Publisher: Boldwood Books (ebook – 26 October 2024)
Series: Chronicles of the Black Lion – Book One
Length: 290 pages
My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Prepare for an exciting and compelling historical adventure from excellent author Richard Cullen with the amazing read Rebellion.
Back in 2024 I was lucky to receive a copy of the awesome historical fiction novel Rebellion by Richard Cullen. Cullen, who entered the historical fiction genre a couple of years ago with his Wolf of Kings series, may be better known to some readers as fantasy author Richard S. Ford, who has written several compelling series over the year, including The Age of Uprising series (check out my review for the first book in that series, Engines of Empire). His latest release, Rebellion, is the first book in his Chronicles of the Black Lion series, that takes readers back to the early 13th century and deadly rebellions against the crown.
Plot Synopsis:
1213AD.
King Richard the Lionheart is dead, and his brother, John Lackland, sits uneasily upon the throne of England.
Across the sea, Prince Louis, heir to the powerful King Philip Augustus of France, looks to King John’s crown with a covetous eye.
But King John must be wary of rebellion, as well as invasion, for even his own barons would see their king unseated, and the French pretender put in his place.
Thrust amid this tumult is young Estienne Wace, orphan squire to Earl William Marshal – the greatest knight to ever serve the kings of England, and one of the few men who still holds faith in King John’s rule.
Raised by Marshal as his ward, Estienne must prove himself worthy of his adopted father’s name, but acceptance may be the least of his troubles. War is looming, as usurpers emerge from every quarter, determined to steal England’s crown from its most wretched king.
Rebellion was an outstanding novel that successfully wrapped around a character-driven tale of adventure and honour with a compelling historical background to form a fantastic and exciting read. Told primarily from the perspective of Estienne Wace, new squire to legendary knight, lord, and royal regent Wiliam Marshal, you see the chaotic events that defined the last few years of King John’s reign, including the First Barons’ War, in compelling detail. For the most part Cullen tells a classic historical coming of age/adventure tale around Estienne, as the young man first learns the ropes of being a squire, and then the reader follows him through several major battles and historical events, either as a fighting participant or a curious observer. This allows for quite a bit of action and excitement, and the young protagonist soon learns the true horrors of war as he grows closer to the Marshal family.
This proves to be a fascinating and very intense historical narrative, and the author enthrals the reader with a great combination of fascinating historical detail, a ton of cool action, and some compelling character work as he features an intriguing mixture of new characters and many established historical figures. I found this combination to work extremely well, and it proved interesting to follow the protagonist as he witnessed the turbulent history of the period and the dark conflicts it birthed. The action flies thick and fast as the story continues, and I loved the awesome array of detailed sequences that emerged, including a lengthy and desperate siege. The author also makes excellent use of some great alternate points of view as the story continues, including a jealous rival to the protagonist, and you are gifted with a compelling and highly intense look at the battles and politics unfolding. While for the most part the main storyline around Estienne is typical historical fiction fare, Cullen throws in some interesting, if not entirely unsurprising, reveals at the end which should lead to some interesting developments in the future. All this helped to produce a very cool story, and its one that I had a hard time putting down at times.
While I love all the above inclusions, my favourite part of Rebellion was the excellent historical details that Cullen worked his cool narrative around, especially as the author has clearly done his research on the subject. It helped that Cullen chose to set his story around a truly fascinating period of English history that hasn’t been too over-utilised in other pieces of historical fiction. As such, readers are gifted with deeply compelling look at the later years of King John’s reign as he lost land and refused to abide by the Magna Carter, and the resulting war that emerged as his various lords rebelled and tried to crown Prince Louise of France as King. Cullen expertly places Estienne in the middle of many of the key events of this period, and through his eyes you get the full picture of the events that led up the war, as well as how it unfolded. I honestly found this to be extremely fascinating, mainly because this war is often overshadowed by other events in English history, and you don’t see it utilised too often in modern fiction. It was pretty damn interesting to see just how close England came to being ruled by a French king, and I honestly didn’t know that the French landed an army in England during this period, nor that Dover was besieged, and it was extremely cool to see it all unfold throughout the plot of Rebellion.
I personally also enjoyed how much Cullen focused on the awesome historical figure of William Marshal in this book, including examining the role that he played in stopping the war and saving England. Marshal, a legendary knight who served several kings, is shown as an older man torn between duty and family, as he tries to save the cruel King John while his son chooses to support the rebelling barons. I have always loved the history surrounding William Marshal and Cullen does a beautiful job bringing this aging example of knightly duty and honour to life and showcasing the complex roles he tried to balance for the sake of England. This portrayal of Willaim Marshal, and indeed all the historical detail in the book, helps to make Rebellion a particularly captivating historical read, and I really appreciated how Cullen worked it all into the story.
Overall Rebellion was an awesome, fascinating and deeply addictive historical fiction novel that I could not get enough of. Richard Cullen did a brilliant job of bringing this historical adventure together, and I had a wonderful time with the cool action and compelling history contained within it. This is a very fun and exciting read that this very easy to get hooked on, and I ended up having an outstanding time with Rebellion. Indeed, I enjoyed it so much that I have already grabbed an early copy of the sequel, Crusade, and I am hoping to read it soon.
