Review: Hannibal: Enemy of Rome (Hannibal 1), by Ben Kane

This is the last of the books I got for Christmas, and I just finished it recently. As the name suggests, it's historical fiction, a genre I used to read quite a lot (mostly Bernard Cornwell) but which I haven't really touched for some time. Hannibal's one of my favourite historical figures, which made me somewhat wary (doing justice to a colossus of history is nigh on impossible).

I had very mixed feelings about the book. Concisely, the plot moves at a cracking pace, it's broadly historically accurate (the useful section at the back enables the author to point out where he deliberately altered things for the sake of the plot), the characters are often two-dimensional, and the writing (whilst always clear) can be a bit simplistic.

The two main characters are Hanno, a young Carthaginian, and Quintus, a young Roman. The two are pretty similar in social terms, until Hanno ends up enslaved and sold to Quintus just as the Second Punic War is about to kick off. There are various coincidences, but unless the plot were to focus on real world key players (they feature but are not the focus) then it necessarily has to be so. Hanno and Quintus are more well-rounded than most other characters, but not especially deep.

There was also a ton of head-hopping. There was no consistent focus on a single character's perspective in a given scene/chapter, so we continuously learn what's in the head of character A, then B, then C. It's a little strange. I'm not particularly bothered by head-hopping, but if you are then this could perhaps put you off.

Perhaps my favourite aspect of the book was the cracking pace. There's never a feeling of waiting around for something interesting to occur, or that a section is padding to bulk out the book.

The mini-bibliography at the back was useful (I was pleased to see Theodore Dodge near the top of the list), and if/when I decide to buy something new on the subject I'll probably check it again for ideas.

Hannibal: Enemy of Rome is a fast-paced, light read that's enjoyable but not especially deep or challenging.

Thaddeus

Cycling to Persia – The Granicus

Each of the three best known ancient generals (Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar) had rivers to cross. Hannibal had the Ebro in northern Iberia, Caesar had his famous Rubicon, and Alexander had the Granicus.

Rivers form natural boundaries and are relatively easy to defend, hence their importance in both modern and ancient warfare. The Persians were well aware Alexander was a skilled general and that his army was accustomed to victory, and that both were heading their way.

The Persians assembled a sizeable force to oppose Alexander's crossing, including Greek mercenaries (foot soldiers). Persia's own foot soldiers were a bit rubbish, but their cavalry was pretty good. Weirdly, it was the cavalry (which included Persian nobility) which gathered upon the banks to try and prevent the incursion.

Alexander, as was his wont, attacked at once, leading the charge of the Companions personally. His life was saved by Cleitus the Black, who severed the arm of a Persian noble who would otherwise have slain Alexander and dramatically altered the course of history.

The Persian cavalry retreated, leaving the Greek mercenaries to be cut to ribbons by Alexander.

As this happened quite a while ago, there are some disputes about precisely what happened, but the above is a reasonable outline. Once Alexander had crossed the Granicus, Asia Minor lay open to him. But, Darius, the Great King of Persia, commanded a huge number of men and plentiful resources.

Asia Minor

Hellespont to the Granicus 50 - completed

The Granicus to Sardis 180 – 6/180

Sardis to Smyrna and back again 100

Sardis to Ephesus 50

Ephesus to Miletus 60

Miletus to Halicarnassus 60

Halicarnassus to Telmessus 160

Telmessus to Phaselis 160

Phaselis to Side 85

Side to Termessus 85

Termessus to Sagalassus 70

Sagalassus to Celaenae 60

Celaenae to Gordium 170

Gordium to Ancyra 80

Ancyra to Tarsus 320

Tarsus to Rugged Cilicia and back again 160

Tarsus to Myriandrus 100

Myriandrus to Issues 25

Total = 1,955

Thaddeus

Meet My Character Blog Tour

I was invited by the lovely Alexandra Butcher onto this blog tour thingummyjig (my first one). She's the author of The Light Beyond the Storm Chronicles, and her blog can be found here.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6430414.A_L_Butcher
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DarkFantasyBeyondTheStorm
Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Alexandra-Butcher/e/B008BQFCC6/

What is the name of your character? Is he/she fictional or a historic person?

Sir Edric Greenlock, the Hero of Hornska. He's a fictional knight replete with vices but not overly burdened with virtues.

When and where is the story set?

Sir Edric's Temple covers quite a lot of ground between the city of Awyndel and the Unholy Temple of the title, a once sacred religious site more recently feared and avoided due its numerous dangers. The world Sir Edric lives in is packed with magic and strange creatures, such as the Ursk, red skinned giants who consider humans to be a sort of edible currency.

