Book, thy pages are legion...

It has proved a surprisingly intense bookish weekend, probably the most industrious I've had in a long time.  Not only did I manage to fit in a trip to the library (five books returned, only one book taken out - hurrah!), browse unscathed in Waterstones and finish Arlington Park, I also started and finished a 700pp celtic historical novel. 

It had lesbians.

Somehow it had gotten around to that time of the month again: the weekend when I realise that the Lesbian Book Group is meeting on Monday and I've not even picked up the selection yet.  Usually this isn't a problem - I can gobble down 300 pages on Sunday afternoon, no problem.  But this month the book in question turned out to be Manda Scott's extroadinarily drawn-out Dreaming the Eagle, the first book in her Boudica quartet.  I woke up on Saturday morning to the promise of 700, quite probably disappointing, pages of small print.  I can't say I was looking forward to it.  (As always, it was Esther who forced me to plough ahead with it.  She sensibly began reading several weeks ago and was determined that I was going to get through it too.) 

But, surprise and suprise, it was far better than I'd imagined it would be.  Set between 32AD and 43AD, it primarily charts the rise of a young Eceni warrior, Breaca, from her first kill in internecine warfare (made when she is 12 years old) through to her leadership of the warriors of her tribe against a Roman invasion and thence to her emergence as Boudica, a heroic figurehead - 'she who brings victory'.  Woven around this central conceit is the story of her half brother, Ban - taken hostage and sold into slavery  in Gaul at the age of 11, he eventually becomes a Roman cavalryman in the IInd legion and the lover of his commander, Corvus - and of Caradoc, her lover, better known to history as Caratacus, who led the first revolt against the Roman invasion of Britain in 43AD.

Now, I'm in no position at all to laud Scott's historical accuracy in any of this.  My knowledge of ancient history is laughably poor.  But I can vouch for her storyteller's gift.  Her world-building is excellent and her descriptive prose is strong and fluid if, at times, work-manlike; her grasp for character and dialogue is also good, and she excels especially at the tentative bonds formed between young adults.  She makes almost no fuss about sexuality even as her characters oscillate between heterosexual and homosexual partnerships, and she weaves her backdrop of Celtic polytheism boldly - her Britain is one of 'dreamers' and dreams, of omens and many gods -  without any neo-pagan sentimentality (thank those same gods!).  On both counts she avoids appealing, stickly, to polarised readerships.  At times the narrative is slow but not deadly so, and is well compensated by her eye for the dramatic action that punctuates it  - my breath quickened on several occasions.  If it has a fault, it is in its propensity to over-stress and then re-stress the same emotional keynotes, but even this has its place in the style of the whole and, overall, the conflict between the lives that Breaca and Ban make for themselves feels well earned.

And so the 700 pages flew by in a state of guileless enjoyment - I would certainly recommend it if your tastes run to historical fiction and to epic.  It has nothing especially to recommend it, thematically at least, outside of that box and I don't wish to overstate my praise, but it slips down nicely enough.  It is pleasant fodder...and every reader needs that now and again.  I might even be persuaded to try the second volume, Dreaming the Bull, primarily to see what happens to Ban's loyalties as an Eceni in Rome's service.  If, after that, I pursue book 3?  Then Manda Scott will definitely be on my list of people to meet at York Lesbian Book Festival in October.

~~Victoria~~

Comments

[Nic]

1) "Book, thy pages are legion" has to be one of our best post titles yet. ;-)

2) When I saw this on Fest's Currently Reading, I just *knew* it was a book group choice. And am pleasantly surprised by your verdict here - though I have quite enough books on hold right now without adding more...