Once more, my obsession with ancient
Greece raises its bronze helmeted head - particularly anything related to Troy
and the characters involved in that tragic, epic tale.
As the title would
suggest, this is a tale of Achilles, destined, or perhaps fated, to become
immortalized as the greatest of the Greek warriors. But there is more to
Achilles than just a fearsome, unstoppable slaughterer of men.
Driven by a
destiny in which his two choices are obscurity and long life or eternal glory
and short existence, Miller weaves the complex relationship between the hero
and Patroclus into a wild romance that will eventually be
the downfall of both.
Written with compassion and an insight that perhaps the
vanity of men is not worth the destruction that it wreaks upon those who are
swept along with it.
**OVER 1.5 MILLION COPIES SOLD** **A 10th ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL EDITION, FEATURING A NEW FOREWORD BY THE AUTHOR**
WINNER OF THE ORANGE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION THE INTERNATIONAL SENSATION A SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
'Captivating' DONNA TARTT 'I loved it' J K ROWLING 'Ravishingly vivid' EMMA DONOGHUE
Greece in the age of heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the court of King Peleus and his perfect son Achilles. Despite their differences, Achilles befriends the shamed prince, and as they grow into young men skilled in the arts of war and medicine, their bond blossoms…
Anton Chigurh is, without a doubt, one of the most disturbing and driven killers in any book I
have ever read. The story has a slow burn that drags you along a path that can
only have one destination, and still, you want to walk it.
Unlike in the movie, we
are given a backstory about the sheriff, which makes his decisions much more understandable,
making him much less just a narrator.
McCarthy was not a fan of speech marks or
excessive punctuation. Still, I found that this just focused my attention,
breathlessly, upon the action, and after the first chapter, I had forgotten that
I even needed them! A dark, modern Western novel that is hugely enjoyable.
Llewelyn Moss, hunting antelope near the Rio Grande, instead finds men shot dead, a load of heroin, and more than $2 million in cash. Packing the money out, he knows, will change everything. But only after two more men are murdered does a victim's burning car lead Sheriff Bell to the carnage out in the desert, and he soon realizes that Moss and his young wife are in desperate need of protection. One party in the failed transaction hires an ex-Special Forces officer to defend his interests against a mesmerizing freelancer, while on either side are men accustomed to spectacular…
First, an admission. It took me two attempts to read
this book; the first failed because it was so unlike any of the other Cornwell
books I have read; the second worked because I got over my preconceptions!
Set
in Elizabethan London and focused totally on the world of the actors who make
up Shakespeare's theatre, it moves
from personal angst to the intrigue and double-dealing around the theft of the
manuscript of Shakespeare's latest play.
As always with Cornwell, you get a
sense of the world in which it is set through brief, gritty descriptions that
let you get into the plot without pages of exposition.
The hero, Richard
Shakespeare, is a fallible but likable character who provides a human lens
through which we learn about Elizabethan theater and the complex politics of
the era.
A dramatic new departure for international bestselling author Bernard Cornwell, FOOLS AND MORTALS takes us into the heart of the Elizabethan era, long one of his favourite periods of British history.
'With all the vivid history that is his trademark, Bernard Cornwell transports the readers to the playhouses, backstreets and palaces of Shakespeare's London with added depth and compassion' Philippa Gregory
In the heart of Elizabethan England, young Richard Shakespeare dreams of a glittering career in the London playhouses, dominated by his older brother, William. But as a penniless actor with a silver tongue, Richard's onetime gratitude begins to sour,…
Well, there's this talking monkey who won me in a game of Othello in a coffee shop in Amsterdam. He returned to Cornwall with me and has become a prolific reader and dabbler in magic.
He also has past life flashbacks - the most prominent of which are the Nam special forces ones. We have partially deceased girlfriends who apparently eat dead bodies. The Monkey created a sort of black hole in the spare bedroom, and now we have a team of nerds investigating it and trying to stop 'things' coming out of it.
A bunch of Oriental hitmen who appear to believe he is a god attempted to steal The Monkey's magic lolly pop sticks, but he managed to blow them up in their caravan.