What should we know about him/her?

He's getting on a little bit and is in the awkward transition between youthful vigour and wrinkly dotage. Although generally self-absorbed, he does have genuine fondness for his horses, and some grudging respect for his trusty manservant Dog, even though he is a peasant.

What is the main conflict? What messes up his/her life?

After the royal treasures are stolen Sir Edric is charged by the King to recover them, hurrying ahead of the ransom to the Temple to try and steal them back. Unfortunately, his attempt to run away before embarking upon the potentially fatal mission is thwarted when the King sends the elven sorceress Lysandra to guard him on his journey ('guard' in this instance meaning 'stop from running away').

What is the personal goal of the character?

Sir Edric's goal, as is often the case in his life, is primarily to avoid ending up dead in the near future. He's also keen to loot whatever can, claim whatever glory is his by right (or wrong) and get revenge on his enemies.

Is there a working title for this novel, and can we read more about it?

Sir Edric's Temple is the title, and it's available from all good retailers.

When can we expect the book to be published?

It was published towards the end of 2013, with a sequel (Sir Edric's Treasure) hopefully out this year.

Links:

My home page - thaddeuswhite.weebly.com

Twitter - MorrisF1

Amazon (UK) - Sir Edric's Temple

Amazon (US) - Sir Edric's Temple

There are three delightful authors following me in the blog tour (putting up their own pieces in about a week). They are:

LK Evans, author of Keepers of Arden:

Website: http://booksbylkevans.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/booksbylkevans

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/LK-Evans/331938033600576

Google: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+LKEvans/posts

Book links:

http://booksbylkevans.com/my-books/

http://www.amazon.com/Keepers-Arden-The-Brothers-Volume-ebook/dp/B00DOLNVPI

Bio:

I was born in Phoenix, AZ where I still reside, despite the horrendous summer months. I live with my husband, two dogs, two cats, and three newts (I love love love animals).

At first, my writing started out as a secret; a side hobby, a release, an escape. But one day, my husband came home early from work and caught me. Instead of allowing me to continue on in secrecy, he planted a seed of publishing in my mind and writing blossomed into a dream I never bothered to dream. So here I am.

Jo Zebedee, a fellow contributor to the forthcoming Malevolence: Tales from Beyond the Veil trilogy and author of Abendau's Child (due out in Autumn):

Website: www.jozebedee.com
Twitter: joz1812

Jo's agency author page: http://www.thebentagency.com/author.php?id=93&name=Jo_Zebedee, which includes a little bio.
Blog: http://jozebwrites.blogspot.co.uk

Duane Vore, author of various sci-fi/fantasy stories including Korvoros:
www.duanevore.com
Twitter: @DuaneVore
Facebook: www.facebook.com/DuaneVore
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Duane-Vore/e/B009KMQX8M/
Independent Author Network: www.duanevore.com/redir/ian/

Book link: www.duanevore.com/qr/hierarchy

Bio: Duane Vore (1953- ) has been writing for as long as he can remember. One of his most prized Christmas presents was, at the age of 13, a typewriter. It wore out. His first concerted effort to write a novel came about ten years later: The Seal of Inheritance, which is unfortunately lost, as was that second typewriter upon which it was written. Since then, his imagination has spanned millions of years, thousands of galaxies, and fantasy worlds by the dozen, and the ideas never stop coming. Gradually, his backlog of completed works is at last making it into the public eye.
When not writing, he functions satisfactorily as a software engineer, electronics engineer, web developer, and physical chemist, three out of those four offering fodder for science fiction stories.

Thaddeus

Review: Tales of Erana, by AL Butcher

Tales of Erana is a collection of around half a dozen short stories set, unsurprisingly, in the world of Erana. This is the same world as The Light Beyond the Storm Chronicles, reviews of which are here and here, but no prior knowledge is needed to understand and enjoy Tales of Erana. It was also the Fantasy Book of the Month at the Indie Book Club on Goodreads for June 2014.

Probably the single most important event in Erana's history is a plague that devastated prior civilisation and led to a hatred of magic (which was blamed for the disease), and the short stories occur at varying times in relation to the plague. They also cover various species (including the rather likeable trolls).

The writing style's easy to read and does a great job of drawing you into the world naturally, and without info-dumping.

My favourite aspect of the short stories, however, was their variability. They're all quite different and the author has a great knack for the varying styles, and at the tricky task of making short stories engaging and complete. I particularly liked the troll stories, which remained me a little of the approach of The Silmarillion (although much briefer, of course).

