Here in Wellington, autumn seems to have slipped in with a will and there’s a distinct absence of shorts and summer dresses. This morning, the temperature didn’t rise above fifteen degrees.
That all seems a little odd given that only a week ago we were just up the coast in the sweltering heat of Ōtaki for the Maoriland Film Festival. That’s the world’s largest indigenous film festival but its still cosily small and sits easy in this Kapiti coast town - the only place in the Wellington region I know of, where it’s common to hear Māori spoken in the supermarket, the cafes, and the local shops.
The town has a very Māori feel to it, partly because the culture is so visible through buildings like the Rangiātea Church, Ngā Purapura, and the Wānanga – a Māori university – but also because there’ s genuinely thriving Māori arts sector there.
K and I have always had a soft spot for Ōtaki. K attended the Wānanga there, often taking our son in with her for week-long, live-in courses while he was still a baby. Meanwhile, I took care of our daughter and wrote two of my books on the endless Ōtaki beach, looking out at the island and trying to make the Irish plotlines work.
At one point we considered moving there, but it was just too hard to sort from a work and school perspective.
Last week, when we returned, we realised it’d been almost thirteen years since we’d last visited Ōtaki, a shocking kind of realisation given our previous connection with the town and its people. At one point, we jokingly talked about moving back there to live but, deep in our hearts, we both knew it’d never work.
K and I are strongly immersed in our individual cultures. That’s why Wellington’s always worked for us. It’s a neutral place where one doesn’t take precedent over the other. She can do her cultural work, I can do mine, and the neutral Wellingtonians politely leave us be.
Whereas our kids can flip from one to the other as the need arises, K and I are far too deeply embedded, wedded to our seperate cultures in a long-term relationship that’s just as deep as the one we share.
For that reason, there’s a dance you do in a bicultural household. If you want your relationship and soul to function, there’s a cultural polygamy you’ll need to balance.
Particularly here, on the far side of the planet from home.
In Production
The last two chapters of FIONN: The Betrayal are now about 90% complete and I’m hoping to have the drafts finalised by the end of next week. At that stage, I’ll put them aside for another two to three weeks so that I can go back to them with a clear head when I start the re-reading process for the entire book (to smoothen out any logic or plot gaps and make sure the story is still moving in the direction I want it to).
As usual, I’ll be interested to see people’s reaction to this book. I think I’ve previously mentioned that the ‘midpoint’/ ‘set-up’ nature of this work means that, by necessity, its more ‘talky’ than my other works (although that said, I’ve just finished writing two different combat scenes). Within all the various character discussions and dialogue, however, lie the basis for the next and, hopefully, last book in the series. Amongst all that, you’ll also find subplot overlaps with the Liath Luachra Series (one character from that series turns up in the last chapter - any guesses which one?). Obviously, keeping all these different balls in the air takes a bit of work.
Last month, I mentioned how I thought I’d need another two books to complete this series but after some restructuring in the current work, I’m now far more confident that I can finish it with a single volume (although it may be a longer one than usual). Part of the reason for this, is that I have to draw a line in the sand somewhere with respect to how much of the Fenian narratives the series will incorporate. To be honest, with the Fenian narratives, the corpus is such that I could essentially continue writing for decades (and produce numerous volumes) without ever actually finishing. What I currently have in mind feels like the right approach but I’ll explain all that in the final volume.
When is it out?
If all goes to plan - never a certainty - I’ll email a digital copy of the final draft of the book out to ‘paid’ supporters at the end of April (or the first/second week of May - more likely). I’ve taken on a substantial freelance job for the next 2- 3 months which is going to soak up a lot of my brain capacity, so the next edition of Vóg (April) should include the release date, the new title and the new cover.
What’s next?
Once this book is complete, I’ll be working on FIONN: The Betrayal (which is now going to be the title for the final book). Given the many different plot points and the many different characters, this is actually going to be a complex one to write so I’ll be taking my time with it. As the climax to the series, I want it to be a good one.
Depending on free time in April/May, I’ll also be doing some audio work. ‘Paid’ subscribers will get a taster of what I’m proposing in next month’s edition of Vóg.
