The Price of Loyalty: Serving Adela of Blois by Malve Von Hassell; An Era in Anddemar by Maureen B. Roberts; The Orphans of Absolution The Hollow Dark Chronicles by Remi A. Rodriguez Brignoni

The Price of Safety: Serving Adela of Blois by Malve Von Hassell 

This review is a summary. The entire review is on LitPick 

 The Price of Loyalty: Serving Adela of Blois is a sublime look at the early Medieval Era during the time of the Norman Conquest and the First Crusades. It is rich in character particularly in its two protagonists Princess Adela of Normandy and Countess of Blois and Cerdic of Wessex, a knight sworn to serve her.

The book sees her through her brothers’ rebellion, the Crusades, her marriage to Count Stephen-Henry of Blois, motherhood, and her family's legacy. It is also told from the perspective of Cedric of Wessex, a knight and childhood friend of Adela’s but has complicated feelings for her despite their marriages to other people.

The two become friends by sharing outsider status. Cerdic is removed from his home in Wessex and Adela subverts her family's expectations. Adela and Cerdic develop a bond of friendship that lasts through constant changes particularly when Adela's brother rebels against her father and Cerdic is trained to fight him.

Adulthood transforms their friendship into a platonic romance. Their relationship never becomes physical but it's clear that they are among the most important people in one another's lives. Even though they marry two decent characters the kind Stephen-Henry and the strong willed Gisella, they still retain their closeness.

The book goes out of its way to not only make Adela and Cerdic decent characters, but also their spouses as well. Because Von Hassell portrays Adela, Cerdic, and their spouses in decent lights, the marriages and Adela and Cerdic’s bond does not resort to love triangle tropes. Adela and Cerdic stay faithful to their spouses and don't give into their passions. 

In the struggle between the political and the personal, Adela and Cerdic choose the political. That doesn't mean that they don't love each other. It just means that their bond includes their spouses, children, homes, lands, positions, values, and self-respect.

An Era in Anddemar by Maureen B. Roberts 

This is a summary. The full review is on Reader Views 

Maureen B. Roberts’ An Era in Andemarr is the best kind of science fiction novel. The extensive world building, rich characters, and involved plot provide a dream-like almost immersive experience inside a new literary universe. 

The Greying is entering the Andemarr Galaxy. This strange combination of natural disaster and viral pandemic leaves nothing but dull gray indifference, suffering, and despair from anyone that comes in contact with it and will turn a once vibrant galaxy into a hollow empty shell and quite possibly spread to other galaxies. It's up to the dark knight Sir Jaide, the shapemage Jessiah, and a group of scientists that find themselves in this strange galaxy far far away from their home, to combat and fight against it. 

An Era in Andemarr is a feast for the eyes to read and the brain to create mental pictures. The Andemarr Galaxy itself is a masterclass in Science Fiction world building. The setting combines space opera with fairy land. The descriptions of various planets with different sky colors,the presence of several moons in the sky, glimmering lakes, plants present only in their worlds, and figures like sprites, melusines, and hippogriffs zipping in and out of the landscapes capture the imagination.

The Greying is set up not as a physical antagonist or a villain but as something that is both natural and psychological. It is similar to The Nothing in The Neverending Story, an abstract concept that destroys the universe because of its mere presence and stands as a metaphor for the issues that exist in fictional and real life.

Many of the characters are able to counter the Greying by their individuality, emotional connections, determination, and love for the world around them. Sir Jaide is extremely protective of his loved ones, particularly his lover Vidar Quain (Queen of Vidar) Starwing. They are the very definition of soulmates who love and respect each other. Starwing navigates the wide monarchical and political landscape, while Jaide goes on missions and operates one on one with those who are personally affected by The Greying.

Jessiah is a more scholarly academic contrast to Sir Jaide’s physically active approach. He is able to reveal an inner strength and endurance as he faces this intergalactic crisis and his growing powers that are augmented in this strange new environment.

An Era in Andemarr is the type of science fiction novel that invites the reader inside and makes them feel like they want to spend a longer time than an era in there.

