Category: Historical Fiction
Anastasia: The Last Grand Duchess by Carolyn Meyer
(Cover picture courtesy of Beauty and the Armageddon.)
25 April 1914—Livadia
Papa took us on another long walk. Mama and Alexei joined us later for a picnic, although Mama was feeling weak and needed her wheelchair. An odd thing happened. My sisters and I were picking wildflowers in a meadow, and Alexei was lying on a blanket nearby staring up at the clear blue sky, when suddenly he said, “I wonder what’s going to happen to us?”
We asked him what he meant, and he couldn’t explain it—just that he had a strange feeling something was going to happen, and that next year we wouldn’t be here.
“Nonsense,” Mama said, but I wasn’t at all sure that he was speaking nonsense. Alexei has a way of sensing things.
There are very few books in The Royal Diaries series that I hate, but this is one of them. That is surprising because this one was written by Carolyn Meyer, a normally very good writer of young adult/tweens historical fiction.
What was my main reason for hating Anastasia:The Last Grand Duchess? Anastasia. Sure, I can tolerate some whining when a situation is truly bad, but oh my word does this girl ever whine! Life is horrible: her sisters are terrible, she never gets to do anything, her father is always gone, etc. I’m sure the real Grand Duchess Anastasia was spoiled to a certain extent, but the whining of Carolyn Meyer’s Anastasia could not compare to even the most spoiled princess. Yes, this is obviously aimed at a younger audience than myself, but even at that age I would have liked to reach into the book and slap Anastasia.
Part of my problem with The Last Grand Duchess is that Carolyn Meyer tried to cover too long a period in too short a book. She covers the time from 1914 until 1917, when the Romanovs are placed under house arrest in Siberia. That’s a lot of time to cover in less than 200 pages and it makes Anastasia’s diary really jumpy, meaning there are no entries for months at a time and Carolyn Meyer does a lot of telling rather than showing to help readers catch up.
However, my main gripe with the book was Anastasia herself and in diary format, if you hate the writer, you’re going to hate the rest of the book. Everything is told in the writer’s perspective, so if that writer is a whiny, angsty preteen, things are going to go very badly. And they certainly did in this book.
I give this book 1/5 stars.
*Only available as used.
The Skystone by Jack Whyte
(Cover picture courtesy of Jack Whyte’s website.)
Born of the chaos of the dark ages, the dream of eagles produced a king, a country and an everlasting legend—Camelot.
Publius Varrus is a veteran Roman officer and a maker of swords. In the early fifth century, amid the violent struggles between the people of Britain and the invading Saxonx, Picts and Scots, he and his former general, Caius Britannicus, forge the government and military system that will become known as the Round Table, and initiate a chain of events that will lead to the coronation of the High King we know today as Arthur.
A Dream of Eagles is yet another series that I didn’t start at the beginning. Instead, I received one of the spin-off books, Uther, for my birthday. I loved Uther, which made me track down The Skystone, the first book in the series. But in the back of my mind I was wondering if I would like Jack Whyte’s earlier writing just as much as I liked his later writing.
The answer? Absolutely! Jack Whyte’s A Dream of Eagles (or The Camulod Chronicles, depending on when it was published) is a series that documents how the Arthurian legends could have really happened. That means there’s no magic and a bit of historical speculation, but otherwise the series is accurate. Rome really did withdraw from Britain in the late 300s AD when the Motherland was being threatened (hint: it didn’t help). Before the chaos of Roman withdrawal, we meet Publius Varrus, our narrator, and his best friend, Caius Britannicus.
Publius is an amazing man, but is also a flawed character. He can be incredibly wise and Jack Whyte has given him an unique voice, but he does things that will make you want to reach in and slap him. Publius is far from perfect, but I guarantee you’ll love him anyway. Caius doesn’t feature nearly as prominently as I would have liked, but he undergoes an amazing transformation in the last hundred pages or so. And the ending was fabulous, tying together the mystery of the skystone and one of the very, very important parts of the Arthurian legends. I can’t wait to read the next book, The Singing Sword.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Weetamoo: Heart of the Pocassets by Patricia Clark Smith
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Neepunna Keeswosh
Moon When Corn is Ripe
[Late August, 1653]
Mettapoiset
He [Father] laid his hand gently on my shoulder and told me that if I, Weetamoo, am to become sachem of us Pocassets after him, and prove a good leader, I must learn to walk more carefully through the world.
I shook my hair out of my eyes and stared up at him in surprise. I said he surely could not mean that I was poor at tracking game or at passing unseen through the woods. He knows I can follow almost any trail, and he has seen for himself how I can edge my way near enough to a doe and her pair of speckled fawns to hear their three separate breaths. Did he not teach me these skills himself, I spluttered, and was I not better at it than any boy or girl in our village?
