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ellemnope 's review for:
The Eyes of the Queen
by Oliver Clements
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Ah, yes...the old "middle of the road" read. And in this case, it truly was a mixed bag.
The historical premise for this first in a quartet is the story of the original secret agent 007. I found this quite intriguing. It also didn't hurt that this novel is based in Elizabethan England during the squabbles between Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots. Tudor/Plantaganet England is one of my favorite historical fiction genres.
In true English historical fashion, things get pretty turbulent pretty quickly. There are a lot of names thrown out at once and there really isn't a ton of explanation as to rank, position, or any other background. There were some main characters I recognized from my previous historical reads, but there were a fair amount of times that I had to stop and regroup to remember who was who...there just wasn't a lot of character development that gave the majority of the gentlemen in the story individualized personalities. The female characters were much easier to discern.
Speaking of female characters...this is mentioned in quite a number of other reviews, but the take on Mary Queen of Scots was particularly...creative, let's say. It was a bit of a stretch based on the historical takes of Mary's rather straight-laced nature. This was unfortunate since the creative liberties really put a damper on how much of the remainder of the narrative to take as based on fact. This is one my big pet peeves in historical fiction. I allow for some wandering for fictional development, but this particular endeavor went way off the mark. Readers be forewarned, there is some mildly spicy content in these sections.
Beyond my issues with Mary's portion of the storyline, I actually quite enjoyed the POV with John Dee. I found him an interesting and intriguing character...potentially the only one I really cared about during the narrative other than a small supporting character. I am actually highly likely to locate other books based on this character simply due to his interesting combination of skills and historical background.
But...back to this particular read. I did enjoy it and the plot was quite well paced and just convoluted enough to create good tension and a few red herrings. Had the Queen Mary portions been handled more realistically, this would easily have been a 4-star read. It is what it is.
I'm intrigued enough to keep going. This is the first of 4 in the series, so we'll see how the sequel holds up.
The historical premise for this first in a quartet is the story of the original secret agent 007. I found this quite intriguing. It also didn't hurt that this novel is based in Elizabethan England during the squabbles between Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots. Tudor/Plantaganet England is one of my favorite historical fiction genres.
In true English historical fashion, things get pretty turbulent pretty quickly. There are a lot of names thrown out at once and there really isn't a ton of explanation as to rank, position, or any other background. There were some main characters I recognized from my previous historical reads, but there were a fair amount of times that I had to stop and regroup to remember who was who...there just wasn't a lot of character development that gave the majority of the gentlemen in the story individualized personalities. The female characters were much easier to discern.
Speaking of female characters...this is mentioned in quite a number of other reviews, but the take on Mary Queen of Scots was particularly...creative, let's say. It was a bit of a stretch based on the historical takes of Mary's rather straight-laced nature. This was unfortunate since the creative liberties really put a damper on how much of the remainder of the narrative to take as based on fact. This is one my big pet peeves in historical fiction. I allow for some wandering for fictional development, but this particular endeavor went way off the mark. Readers be forewarned, there is some mildly spicy content in these sections.
Beyond my issues with Mary's portion of the storyline, I actually quite enjoyed the POV with John Dee. I found him an interesting and intriguing character...potentially the only one I really cared about during the narrative other than a small supporting character. I am actually highly likely to locate other books based on this character simply due to his interesting combination of skills and historical background.
But...back to this particular read. I did enjoy it and the plot was quite well paced and just convoluted enough to create good tension and a few red herrings. Had the Queen Mary portions been handled more realistically, this would easily have been a 4-star read. It is what it is.
I'm intrigued enough to keep going. This is the first of 4 in the series, so we'll see how the sequel holds up.