Orphans of Absolution (The Hollow Dark Chronicles) by Remi A. Rodriguez Brignoni 

Orphans of Absolution by Remi A. Rodriguez Brignoni deftly combines Westerns and Paranormal Horror to create a chilling graphic novel of the creatures that can be found in the Old West. 

Twins Francis and Randall O’Dowell are the sole survivors when Father Mercer, a violent minister, murdered their entire family. Now they wander the Southwest, particularly the Arizona Territory hunting demons and other supernatural creatures for a bounty. However, they are on the lookout for their real target, Father Mercer.

The book is a veritable tour into Southwestern myths, legends, and ghost stories. The twins encounter a town in which children have been captured by La Llorona, the notorious ghost that lures children to drowning deaths. The results of a town filled with missing children in a time where early death was all too frequent is heart wrenching and motivates Francis and Randall on their search. 

They also encounter shapeshifters that sometimes fool the twins by looking or sounding like people that they knew. There are various moments when the twins are out in the isolated desert where suddenly they might hear their deceased mother’s voice or catch the form of a former lover out of the corner of their eye. It is terrifying to imagine a creature that not only knows their entire history but is willing to use it as a weapon against them.

Even when characters are potentially benevolent, there is a dark sinister aura that hints that they might not be trustworthy. A mysterious man known only as Crow appears and disappears to give them solid hints and advice about their missions but also maliciously puts them in dangerous situations.

What also makes this book more ominous is the setting. This is set primarily in the desert regions where the landscape is the same for miles. Where the nearest help could be in the next town or county for all anyone knows. Where the mind often plays tricks on the unwary who are lulled into a false sense of sameness and security.Where a mysterious moving shadow could be an animal, a violent person, or something else entirely. Brignoni takes full advantage of the haunted Old West.

The creatures and settings aren’t the only things that are haunted. Randall and Francis are too. They only live for the hunt and have foregone any hopes of romance, family, or settling down while there are dark supernatural spirits out there. They both have histories of relationships that ended prematurely, something that their antagonists take full advantage of. They are also haunted by their family’s graphic death and wake up with memories of blood, bodies, and the minister's sinister presence.

Because of their status as nomadic orphans, all Randall and Francis have in the world are each other. If anything challenges that union, whether it's human or supernatural, that challenge is outright rejected. They have no lives beyond the hunt and each other. It’s an unhealthy codependent relationship that is at times possessive and controlling (though the jury is out over who is controlling whom). But Randall and Francis have a shared understanding, language, and destiny that only they can understand. They have seen death as children and now have to face it every day as adults.

Orphans of Absolution is a graphic chilling Horror Western that combines the barren landscape and the lone gunslingers of one genre with the nightmares and twists of another. This combination presents strange but effective absolute results.

Journey of Souls by Rebecca Warner; Composite of Medieval Historical Fiction and Dark Fantasy

 

Journey of Souls by Rebecca Warner; Complex and Compelling Composite of Medieval Historical Fiction and Dark Fantasy

Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

This review is also on Reedsy Discovery 

Spoilers: Rebecca Warner’s Journey of Souls is a composite of Medieval History and Fantasy that works-for the most part.

It captures a widening schism between religions, politics, class, race, spouses, and parents and children. Within these divisions in the political, religious, and social spheres, there comes division in the supernatural sphere. This is where corrupt people use magic to meet their needs and in reaction, that magic itself becomes corrupt. Both the summoner and the spirits that are summoned fall into envy, rage, revenge, and insanity.

After her son and daughter die, the Countess of Mirefoix (only known as the Lady)  in the Pyrenees Mountains decides to use a spell that restores a person’s soul and mind into another's body. She uses some unfortunate “volunteers” (young people that are recruited to serve or kidnapped and taken to Mirefoix) for their body needs. While she thinks at first that she is unsuccessful, spirits do actually enter the bodies of the donors. 

One of them is Christine, a modern woman from the 21st century who ends up inside the body of the Lady's niece. While Christine adjusts to Medieval life, she becomes involved in a triangle with Garsenda, the Lady’s daughter, and Bon, a loyal soldier with a secret connection to the Mirefoix Family. Meanwhile, the Lady  is becoming unhinged, paranoid , and more obsessed with practicing magic to achieve her ends. 