Review of ‘Fire in the East’
I generally tend to avoid Roman-related action novels, not because I particularly dislike the genre but because after all the movies and the books, it feels like its up there with ‘western’s in tends of overdone cliche. Generally, unless it has the hook of a uniquely interesting character or an ingenious plot point, I’ll give it a pass.
That said, I was recently gifted a copy of ‘Fire in the East’ by Dr Harry Sidebottom, which is the first in a series known as ‘The Warrior of Rome Series’. There wasn’t any particular hook on the back cover blurb to pull me in but, it was a gift so I read it.
Like me, you might wonder why an author of fiction would put ‘Dr’ in front of his name (I’m often tempted to use the tile ‘Sir’ or ‘An t-Uasal O’Súilleabháin’ but generally refrain from doing so). In this case, although its obvious the addition of ‘Dr’ was a marketing gimmick to add a degree of credibility or authority , in this case it might be more justifiable as the ‘Dr’ relates to Sidebottom’s DPhil from the University of Oxford and the fact that he lectures in the Classics and Ancient History. This is relevant to his fiction in that his stories contain a lot of little-known historical detail that adds greatly to the narrative immersion.
And, on a personal level, I just find some of the historical detail very interesting.
To date, Sidebottom’s works consist predominantly of two series, the ‘Warrior of Rome Series’, and ‘Throne of the Caesars Series’. He also has a number of unrelated fiction novels and some non-fiction of course.
So are they any good? Well, I’ve only read two of his books. ‘Fire in the East’ - the first in the Warrior of Rome series and ‘The Wolves of the North’ which is about the fifth in that same series (I wasn’t able to get my hands on any of the earlier books at the time)
Here are my thoughts:
What’s it about
The back cover blurb:
A.D. 255: The Roman Imperium is stretched to the breaking point, its authority and might challenged throughout the territories and along every border. One man is sent to marshal the defenses of a lonely city and to shore up the crumbling walls of a once indomitable symbol of Roman power, a man whose very name means war, a man called Ballista. So unfolds an epic drama―a story of empire, heroes, treachery, courage, and most of all, of brutal, bloody warfare.
My version of the Blurb
In A.D. 255, Marcus Clodius Ballista, a Germanic diplomatic hostage, who has been granted Roman Citizenship and risen through the ranks of the Roman army, is appointed as the military commander of the Roman Empire's most eastern territories. Dispatched to the town of Arete (on the banks of the Euphrates) he is ordered to defend it from an expected invasion by the Sassanid Persians.
While Ballista holds a lofty title, there’s not much else that goes with it however. He has no political leverage, limited resources, no military support, yet he’s still expected to successfully defend the city with nothing more than his personal troops, the town’s garrison and whatever conscripts and levies he can obtain from the local potentates.
Following a long trip to from Brundisium to Antioch, he crosses the arid lands to arrive in Arete, only to face subordinate officers and city councillors who consider him a barbarian, competing political factions, and a hidden saboteur attempting to undermine the town's defences.
And all of this before the arrival of a Persian army who outnumber his forces twenty to one.
The Good
‘Fire in the East’ is an excellent siege novel. Although the pacing of the narrative at the start of the book feels laboured (the level of detail relating Ballista’s journey from Brundisium to Antioch in particular feels unnecessary), once the action transfers to Arete, things pick up immensely. When the enormous Persian army (50,000 men) and their siege equipment show up and the siege begins in earnest, Ballista and his small band of legionnaires pull out every possible trick and artifice to hold off the determined attackers over the subsequent seven months – and the rest of the book – until a rescue force can arrive. In terms of heroics and desperate last stands, you certainly get your money’s worth.
The action is fast and furious with numerous assaults on the town leading to ferocious battles on the walls, skirmishes in underground tunnels, some quite fascinating artillery duels with ballista and catapults, and a range of other combative interaction. The claustrophobic element of a siege (and the growing tension of the town’s population) is also ratcheted up through non combative elements that include a treacherous saboteur, a group of spies monitoring Ballista for the Emperor, and political manoeuvrings between the different town councillors.
