March 2025 – Page 3 – The Unseen Library

Publisher: Boldwood Books (ebook – 10 February 2025)

Series: Chronicles of the Black Lion – Book Two

Length: 369 pages

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

If you’re in the mood for some excellent and exciting historical fiction, look no further than the outstanding read Crusade by fantastic author Richard Cullen. Cullen, who also writes as fantasy author R. S. Ford (see my review for his book Engines of Empire), provides a fantastic second entry in his Chronicles of the Black Lion historical series with Crusade. An amazing sequel to his 2024 novel, Rebellion, Crusade continues to follow his protagonist, Estienne Wace, former squire to William Marshal, on another powerful journey, this time into the Fifth Crusade.

Plot Synopsis:

Egypt 1219AD.

Abandoning the safety of England for the perilous shores of the Levant, Estienne Wace is thrust into the turmoil of the Fifth Crusade. Burning with righteous purpose, he is determined to reclaim the Holy Land in the name of Christ.

War rages along the banks of the Nile as a crusading army besieges the Saracen city of Damietta, certain that the price they pay in blood will return the glory and treasures they crave. But as the Black Lion roars, and the siege grinds on, Estienne’s unwavering faith is tested more and more by the grim reality of this brutal conflict.

As the siege turns on a knife edge, Estienne finds himself thrust upon a journey across the merciless desert. Stripped of everything, and forced into a dangerous alliance, he will grapple with the true meaning of faith, honour, and the price of salvation, in a land where nothing is as he once believed.

Crusade was a captivating and worthy sequel to Rebellion that provided readers with the intriguing next chapter in the life of Cullen’s main character. Easily read as a standalone historical adventure or a continuation of the author’s previous book, Crusade starts off strong and keeps the action coming quick and fast, as the protagonist is thrown into battle to seize the Saracen city of Damietta. There are some awesome sequences here, as Cullen produces some high-quality and intense medieval combat scenes that allow the reader to feel every hack and thrust of the protagonist’s sword. At the same time, the author also provides the reader with some introspection, as the protagonist has his first doubts about the crusade he has sworn to fight for.

Cullen quickly moves the reader into one of the more memorable parts of Crusade, as the protagonist finds himself separated from his crusader brethren and is instead captured and sold into slavery. Forced to cross the desert, Estienne faces innumerable hardships as he attempts to escape, including slavers, the elements, a surprise band of Mongolian raiders, and a gigantic and vengeful warrior who has sworn to hunt down and kill him. This proved to be a really fun part of the book, as the author provides innumerable perils, while also introducing or expanding on several interesting supporting characters. You really get stuck into Crusade’s story here, and it sets up the final third of the book extremely well, as a doubtful Estienne takes part in the final conflicts of the Fifth Crusade. Cullen features these final battles nicely, especially with some dual perspectives from Estienne’s gigantic rival, and you get some interesting closure as the final battles of the crusade emerge. Everything ends on a hopeful note, and you are left wondering what adventures will appear next in the series as the protagonist embarks on a new journey.

As with Rebellion before it, one of the things that I personally enjoyed about Crusade was Cullen’s excellent use of historical elements as he dove into the compelling events surrounding the Fifth Crusade. One of the lesser utilised crusades in historical fiction, the Fifth Crusade saw the armies of Christendom invade Egypt, with a combined force of multiple nations and knightly orders. This was a clever historical event to set a story in, especially as it fits in right after the First Barons’ War, which was the focus of Rebellion. Cullen clearly did his research when it came to this conflict, and I liked how he fit his protagonist in amongst the key events of the crusade. Estienne proves to be a good witness to the major conflicts of the war, and his subsequent wanderings in the desert also provided some interesting historical context, especially with the appearance of the Mongolians and other desert groups. I deeply appreciated this cool examination of this period, and I love that Cullen is taking the opportunity to feature some less well-known conflicts with his books. It will be interesting to see what wars or key historical events Cullen will set his next entry in the Chronicles of the Black Lion series around, but I am sure I will find it fascinating.

Richard Cullen continues to impress with his cool historical fiction. Crusade proved to be a great addition to Chronicles of the Black Lion series, and I enjoyed its excellent action, compelling historical inclusions and intriguing narrative. I look forward to seeing where Cullen will take his series next, and I am having fun with these awesome books.

Amazon

Publisher: Gollancz/Penguin Audio (Audiobook – 1991)

Series: Discworld – Book 10

Length: 9 hours and 54 minutes

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Amazon

Thanks to a recent road trip, I have once again reviewed the exceptional Terry Pratchett novel, Moving Pictures, which is one of my favourite books in late Pratchett’s exceptional Discworld series. The 10^th Discworld book, Moving Pictures was a Pratchett classic that provided a satirical look at the golden age of the film industry when it mysteriously emerges on the chaotic and magic-laden Discworld.

Plot Synopsis:

The alchemists of the Discworld have discovered the magic of the silver screen. But what is the dark secret of Holy Wood hill?

It’s up to Victor Tugelbend (”Can’t sing. Can’t dance. Can handle a sword a little”) and Theda Withel (”I come from a little town you’ve probably never heard of”) to find out…

MOVING PICTURES, THE TENTH DISCWORLD NOVEL IS A GLORIOUSLY FUNNY SAGA SET AGAINST THE BACKGROUND OF A WORLD GONE MAD!