Journey of Souls draws fantasy and reality in equal measures creating a novel that works for Readers who like Dark Fantasies and for those who like more realistic Historical Fiction. The book is awash in historic detail. The Count of Mirefoix is coming home from the Third Crusades to a wife who doesn't love him and vice versa. He is a verbally, physically, and sexually abusive monster who cares more about the estate that he inherited by marriage (Mirefoix is actually the Lady’s by blood) than he does about his wife. 

The Count does little to care for the people that reside on the lands the way the Lady and her daughters do. He cares about his family lineage. After his legitimate son, Jehan, dies he decides to name his possible illegitimate son, Bon, to inherit rather than his daughters who have already been named as heiresses after Jehan. He is so intertwined with the idea of primogeniture, that his heir must be a son, that he ignores that he has two able bodied, intelligent, strong willed daughters that can inherit the land. He also ignores that Bon is romantically involved with Garsenda, then Christine and is so loyal that he would give up his claim in a heartbeat if they asked him to.

One of the most realistic moments is when the Lady grieves for her lost children. She holds out vague hope when a messenger reports that “Jehan” survived, but that hope is dashed when she sees a blacksmith with the same name and realizes that her son has died. When she and the Count fight, he collapses and succumbs to his pain. While she doesn’t miss her unloving husband, it is a reminder of how much the Lady can lose in such a brief time. 

As she is reeling from those losses, the Lady nurses her sickly daughter, Alienor with the fervent determination of one who has already lost one child and a husband. When she too dies,  she realizes that she is left alone with Garsenda, a daughter who doesn’t get along with her mother and believes that she murdered her father, the parent that she preferred. It is a lot to take and the Lady’s anguish is understandable. It also reminds us of how life in the Medieval era was very short and often ended in violent unpleasant death either from illness or in battle. 

Religion is intrinsic in the Medieval way of life and the Readers are beginning to experience what happens when religions and religious sects collide and challenge each other. The Count returns from the Crusades, bragging about how he and the soldiers fought against the Muslims whom they saw as “barbaric  i!%$#ls.” Then he brags that they took jewels, ancient books, and other valuables  of the people that they conquered (making one wonder who the real barbarians actually were). He uses the magic that Muslim caliphs practice to transfer his soul into a young body. Then after he dies, the Lady is willing to use it herself on her own children. For a seemingly religious Catholic family, they don’t mind co opting others’ abilities for their own benefit, even if they claim to be morally against it. Religious hypocrisy: not just a modern thing!

There are also divisions within the Christian religion itself. This comes about because of the war between the Catholics and the Cathars. Catharism was a sect with Gnostic philosophies such as the existence of two deities: God of Heaven and God of the Earth, a personal relationship with the Spirit, and that one can achieve spiritual and knowledge enlightenment, or  become a “Cathar Perfect,” through mystical means, most notably reincarnation. This schism would later be echoed in European history in the struggle between the Catholic and Protestant churches.

In Journey of Souls, the Cathars are at first seen as a religious sect that is outside the fringes of society and is gaining popularity. They are at first seen as weird, bizarre, and potentially a threat to the Catholic status quo. The outlook changes when the Lady, after a series of misfortunes including death, insanity, and despair converts to Catharism in a final attempt to save her soul. The fact that one of the main characters, inarguably the central character, becomes a Cathar shows how vast this religion has spread and becomes centralized. It foreshadows the eventual destruction of Catharism by the Catholic Church, and the subsequent trials against heresy such as the Inquisition and the Witch Trials. With powerful people converting to religions that challenged the Catholic authority, the church leaders recognized a threat to their leadership.

There are plenty of  other details about Medieval life that spill into the book. One of the most intriguing is that the Count and the Lady are never addressed by their first names. Even the narrative never refers to them by name, just by title. This suggests the remoteness of nobility that even their closest friends and family refer to them by title rather than name. 

