Book Review
Dec. 27th, 2022 07:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariDark Earth
by Rebecca Stott
This novel is set in 500 CE, just a few generations after the Romans withdrew from Britain. Sisters Isla and Blue are living with their exiled father on an island across the river from the abandoned ruins of Londinium. Their father is a great smith whose knowledge of forging special pattern-welded swords has made him both valuable and suspect. When he dies, Isla and Blue attempt to gain the protection of the local Saxon warlord, but when things go sideways, they flee into Londinium. There they find a community of women living secretly.
Stott uses a somewhat distant prose style, which helps create the atmosphere and feel of a very old story, but also made it a little hard to connect with the characters. Once I got used to it, I really came to love Isla and Blue. They are both strong and smart, but also naive and lacking knowledge of how to navigate the world outside their island. They learn quickly, but it costs them. I also loved the setting of the ruined Londinium - it was beautiful and mysterious but also a real home and refuge for those living there. Stott does a lovely job of evoking a distant past where people lived lives steeped in myth and folklore but also rooted in the practicalities of sustaining a community.
by Rebecca Stott
This novel is set in 500 CE, just a few generations after the Romans withdrew from Britain. Sisters Isla and Blue are living with their exiled father on an island across the river from the abandoned ruins of Londinium. Their father is a great smith whose knowledge of forging special pattern-welded swords has made him both valuable and suspect. When he dies, Isla and Blue attempt to gain the protection of the local Saxon warlord, but when things go sideways, they flee into Londinium. There they find a community of women living secretly.
Stott uses a somewhat distant prose style, which helps create the atmosphere and feel of a very old story, but also made it a little hard to connect with the characters. Once I got used to it, I really came to love Isla and Blue. They are both strong and smart, but also naive and lacking knowledge of how to navigate the world outside their island. They learn quickly, but it costs them. I also loved the setting of the ruined Londinium - it was beautiful and mysterious but also a real home and refuge for those living there. Stott does a lovely job of evoking a distant past where people lived lives steeped in myth and folklore but also rooted in the practicalities of sustaining a community.