Now, I feel this is a good time to point out that I have already reviewed Moving Pictures on this blog a few years ago. I provided a pretty detailed examination of Moving Pictures in the review HERE, and lauded it’s many good points, including its compelling plot, its fantastic comedic take on the golden age of film, as well as the impressive way that Pratchett introduced or expanded upon an array of key supporting Discworld characters, many of whom went on to have key roles in other novels in the series. All these previous points still stand, and I still deeply enjoy Moving Pictures after this new re-read, indeed I picked up on another joke or two that I have missed in previous outings. As such, I am not going to do a whole new review about this book here, although I do want to quickly spend some time talking the new audiobook version of Moving Pictures.

Fans of this blog will know that I am a massive audiobook lover, and I love checking out compelling series in this format. The Discworld books are one of my favourite audiobook series, and there have been some awesome versions released over the years. When I last reviewed Moving Pictures, I talked up the original audiobook narrated by Nigel Planer, who provided his voice to over half the Discworld audiobooks. The Nigel Planer version of Moving Pictures is the one that I grew up with, and I deeply enjoyed his exceptional take on book, especially as he provided a huge array of incredible voices to the production. In many ways the Planer version of Moving Pictures is still the best audiobook adaptation out there, but with the recent release of all the Discworld audiobooks with a fresh team of high-profile narrators, I thought I’d give the new version of Moving Pictures a try, especially when engaged on a road trip.

The new Moving Pictures audiobook is part of a recent re-recording of all the Discworld novels, each of which features a famous British performer voicing the main plot, while acclaimed actors Peter Serafinowicz and Bill Nighy have key roles in every single production. While these have been out for a little while, I have only listened to a couple, including Guards! Guards!, and I have so far been really impressed with how they have turned out. This new recording of Moving Pictures was a fantastic addition to the series, and I really enjoyed the fresh take on the audiobook production. Featuring a run time of just under 10 hours, which is slightly shorter than the Nigel Planer version, this proved to be an easy audiobook to power through in a couple of lengthy car-contained sessions.

This latest Moving Pictures audiobook production is primarily narrated by major British actor Jason Isaacs, who does an outstanding job bringing this audiobook to life. Providing a compelling and different take on the basic narration and some of the characters, Isaacs breaths new life into the production, and I really enjoyed how he presented the book’s entertaining narrative. Issacs’s basic voice works very well in conjunction with the other narrators working on this production, and I appreciated how smoothly and effectively he moved the plot along. Isaacs also provides a range of excellent voices to the various characters featured within the audiobook, and I liked some of his interesting takes on Pratchett’s outrageous characters, especially as it casts them in a somewhat different light to how Planer featured them.

The main protagonist, Victor, got a pretty satisfying voice that captured both his intelligence and his role as the straight man of the story perfectly, and I felt that it was a very solid choice by Isaacs. I also quite liked his takes on some of the more outrageous figures in the book, including the various wizards, who get fantastic crazy old men voices, Detritus the troll, whose voice has a layer of more complexity to it, and Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler, who Isaacs gifts a great greasy film producer voice. I personally thought that his voice for Gaspode the dog was one of his better choices, especially as he perfectly captured the talking dog’s sarcastic personality and occasionally self-pitying manner. The corresponding voice of Laddie, a dog of normal intelligence, was fantastic in comparison, and it was one that Isaacs had fun matching the dog’s breading and intentions. Many of the other voices were also extremely well done, and while I think that Planer might have had a better grasp on a few of the characters, such as Ginger, Isaacs proved to be quite exceptional in his own right and masterfully steered this new production along.

As with all the entries in this new run of Discworld audiobooks, Isaacs’s primary narration was backed up by Peter Serafinowicz and Bill Nighy in their respective roles. Serafinowicz provides the voice of Death whenever he appears in this audiobook, which works out extremely well even with Death’s relatively limited role in Moving Pictures. Serafinowicz has an awesome Death voice, and I loved when it appears throughout the audiobook as it blends with Issacs’ voices very well. Nighy continues to voice all the footnotes in the book, which is a perfect role for Nighy, as his calm, consistent tones bring some fantastic class to the story and proves to be an excellent way to highlight Pratchett’s amusing and clever annotations. While Nighy doesn’t have too much to do in Moving Pictures as there aren’t too many footnotes, some of his takes were pretty fun, especially when he had to translate an exaggerated troll song. These three distinctive actors did a great job vibing together in this new Moving Pictures audiobook, and they brought some great life and a unique take on this classic Discworld book.

Overall, I felt that this new version of Moving Pictures was a very worthy adaptation, and the team of Jason Isaacs, Peter Serafinowicz and Bill Nighy worked extremely well together. While Nigel Planer’s original narration is always going to be the gold standard for me when it comes to Moving Pictures (both due to his talent and my own nostalgia), this new version was also extremely good, and will be a great way for a new generation of Discworld audiobook fans to experience this amazing entry. As such, I would recommend this version to anyone interested in checking out Moving Pictures, and after the outstanding time I had last week, I can guarantee it is an excellent accompaniment for any descent length road trip you might need to take.