Another interesting detail is how many misconceptions about the Medieval era are challenged. As if in anticipation of Readers’ complaining about “wokeness,” Warner wrote a detailed essay with citations and references in the last few pages of the book that challenges those ideas suggesting that European history was more diverse and multifaceted than many believed. Among them are the presence of people who aren’t White and Christian in Medieval France. There are dark skinned characters who emigrated from African and Middle Eastern countries. Some retained their Muslim beliefs and previous customs while others assimilated into the European culture around them. Bon himself is half-Chinese and was trained by a mentor who taught him about Buddhism, Eastern philosophies, and fighting techniques.

The power of women in the novel counters the common belief that women were usually thought of as subservient to their husbands. As mentioned earlier, the Lady holds more authority over Mirefoix rather than the Count and is able to make political and military decisions over her people. Her daughter, Garsenda also has a strong sense of leadership in particular when she is forced into hiding, taking the lead within her small group to ensure their survival. Christine quickly adjusts to her new 12-13th century life and commandeers various situations by coming up with various plans and making some tough decisions. In fact, the presence of women in authority is so prevalent that the Count is made to look like a fool for insisting on primogeniture rather than it being seen as the standard of the day.

Besides History, the other aspect of the book that captivates is the Fantasy. As the Lady becomes involved in casting spells, she encounters the jinni, Arabian spirits of great power and mischievous nature but can be subservient to the humans who control them. They are also known as genies. The jinn originally serve her needs but they also display some dangerous undertones. The Lady falls into madness and avarice (particularly when she learns that the jinni and the souls bleed rubies). It is possible that the creatures are driving her insane but it is just as possible that her madness was already within herself and she is bringing out the darker aspects of these beings rather than the other way around. 

The spell calls forth various souls like Blodeweth, a priestess whose entrapment in another woman's body makes her bloodthirsty and vengeance seeking and Corvinus, a conniving slave turned nobleman who finds himself inhabiting the body of a raven and is forced to serve as the Lady’s spy. The more that they work for the Lady, the more unhinged that they become until their rage and paranoia results in them turning on each other. 

Then there’s Christine. It’s kind of strange for a spirit from the future to inhabit a body in the past. But a few things allow that concept to squeak by in this context. Among them is that it plays into the Catharist view of reincarnation. A spirit who lived in a future time and place alludes to the belief that the soul lives on throughout time in the past and the future. 

The other meaning behind Christine’s presence in the past could also play into a Medieval concept of disorder being passed from one sphere to another. From the moment that the Lady casts the soul transference spell, what was seen as a world of human dissension throws the supernatural into the struggles. It is similar to a concept that actually was believed in the Medieval Era and was often echoed in later literary works such as Shakespeare and Marlowe’s plays. Trouble in the natural physical world, in politics, society, status, spills into the supernatural world. For example the murder of Hamlet’s father leads to the presence of the ghost and the uncertainty of Hamlet’s sanity. So the disorder among the realms could also factor into the disorder of time and space that even those spheres are affected by the Lady’s actions. Christine’s presence could be another symptom of the disruption rather than a random occurrence caused by a spell being used in the wrong way and accidentally punching a hole into the future. 

While it is easy to say that the presence of the supernatural, the jinn, the resurrected souls, Christine’s time travel, are caused by dark demonic forces, the truth is there was a dark undercurrent before the Lady cast her first spell. Before the Count even picked up the spells and found a caliph who would assist him. It is there in the first few pages in a Count who bragged about destroying a whole culture while playing lip service to his own religion. It is there when a Lady whose hatred for her husband, grief at her children’s death, and desire to hold on and control everything she has overpower her reason, love for her remaining family, her role as a Countess, and her own health and sanity. It is there in a feudal system that has fallen to corruption, self-righteousness, and bigotry with the desire to destroy or deride anything that does not fit the status quo. 

This is the imbalance that causes the subsequent disintegration between the natural and supernatural world, human and jinni, living and dead, past and future, fantasy and reality.