It's pretty short but costs a princely 77 pence, so that's fine. The brevity means I can't really go into any details without (more or less) giving away a whole plot but I enjoyed each of them.

Thaddeus

Dragon Age: Inquisition, E3 news

E3 has come and gone, and we have learnt some new things about various games. However, the one I'm most interested in is Dragon Age: Inquisition, the third instalment of the fantasy franchise from Bioware.

As always, I will try and keep spoilers to a minimum and won't reveal anything I'd consider plot critical. Basic companion bios, gameplay, voice actors and related information will all be mentioned below, so if you're starving yourself of spoilers to better enjoy the fantasy feast ahead, I must suggest you stop reading now.

The Dragon Age Keep will come out before Inquisition. Whether this is for all platforms is not quite specified, but obviously it will for PC. The Keep is basically an extensive storybook which enables you to make the decisions of Origins and DA2 to set the world up for Inquisition. It's a great idea because it'll get new players caught up with the storyline, enable old players to fiddle about with things without needing to complete whole playthroughs and get around the problem of cross-generation plays (ie those who played on Xbox 360/PS3 before but now have an Xbox One or PS4).

If you play as a Qunari you will not be Tal-Vashoth (one who was in the Qun but forsook it), but Vashoth (one who was never part of the Qun). This gets around a knotty lore problem. Qunari can be mages as well as warriors or rogues, and (for those wondering) hair colour can be dark instead of pale, if you want it.

Speaking of character creation, this'll kick off right away (as in Origins) rather than after a prologue (as in DA2).

New companion information: the male human warrior has been confirmed as a (presumably former) Grey Warden, called Blackwall. He sound like a very upstanding sort of fellow, like Eddard Stark (hopefully with better judgement).

Sera, the elven archeress, is confirmed as a romance option, but only for female Inquisitors. [On this note, the companions (and some non-companions) have specific sexual orientations. It's not like DA2 where anyone will shag Hawke, each character, that you can romance, in Inquisition is straight, gay or bi].

The third mage companion has been named as Dorian, a Tevinter chap.

The Iron Bull (Qunari male warrior companion) is not Tal-Vashoth. He is still Qunari (follower of the Qun religion).

This means only one companion (probably elven rogue, dual-wielding) remains unnamed.

There will be, as previously revealed, 4 Inquisitor voices, 2 per gender. There will be an American female voice, American male voice, English male voice and English female voice.

At the time of writing Alix Wilton Regan (Traynor in ME3, Mhairi in Dragon Age: Awakening [Origins expansion] and Ser Cauthrien in Origins) has been officially confirmed as a female voice. Bann Teagan's voice actor, Timothy Watson, has not been confirmed, but I do think the male Inquisitor speaking for a new trailer does sound very like him.

In terms of gameplay, as was previously announced the top-down tactical view (for battle) has not only returned for PC but been introduced for the first time in the series to Xboxes and Playstations. However, in an interview it sounded like you could actually walk around and play the whole game (excluding cut-scenes) that way. Mark Darrah (of Bioware) also said in the interview (with GameSpot) that during conversations you'll actually be able to just walk away, mid-conversation. I'm sensing the possibility of an obnoxious-as-hell playthrough...

Speaking of interviews (not that I spent a few hours watching Inquisition vids instead of working...) gamerMD83, a Dragon Age superfan, did one with Cameron Lee (DA:I Producer) and Liz Lehtonen (Queen of the Cullenites, and also Game World Producer) which revealed some interesting things about how the Inquisition as a group develops. For example, to advance the story you need a certain level of power, so the Inquisition is almost like a character in itself. You can also order it to perform functions which have a direct impact on areas you can access (the most simple being that ordering your minions to repair a bridge will give you access to an area you might otherwise not be able to reach).

So, whilst the Inquisitor and his associates are running around slapping Templars and hunting nugs, you'll dispatch your underlings to do little missions of their own, which will affect the options available to you (this is from a while ago, but I think one such 'mission' might be researching new metals/spells to improve your smithing or magic).

There will, it seems, be far more crafting available than previous games, but there are no real details on this as yet.

No firm word on time of a playthrough, but I've heard murmurings of around 50 hours.

Assuming it comes out on time (Origins was delayed, of course), it'll come out on 10 October (7 October if you're in North America. Why there must be a 3 day gap I don't know).

