The Bleeding Land (Bleeding Land Trilogy 1) [Hardcover]

Description:

England 1642: a nation divided. England is at war with itself. King Charles and Parliament each gather soldiers to their banners. Across the land men prepare to fight for their religious and political ideals. Civil war has begun. A family ripped asunder. The Rivers are landed gentry, and tradition dictates that their allegiance is to the King. Sir Francis' loyalty to the crown and his desire to protect his family will test them all. As the men march to war, so the women are left to defend their home against a ruthless enemy. Just as Edmund, the eldest of Sir Francis' sons, will do his duty, so his brother Tom will turn his back on all he once believed in... A war that will change everything. From the raising of the King's Standard at Nottingham to the butchery and blood of Edgehill, Edmund and Tom Rivers will each learn of honour, sacrifice, hatred and betrayal as they follow their chosen paths through this most savage of wars.

Review

The Bleeding Land

The Bleeding Land by Giles Krisitan is very different from his previous series the Raven. This book may be set at the outset of a bloody and violent Civil War and have Raven fans slavering for blood, but the book is very much about family, familial bonds and how they become tested strained and broken by War (especially Civil War). ....dont worry there are battles.

There are some great insights into the relationships between the Brothers Tom and Mun and also the strain that exists in any time period between a father and his sons who are bordering adulthood, and asserting their opinions and thoughts over the opinions and thoughts of the man who has guided them to maturity.
Add in the devoted sister and the strength of the mother, who is the backbone of every family, especially in a time of War when she has to run and guide the family and this alone is a tale well worth reading.

But that is only a single facet of the Bleeding Land, because as the title suggests, religion and politics are tearing the land apart and so into this normal family mix you can throw 17th Century life, society/ hierarchy, politics and family dynamics, and a country tearing itself apart over Monarchist power v Parliament, religion and as some might see it a popular uprising (English Revolution).

In this tumultuous backdrop Giles introduces us to and weaves us into the lives of the Rivers in such a way that you feel part of the family, the hurts the trials the passions, the success and the failures they belong to you the reader as much as the characters.
I have read quite a few civil war titles and the only one before now not to bore me was Plague Child by Peter Ransley. Both that title and this one took the civil war to a new place for me, removed it from the boring drone of a History teacher who hated the subject, and who's voice had stuck with me for anything to do with that period, to something new exciting, something relevant to me my family and my history and something i want to learn about.

Any book and writer that can achieve the above for me has a huge success on the cards, i just wish that Giles was up to 2 books a year, the thought of an entire year before the next in the series is a hard pill to swallow.

I highly recommend this book, for writing skill, story telling and because its so different in style from the Brilliant Raven series, and yet also a Brilliant read, not many authors can pull off a change in period and style and do it so well. A rare talent.

(Parm)

If it weren't for Giles Kristian it's very likely that I would have left the Vikings where I last saw them - in the exam hall at University. But meeting Giles at English Heritage's Living History Festival with its Festival of Historical Writing in Kelmarsh in July 2011 changed all that. I was persuaded to pick up an oar and sail with Raven: Blood Eye and his lord Sigurd aboard the dragon vessel Serpent. Giles' Raven trilogy is superb (I read all three in a weekend) and so when I heard that he was turning his attention to another time I'm not too familiar with - the English Civil War - I was surprised, intrigued and most definitely not worried. That is because, if ever you should need a storyteller guide, that guide is Giles Kristian.

The Bleeding Land is the story of two brothers, Edmund and Tom Rivers, who stand on opposing sides of the great and terrible battle of Edgehill in October 1642. One brother, Tom, fights for Parliament while Edmund, or Mun, fights alongside their father for King Charles. However, neither fights out of any sense of glory or God's cause. One fights for little more than tradition while the other, Tom, has been driven to it because he can do nothing but oppose the royalist Denton family that brutally defiled his true love, Martha. She had sought vengeance from Lord Denton for the cruel death of her father but instead found her own end by his brutal hands.

This is no ordinary or familiar tale of families split by war. There is no glory here, no right and no wrong. Charles I is no majestic being and Parliament has yet to demonstrate anyone worth dying for. Prince Rupert, the nephew of Charles and his most enthusiastic and perhaps most able military leader, may be a tall, peacock cavalier but it's hard to ignore the petty reality of the man inseparable from his little dog. While Edmund must deal with the fear that the man facing the wrong end of his musket may be his own brother, Tom is adrift. The scenes describing his desolate search for refuge in London are alive with the smells and sights of the time and place.

