The second book read for my 2015 Take Control Of Your TBR Pile challenge
LAMENTATION (Matthew Shardlake series #6) by C.J. SANSOM.
SOURCE: A present, thank you Mr T.
INNER FRONT COVER BLURB: Summer, 1546.
King Henry is slowly, painfully dying. His Protestant and Catholic councillors are engaged in a final and decisive power struggle; whoever wins will control the government of Henry's successor, eight-year-old Prince Edward. As heretics are hunted across London , and the radical Protestant Anne Askew is burned at the stake, the Catholic party focus on their attack of Henry's sixth wife, Matthew Shardlake's old mentor, Queen Catherine Parr. Read More
FIRST SENTENCE {Chapter One}: I did not want to attend the burning.
MEMORABLE MOMENT {Page 250: There was a sudden loud roar from the Tower menagerie, probably a lion. Lord Parr smiled. 'I hear they have a new creature there from Africa, an animal something like a horse but with an absurdly long and thin neck. I may ask Sir Edmund to let me see it.'
MY THOUGHTS: Most definitely a series to be read from the beginning and in order in order to get the best out of it.
As we've come to expect from C.J.Sansom's novels Lamentation for the main part was what my granddad would describe as a rollicking good read.
Wonderfully descriptive, full of political intrigue, religious persecution, skulduggery, a startling and totally unforeseen plot development for one of my favourite characters AND, at the very heart of the story, banned books. Why then was I a tad disappointed?
Though it pains me to say it I was concerned that the main body of the story (as always there is a combination of a main plot and a legal case) was becoming too convoluted. That the author felt the need to reiterate certain points conscious that he might be in danger of loosing his readers. Then there was the repetitive wondering over certain characters - I actually lost count of the number of times the truth about a certain character was pondered upon.
Still, essentially worth every one of its five stars. Whilst it has been rumoured that with the death of Henry VIII this is to be the last of the Shardlake books I certainly feel that there is much scope for this series.
14 comments:
I laughed about the pondering and reiterations those can make me batty. I am glad it was a worthy read. Congrats for knocking another one off your tbr pile
Thanks to you, I am SUCH a Shardlake fan and can hardly wait to read this one! It sounds like the positives far outweigh the negatives, so it certainly won't linger in my TBR any length of time once I get it.
Considering I do have plenty to read in the meantime, I'm trying to make myself wait for the softcover US release.
Great to hear your thoughts on it and yes, it should continue even without Henry VIII.
I am eager to read this series at some point. I love the historical aspect combined with the mystery genre. I am glad you liked this one, Tracy, despite the faults.
Tracy, I'm glad you enjoyed this, despite finding it a bit repetitive. Terrific review, as always! I will keep this historical fiction series in mind.
Sounds like a very cerebral read. My TBR pile is mostly made up of children's books and the occasional Harlan Coben-type read!
That's great you liked this one for the most part, and thanks for the warning about reading the entire series front to back. I'm not sure this is the right fit for me, but my sister might enjoy it.
Oh yes. Too much ruminating on a particular topic or person can definitely put a kink in an otherwise likable tale. Thanks for the share!
Hi Tracy,
As there are presently six chunkster books in the series, I can't see me rushing out to buy it any time soon, as good as it sounds!
Fantastic Fiction is generally pretty good at giving advance notice of forthcoming releases by individual authors and there is definitely no sign of another book in the pipeline for C.J. Sansom, so I think you might be waiting for quite some time if you are expecting closure on the series!
I am pleased that you enjoyed this one enough to award it the full 5 stars and I only hope that you have another book handy which might continue those positive vibes :)
Thanks for sharing,
Yvonne
Oh it sounds really great! I'll have to check out the first book if it's not possible to start with this one. thank you
This was such an interesting period and place. The book sounds very good.
Even as someone who is very interested in history I think that I might appreciate an author going out of their way to ensure that things were clear.
This sounds like a really good series.
Sounds good and yet it sounds like it needs a bit of editing to perhaps get rid of that slight disappointment. Still, sounds like something I would try! Brilly review.
I haven't read any of the books in this series, but I am so glad to hear that you did enjoy it, even if there was some slight disappointment. I have always been interested in this time period- so I am curious for sure. :)
I have had the first book in this series for ages, I will aim to get to it in the next few months, it's sounds a really good series and I've enjoyed Sansom's stand alone novels.
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