Book Review
May. 6th, 2019 09:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariGloriana's Torch
by Patricia Finney
Gloriana's Torch is an inventive historical thriller set before and during the defeat of the Spanish Armada. Told from multiple points of view, we are brought into the web of espionage and plotting leading up to the arrival of the Armada, and into a very inside view of the battle itself. David Becket, once a skilled swordsman, is now serving as an inspector of ordnance. His discovery that large quantities of arms are going missing leads him further into the web of plots swirling around the Spanish Armada. Simon Ames, a spy and former inquisitor for Walsingham, is captured in Spain and sentenced to be a galley slave on one of the Armada ships. Rebecca, Simon's wife, becomes a spy herself to both finish Simon's original mission and rescue him from the galley if she can. Merula, an enslaved African princess and shaman, becomes embroiled in the machinations of both David and Rebecca.
Finney handled the multiple points of view very well, and the narrative structure helped to make the intricate plot easy to follow. She had a particularly deft hand with overlapping the points of view - giving us a set of events through one perspective and then later re-telling them through the eyes of a different participant. I also enjoyed the use of David's dreams to provide a fascinating and heart-breaking view on what could have happened to England if the Armada had succeeded. My favorite sections were those from Simon's point of view while he was a galley slave. He combined a will to survive with a degree of acceptance of death that allowed him to cope with and even mitigate some of the misery and brutality of his situation.
by Patricia Finney
Gloriana's Torch is an inventive historical thriller set before and during the defeat of the Spanish Armada. Told from multiple points of view, we are brought into the web of espionage and plotting leading up to the arrival of the Armada, and into a very inside view of the battle itself. David Becket, once a skilled swordsman, is now serving as an inspector of ordnance. His discovery that large quantities of arms are going missing leads him further into the web of plots swirling around the Spanish Armada. Simon Ames, a spy and former inquisitor for Walsingham, is captured in Spain and sentenced to be a galley slave on one of the Armada ships. Rebecca, Simon's wife, becomes a spy herself to both finish Simon's original mission and rescue him from the galley if she can. Merula, an enslaved African princess and shaman, becomes embroiled in the machinations of both David and Rebecca.
Finney handled the multiple points of view very well, and the narrative structure helped to make the intricate plot easy to follow. She had a particularly deft hand with overlapping the points of view - giving us a set of events through one perspective and then later re-telling them through the eyes of a different participant. I also enjoyed the use of David's dreams to provide a fascinating and heart-breaking view on what could have happened to England if the Armada had succeeded. My favorite sections were those from Simon's point of view while he was a galley slave. He combined a will to survive with a degree of acceptance of death that allowed him to cope with and even mitigate some of the misery and brutality of his situation.