Meh. That’s all I really have to say about Weetamoo: Heart of the Pocassets. This should have been a really interesting book because so far it’s the only one I’ve read where the narrator in reality would not actually have been able to read or write. Okay, fair enough; Native Americans have a great oral storytelling tradition and I’d never heard of Weetamoo before.
But there wasn’t anything really great about this book. I learned a lot about Native Americans in early-contact days with settlers, especially their daily life, and I certainly learned a lot about Weetamoo herself, but the book never really made the leap from decent to great. Weetamoo was a great narrator, the book was informative and it was reasonably well paced, but nothing really stood out. Maybe it was Patricia Clark Smith’s simplistic writing style or the fact that I’ve been reading way too many Royal Diaries lately, but it was only meh.
If you or your tween/teen like uplifting endings, this book is also not for you. Weetamoo fought against the settlers later in life, so you can imagine what a depressing Historical Note that makes. But if you want to learn more about American history, Native American culture and Weetamoo, an important but largely forgotten historical figure, you’ll love this book.
I give this book 3/5 stars.
*Available as used only.
Catherine: The Great Journey by Kristiana Gregory
(Cover picture courtesy of Fantastic Fiction.)
4 January 1744, Zerbst
She leaned forward, taking my chin in her hand. “You must tell no one what I’m about to say—not your brother, not even Mademoiselle. Understand?”
I nodded. Was she afraid that if others knew the truth they might convince me to run away, thereby spoiling her scheme?
“If the King approves of you…then you and I shall be driven by sleigh out of Prussia, all the way to St. Petersburg, to meet with Empress Elizabeth….She has selected you, my poor ugly daughter to be Peter’s fiancée. Unless you spoil things, the two of you will marry and one day rule all of Russia.”
I know very little about Russian history, so Catherine: The Great Journey was eye-opening to say the least! Did you know Catherine the Great’s real name was Sophie and that she was named Catherine when she was in Russia because of the bad connotations her name had there? I sure didn’t. That’s why it wasn’t only Catherine’s amazing character in this novel that appealed to me, but it was also the history added in.
So far Catherine is my favourite character in the entire Royal Diaries series. Considering that by now I’ve read over half of the books in the series, that’s saying something. In the young Catherine we see the effects of her abusive mother on her worldview, but also her innate thirst for knowledge that would carry on into her later life. This is one princess who makes a point to learn the language of her country and be a good wife if only because of her ambitions to become czarina. An ambitious princess? Shocking, especially in this series aimed at young girls (8-13). But is it satisfying and does it make sense within the context of the story? Absolutely!
The rich descriptions of Russian life are insightful and interesting without Kristiana Gregory ever having to default to Professor Mode and start lecturing. This is the kind of book you is enjoyable to read as an adult, despite being aimed at a much younger audience. Not only do we get to learn about Catherine’s private struggles, but she is actually concerned and knowledgeable about the world around her, including her future country. Amazing, isn’t it?
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Kazunomiya: Prisoner of Heaven by Kathryn Lasky
(Cover picture courtesy of Lyre Center for Literature for Young Readers.)
Yayoi March 7, 1858
As the maids spread out the kimonos, we welcomed back the colors…of spring, like old friends. For only now we may begin to wear them. But during the tea party I am feeling all the while that this talk of silks and colors and painted blossoms covers up something. It is what is not being said that is perhaps the most disturbing. I feelt hat these women know something I do not….There is a shrillness to Lady Tomaki’s laughter that seems not quite natural…..And there is absolutely no talk of the prince, my future husband. It is so obvious to me that I dare not ask about him.
Maybe it was the fact that I really have no interest in Japan or Japanese history in general or maybe it was the book itself, but I did not really enjoy Kazunomiya: Prisoner of Heaven. I didn’t hate it, but it wasn’t as good as some of the other books in The Royal Diaries.
Kazunomiya was a pretty bland character who just did not appeal to me. Although it is likely how the real woman behaved, for someone born in the year of the Fire Horse and supposedly was a fighter, she was not very proactive. Instead, we only really get to see a bit of her frustration (not anger) through her writing in her diary, not her actions. It just felt like Kathryn Lasky wanted to go for the firebrand female angle in the beginning, but just sort of gave up a quarter of the way through. As a character, Kazunomiya is not very consistent.
Although I know a bit about the modernization of Japan, it would have been nice for Kathryn Lasky just to give readers a little more background. Yes, Japan and the Imperial court were both incredibly isolated from the outside world, but surely there would have been some news that reached the ears of Kazunomiya. I can definitely see where things would get confusing for someone with no background in the Japan’s rapid industrialization.
Overall: meh. None of the characters really stuck out for me and I didn’t really learn as much as I would have liked. Still, it’s a great book to get girls aged 8-13 interested in history so it’s fine by me if other people like it. I’m not the target audience anymore, after all.
I give this book 3/5 stars.
*Available as a used book only.