But war doesn't just affect the soldiers on the field. In Civil War there are no safe places. Armies march up and down roads, towns are robbed of men and resources and family estates pay with violence for the choices of their sons. The Rivers home is no different and as Edmund and Tom fight their battles, their mother and sister are caught up in their own war, trying to save Shear House from cannon while worrying about the fate of their fathers, husbands, sons, brothers. Women more used to drawing room arguments now have to don armour plate and lead their households from the front.

The Bleeding Land is the beginning of a new saga for Giles Kristian and for us. Despite the change in period it has everything we'd expect from the author of the Raven trilogy - thrilling battles, colour, pace, violence, gore, drama, meticulous historical detail and, above all, superb character insight and development whether male or female. All of whom are paying for the decisions of kings and parliamentarians who don't care a jot for them. It was a traumatic time for England but The Bleeding Land makes it personal and heartfelt.

This review is from a review copy which I lapped up!

Some time ago, I launched into Giles Kristian's Raven Saga. You may have seen my reviews knocking around, as they were so good I ran from one to the next seamlessly and enjoyed all three immensely. They were up there with some of the best adventure/historical fiction I've read. I never flinched from recommending them. But recently, Giles has turned his not-inconsiderable literary talents toward a new theatre: the English civil war

The civil war is not a period I know a great deal about and, while I have a passing interest in it, it's never hooked me so much that I sought out things to read about it (I much prefer looking at historical sites relating to it than reading about it.) It may be that, for me, the civil war has always been just a little too recent.

Saying that, I knew Giles was a good writer from his earlier stuff, and the promo video produced for the book pushed me ever further towards it.

And so I settled into the book not really knowing what to expect but, perhaps, waiting for a Raven-esque adventure saga with lots of God's Teeth and Damn Your Eyes and Have At Him, Sirrah -s. Ok, there are a few of those, but the novel is totally not what I expected. I suspect, furthermore, that a number of people who were real Raven fanatics will dislike this shift into a deep, thoughtful and saddening world, while other folk who would not consider Raven will flock to it.

The Bleeding Land, you see, is not a war story. It is a tale of a torn family, of the love of brothers and sisters pulled by the fickle strands of fate in different directions to such an extent that they are at war. It is a tale of love and loss and heartbreak and strength and perseverance and duty and honour. In fact, the tale actually ends just after the first major battle of the Civil War, which gives you an idea of where the meat of the story lies: not in battle, but in the story of those who fight it.

That's enough of the plot. Don't want to ruin it for you. I will say three things in particular that I consider strengths and which should draw you to want to read it.

Firstly, there is the sheer visual nature of the narrative. It is almost impossible not to completely visualise every scene he writes. In fact, there is such depth of feeling in the descriptive that you can even smell, hear or taste the scene. It was such a shock from almost the opening scene to be drawn so completely in that I felt I was there. This alone is phenomenal and a rare gift.

Secondly, there is the nature of the battle scenes. Battle scenes are very easy to write (from personal experience) for excitement, for horror, for gore, for valour and so on. What Giles manages is to write his civil war millitary engagements from the smallest skirmish to the great ckash at Edgehill with such care that they are all-encompassing. They are all of the above and more and, given the descriptive I mention previously, they are evocative of every clash you've seen in a classic movie: the cannon fire in Cromwell, the volley fire in Zulu. They are scenes that will stay in your memory.

Thirdly, the simple skill with words. A score of times or more in the text, I read a phrase, a line, a description, that made me wish I could write even half that well. It is a beautiful piece of narrative.

So go on... You need to follow the tale of Tom and Mun, their parents and sister, of Emmanuel and the folk of Lancashire good and bad. And cheer Prince Rupert (and the King, for I am and will always be a Royalist at heart). This emotional roller-coaster of a tale will tear out your heart and rebuild it only to batter it again. As a last word, I would compare Kristian's treatment of a torn family to the standalone works of Guy Gavriel Kay (and I can think of no higher praise, Kay having been my favourite writer for decades.)

Buy the Bleeding Land and experience it.