and lightless green of forest depths in late summer". At the same time, it can be rough going. Sutcliff is attempting to bring the reader fully into early Britain. In doing so, she makes no social comment on war and the cruelty of armies. Boudicca shows no mercy to the Roman men, women, and children she catches. This book is filled to the brim with blood, gore, and muck. It is difficult not to sympathize with the protagonist, but it is clear that she is just as depraved, in many ways, as the Romans she fights. Throughout the book the author dots her passages with letters a young Roman sends to his mother at home, giving the reader a glimpse of the opposing side's point of view. Admirable, admittedly. Yet in the end the book suffers from the greatest flaw of all. It's boring. Anyone who has read the author's preface at the beginning knows that Boudicca is bound to fail, and that it is only a matter of 181 some pages before she does. To slough through this story is hard going at times. When Sutcliff writes dialogue or action, she is excellent. But most of the book is bogged down in exposition, and I would be very surprised if younger readers take to the style. A good effort made to glorify a worthy subject, but in the end a poor showing.
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