Thaddeus

Cycling to Persia – The Hellespont

Today I'll just write up a brief background to the starting point of the Cycling to Persia route. For those who missed the initial post, I've decided to 'shadow' Alexander's route into Persia, adding together the miles I cycle on the old exercise bike and then posting when I reach certain milestones. The figures used are from the back of Theodore Ayrault Dodge's excellent biography/military history, simply entitled 'Alexander' and which I heartily recommend (NB be careful you get the full version as some are abridged).

It's just a quick rundown of how Alexander found himself at the Hellespont, so I'll be going from memory.

When Alexander's father, Philip, came to the throne Macedon was a pretty weak, rather rubbish kingdom. Philip, however, was a military genius. He utterly reformed the Macedonian army and made it the foremost military machine in the world. The lengthy sarissa spear was the backbone of the pezetaeri heavy infantry, the Companion and Thessalian cavalry were remarkable, and the hypaspists (the foot soldier equivalent of Companions) were a match for anyone in the world.

Philip first stabilised Macedon then set about showing his neighbours the formerly rubbish kingdom was now a force to be reckoned with. He achieved hegemony over Greece (destroying Thebes, his former ally, after they forsook the alliance) after the Battle of Chaeronea. Alexander, then 17, fought at this battle, commanding the cavalry and annihilating the Sacred Band, an elite force of 300 Theban soldiers.

A couple of years later, just as he was contemplating a march east to teach the Persians a lesson, Philip suddenly died. Some said Alexander, then 19, had a hand in it. His rivals also ended up dead rather promptly, but the Greeks and others saw this as an opportunity to throw off their Macedonian shackles. His initial campaigns were spent bringing Macedon's neighbours back into line, and teaching them that opposing Alexander the Great was not terribly clever.

Alexander left Antipater in charge of Macedon and marched east with his army, the army modelled on Philip's ingenious design. As well as the core of Macedonian infantry and cavalry there were numerous contingents of allied soldiers.

At the Hellespont, he crossed from Europe into Asia Minor.

Current position = 16/50 miles from the Hellespont to the Granicus.

Asia Minor

Hellespont to the Granicus 50

The Granicus to Sardis 180

Sardis to Smyrna and back again 100

Sardis to Ephesus 50

Ephesus to Miletus 60

Miletus to Halicarnassus 60

Halicarnassus to Telmessus 160

Telmessus to Phaselis 160

Phaselis to Side 85

Side to Termessus 85

Termessus to Sagalassus 70

Sagalassus to Celaenae 60

Celaenae to Gordium 170

Gordium to Ancyra 80

Ancyra to Tarsus 320

Tarsus to Rugged Cilicia and back again 160

Tarsus to Myriandrus 100

Myriandrus to Issus 25

Total = 1,955

Thaddeus

Cycling to Persia

Some time ago I tried to go into walking as an exercise, but I get bored too easily and stopped. However, during the brief period I was trying it out I came across an interesting idea called Walking to Mordor. Basically, you use a pedometer to measure how far you've walked, and then map this onto the journey Frodo took. So, you might walk first to Bree, then Rivendell[sp] and so on.

Whilst not someone who enjoys exercise I do think it's necessary, as most of my time seems to be spent sat down staring at a screen (or book). Got an exercise bike and use it 1-2 times a week, and whilst I can't claim to be especially fit I do think I'm improving.

So, an alternative to Walking to Mordor struck me: Cycling to Persia. Instead of following Frodo's route, I'll 'shadow' Alexander's using the list of marches in the back of Theodore Ayrault Dodge's excellent biography/military history (simply entitled 'Alexander').

As I reach certain milestones I'll make posts about Alexander's progress. I should stress that although I intend to gradually increase the time I spend cycling (currently 8 miles/19 minutes per session) there will likely be quite a few weeks/months between posts, so don't expect an update every few days.

Here's the list (NB I skipped Greece because all the distance were enormous, all distances in miles):

Asia Minor

Hellespont to the Granicus 50

The Granicus to Sardis 180

Sardis to Smyrna and back again 100

Sardis to Ephesus 50

Ephesus to Miletus 60

Miletus to Halicarnassus 60

Halicarnassus to Telmessus 160

Telmessus to Phaselis 160

Phaselis to Side 85

Side to Termessus 85

Termessus to Sagalassus 70

Sagalassus to Celaenae 60

Celaenae to Gordium 170

Gordium to Ancyra 80

Ancyra to Tarsus 320

Tarsus to Rugged Cilicia and back again 160

Tarsus to Myriandrus 100

Myriandrus to Issus 25

Total = 1,955

I'll put up an initial post about the starting point (with a little bit of background) in the near future.

Thaddeus