David kindly reviewed Caradoc #1 over at his blog recently:
This book is a fast paced, epic war story and boy did I enjoy it.
First of there is a lot of information in this book but Keith very handily added a section at the beginning of the book to explain the names used within the book since place names have changed over the years along with rivers etc. This was not only useful so I could set the scene but it was also very interesting information
We find ourselves thrust into time when Rome was planning to invade Britain and the author decided to tell his tale from both the Roman and the Britons view point. This gave a great feel to the book and broke up the action perfectly so you kept reading without even noticing the time pass.
Keith has picked a very interesting subject for the book and built on this story with the characters. There are a few I liked a lot.. Fionn & Etain stood out for me. The action with Fionn had me hooked!
There are a large number of characters in this book; Because of this some don’t get a chance to develop. Once you read the book you can totally understand why though as there so much going on in the book it would be too much to squeeze in and also the story is so strong and violent it’s inevitable some of these characters will die
The author goes into some great detail describing the warfare tactics and clearly has researched well.
I felt the story easily pulled me in and I even found myself shouting in my head “Move, Move” when it came to clashes between the two armies.
One of the most interesting parts of this book for me was the relationships between the tribes in Britain at the time. I won’t spoil the book for you but these relationships coupled with the unified force of the Romans made for an epic tale
From reading the authors historical notes he gives a great insight into some of the characters and the time period and it’s definitely peaked my interest and made me want to read up on this time period.
I’m very pleased to see there is a follow up book and I’m looking forward to reading/reviewing that soon
Conclusion… Do I think this book is worth the 99p asking price currently on Amazon? Hell yes!
If you enjoy tales involving warfare, blood, guts, tension, betrayal then you will certainly like this book.