The protagonist, Ballista, is an interesting enough character. Moody and intellectual, he’s a deep thinker with moods and observations that often go over the heads of his familia (his entourage). As the object of open racism from his officers and arrogant politicians, you automatically empathise with him, but he also has an interesting supernatural link in that he’s haunted by a repeating nightmare linked to events from his early career. [Note: This isn’t fully explained in the book but presumably is in the sequel, King of Kings.]
The historical setting is also an interesting one. Most Roman fiction tends to focus on the Empire at its height whereas this story takes place during a period when it was far weaker, vulnerable to military threats from the Goths and Franks on one border awhile also exposed to the Sassanids in the East. This background context changes much of what you’d expect from a Roman novel and allows you to come at the story from a different, and more interesting angle. It also includes some excellent historical notes, a glossary and maps.
The Bad
As mentioned above, although the historical detail might be fascinating and immersive for those with an interest in history, for someone who just wants an entertaining historical adventure, some of the detail in ‘Fire in the East’ may be intrusive and serve to pull you out of the story. I suspect that some people will very much enjoy Sidebottom’s works but others will find him incredibly frustrating.
In terms of the actual story side of things, although I really enjoyed the strategic and technical military side of things, I found the author’s use of POV quite erratic at times with points of view abruptly changing mid-scene between one character and the other leading to some confusion as to what was going on, to who, and how. To be fair though, although it was noticeable when it happened, this wasn’t a particularly common occurrence.
I also have to confess that I found the characters a bit cliched. Ballista is interesting enough but he’s a bit straight and lacking in the depth I would have thought necessary to hold interest over an entire series. His entourage, meanwhile, feel a bit overly familiar (if not racially stereotypical). These include Calgacus (his dour, grumbling [Scottish] servant), Maximus, (his lewd, boorish, often drunk [Irish] bodyguard), Demetrius (his hero-worshipping [?] military secretary) and Mamurra, a siege engineer.
To be honest, I found Maximus, the most interesting character. Despite not being of great intellect (that favourite old Irish stereotype), he did have a simplistically brutal kind of ‘fuck you’ flair which appealed to me. I’m not sure what that says about me, though.
Maybe I’m over sensitive.
Or just not of great intellect.
It’s also worth noting that Sidebottom appears to write for a particular target market and, from what I’ve read, that’s very much directed towards male readers who like adventure/military fiction. In Fire in the East, for example, I think there was a single female character who had more than a single piece of dialogue (and I don’t actually remember any female characters from The Wolves of the North). You can’t write for every single person in the market so, as an author, I really don’t see this as a bad thing as long as you’re aware of the target market going in. Again, to be fair, it’s pretty well identified in the book cover and blurb.
Conclusion
In general, apart from one or two trifling details, I really enjoyed this book and I’d certainly recommend it to male historical aficionados who enjoy a well written and meaty adventure novel.
The rest of you might struggle, though.
The Hungry Grass
About eigth years ago, I wrote an artilce on ‘Hungry Grass’, a kind of fantasy ‘Oirish belief’ that’s regularly foisted on us from uninformed hibernophiles overseas, and which regularly does the rounds on ‘Celternet’ social media.
I originally wrote this as a piss-take but much of it was taken as fact by the particular groups in question (they read the headline but not the text).
Curious to see if things had chnaged, I sent it out to ‘social medialand’ again this morning to see how it was received and, judging from the comments, much of the Celternet remain convinced the ‘Hungry Grass’ is absolutely authentic (up there with ‘Darby O’Gill and the Little People’ or Christopher Walken’s Irish accent in Wild Mountain Thyme)
This was my favourite comment from this morning.
You can find the original article here: The Danger of the Hungry Grass!
That’s me for March 2024. Chapter 4 of FIONN 5 starts in the paid section below and I’ll be back next month with updates on that and BEARA.
I have to say, the rest of the year’s already looking scarily busy.
Meanwhile, until end of April …
Slán go fóill!!
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