Classics Corner Birthday Book: The Name of The Rose by Umberto Eco; The Alpha Medieval Mystery Focuses On Medieval But Not As Much On Mystery

Classics Corner Birthday Book: Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco; The Alpha Medieval Mystery Focuses On Medieval But Not As Much On Mystery




By Julie Sara Porter




Birthday: January 5 (1932-2016)




Spoilers: The Historical Mystery is a popular genre and within that, the Medieval Mystery even more so. The sub genre is filled with characters like Brother Cadfael, Sister Fidelma, Dame Frevisse, and others who solve murders in a world of feudal lords, religious conflicts, noble ladies, serfs, monks, nuns, Crusades, and plagues.




One of the earliest examples of the Medieval Mystery is Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose. Since it was one of the first in the sub genre, much care and detail is spent on the time period and the conflicts within. It is a book that is large in Medieval history, but is not the best when it comes to the mystery.




Our detective is one William of Baskerville, a former Inquisitor turned monk wanting a quiet life. He travels with Adso of Melk, a young novice who acts as William's chronicler. The two are on assignment at an Italian monastery where a young illuminator has died. William is assigned to learn the cause of the man's death. Before the investigation is over, six more bodies are added and it becomes clear that there is a dangerous killer on the loose and the monastery is anything but holy.




Eco took great care in researching and writing about the Medieval period so The Name of the Rose is considerably longer than other Medieval Mysteries. Most of the attention is on the monks and how they thrive in this community. They are given various assignments such as herbalist, librarian, cellarer, and so on almost like their own small microcosm of society.

The monastery is beautifully described with it's ornate walls, isolated locations, and icons that many swear date back to Biblical days. (Showing that the tacky tourist souvenir and religious scam artist are not by any means new creations.) The highlight is the labyrinthine structure of the library in which the entire catalog is only known to the head and assistant librarians. The Abbey residents, William, and Adso are even forbidden from reading certain materials. Good luck trying to find them even if they wanted to. The library's structure is filled with twists and turns where a person can get hopelessly lost while searching for information. This is the type of Abbey that will do anything to protect that information.




Religious suspicion and paranoia is the order of the day. Various orders are held under suspicion such as the Franciscans. There are many times when William and the monks debate various philosophies such as whether Jesus Christ forbade laughter. There is much discussion about the End Times and whether the Antichrist is upon them.

Women are looked upon as vessels of sin and there is a passage where the lone female character in the book, an unnamed peasant girl, is tried as a witch and faces execution by burning. Even though Adso believes in the tenets against women, he is guilt stricken over what happened to her. Just as William did during the Inquisition when he felt remorse about torturing and executing human beings for violating how he saw God's laws. This is a world where many are so driven by their own narrow perspective of religion that anything that contradicts it is seen as evil.




While Eco described the Medieval era flawlessly, the mystery aspects fall a bit flat. William is a good detective, a sort of Medieval answer to Sherlock Holmes. At the beginning when he and Adso arrive at the abbey, William impresses the Abbot by using deductive reasoning to determine not only that they are missing a horse, but the horse's name. He also learned the hard way about true justice and that sometimes it goes against the laws of the day, the laws set by people in charge. Sometimes higher justice goes against societal justice and William knows this.




Adso is less interesting through the course of the novel. Mostly he just writes about William's adventures and has some what he believes are religious visions. However, Adso is writing this from the perspective when he is much older and has had more time to meditate on the nature of evil, guilt, and redemption. This encounter opened his eyes to concepts that he never really questioned and now has spent his more mature years doing nothing but questioning and dreading.




Other aspects to the mystery are somewhat flat. Many of the suspects are interchangeable except for two monks who hid their clandestine love affair from judgmental eyes. (and which Adso is aware of his own bisexual leanings) It's hard to tell many of them apart.

The murderer is pretty easy to figure out. Nearly every conversation that he has with William practically screams out his guilt. It takes away the suspense when the killer's identity is that apparent from the word go. In fact this book could just have easily worked as well, or better, as a dramatic historical novel about a young novice entering a monastery and whose personal beliefs contradict with those that he is taught.




The Name of the Rose is brilliant in capturing the the setting, conflict, and structure of the Medieval Era. It is not the best at mystery, but is second to none when it comes to history.