- Hardcover: 480 pages
- Publisher: Michael Joseph/Penguin; First Edition First Printing edition (2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0385341695
- ISBN-13: 978-0385341691
- Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 16.3 x 4.1 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (94 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,815,163 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Company of Liars
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Absorbing yet faintly disappointing,
By
This review is from: Company of Liars (Paperback)
Overall I have to say that I enjoyed Company of Liars. It was absorbing from the first pages and quickly built up a detailed and effective atmosphere of the bleakness of the times. The descriptions of the environment are wonderfully evocative without ever becoming long-winded.
Karen Maitland is skilled at creating characters with whom we can empathise and associate with, in this case Camelot, outwardly a seller of holy relics but to us, the readers, a self-confessed seller of hope. The almost paranormal elements of the story are cleverly introduced and I found myself more than once with a few goosebumps and the odd shiver down the spine (forgive what seem like cliches but it's pretty much how parts of the book made me feel). The feeling of apocalyptic doom descending over a country in the grip of the Black Death was wonderfully conveyed but.... I would like to have given this book three and a half stars but I can't do that. And I couldn't quite bring myself to give it four as I feel the ending(s) left me with a feeling of profound disappointment. The twist is rather obvious from quite early in the book and yet this isn't the main disappointment. It's the feeling I had that the author either didn't know how to end the story or that she was under pressure from her publisher to get it finished by a deadline and had to rush. Either way, the build-up and development of the story were let down by the ending which is a shame as I'd found myself unable to put the book down in the earlier stages. That said, I'd still read her next book.
50 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Exquisite entertainment,
By
This review is from: Company of Liars (Paperback)
Historical novels are the love of my life (apart from my wife and kids that is), and this is very probably one of the very best I've ever read.
The year is 1348, when the plague laid most of Europe waste. Camelot is a seller of fake relics, and when the plague reaches England he decides to try and outrun it, heading north. Along the way, he picks up other misfits until they make up a company of nine: the Venetian musician Rodrigo and his pupil Jofre, the one-armed storyteller Cygnus, the painter Osmond and his wife Adela who is with child, the conjuror Zophiel, and the midwife Pleasance who has a remarkable, white-haired child with her: Narigorm. Together they set out trying to outrun the plague. What happens next is an incredibly engrossing story, told with gusto. This is one of those novels that keep you up at night, unable to stop reading, eager to know what'll happen next. England during the plague is described in such telling and colourful details that the place comes alive, and you cannot help but feel 'this is surely how it must have felt like in reality'. England in the grip of the plague swiftly descends into chaos, and lawlessness becomes the rule. And through this bleak landscape, rain constantly pouring down, the nine companions trudge on and slowly get to know each other better. Before long it becomes clear that each of them has a secret to hide, and none of them is what they make out to be. All have have been beaten down and trodden upon by life's mishaps, and - sometimes for the best of reasons or quite simply because they had no other choice - are now living a lie, haunted by their past. 550 pages of superb entertainment for the price of barely two packs of cigarettes, what are you waiting for?
36 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Truth Will Out,
By
This review is from: Company of Liars (Hardcover)
If the plague ever hits your home town and you have to make a dash for safety, be very careful who you choose as companions. This riveting medieval who (or what) dunnit leads you along the not so safe path away from the ravages of the Black Death into the clutches of a mysterious killer. Keeping you company are a motley crew including conjurers, musicians and a secretive dealer in Holy Relics, not to mention a very scary rune reader that almost put me off children forever. As they flee for their lives, they also flee from the lies on which those lives have been built to face the brutal and often fatal consequences of truth. The detail is superb, the research spot on and the atmosphere suitably grim. There is little in the way of mercy, respite or humour, so be ready for a colourful journey into the one of the darker periods of English history.
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