Showing posts with label William Dietrich. Show all posts
Showing posts with label William Dietrich. Show all posts

Sunday, June 8, 2014

Book Review: THE THREE EMPERORS

THE THREE EMPERORS
HARPERCOLLINS – @HarperCollins

AUTHOR: William Dietrich
ISBN: 978-0-06-219410-7; hardcover (May 6, 2014)
384pp, B&W, $25.99 U.S.

The Three Emperors is a 2014 adventure novel from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist turned novelist William Dietrich.  [1990: Ross Anderson, Bill Dietrich, Mary Ann Gwinn and Eric Nalder, The Seattle Times, “for coverage of the Exxon Valdez oil spill and its aftermath.”]  The Three Emperors is “An Ethan Gage Adventure” and is the seventh book in a series that stars spy, adventurer, and treasure hunter, Ethan Gage.  Like 2013’s The Barbed Crown, The Three Emperors is set during the Napoleonic wars.

The Three Emperors opens in early November of 1805 just a few weeks after the Battle of Trafalgar, the October 1805 battle in which the British Royal Navy fought the combined fleet of the navies of France and Spain.  Adventurer Ethan Gage was an unwilling participant in the battle, but his quick wits helped him survive and escape.  Now, Gage has made his way to Venice, Italy where he hopes to use his gambling skills to earn the money he needs for the journey to find his family.

Before Trafalgar, Gage was separated from his wife, the “Egyptian priestess” Astiza, and his son, Horus (Harry, who is not quite five-years-old).  They are currently imprisoned by a ruthless mystic and an evil dwarf alchemist, who are forcing Astiza to try to change base metal into gold.  However, their ultimate prize is the automaton known as the Brazen Head.  Created by Albertus Magnus, spirited away by Christian Rosenkreutz, and reportedly destroyed by Thomas Aquinas, the Brazen Head is the mysterious medieval device rumored to foretell the future.

On his way to find his family and unaware of the depth of their plight, Gage finds himself once again accosted by Napoleon Bonaparte (Emperor Napoleon 1).  Before he knows it, Gage is a soldier in the Battle of Austerlitz, also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors.  [The three emperors were Bonaparte, commander of the French army; Tsar Alexander 1, commander of the Russo-Austrian army; and Holy Roman Emperor Francis II].  There, Gage meets new and unlikely allies, Gideon Dray, a Jewish Napoleonic soldier, and his sutler father, Aaron Dray.

Possessing what is reputed to be a fragment of Durendal, the legendary sword of Roland, Gage stays just a little of ahead of his pursuers and plots to survive war.  Gage’s biggest test comes when he travels through the darkest and most superstitious realms of 18th century Eastern Europe, to rescue his family and to locate the Brazen Head.

In The Barbed Crown, author William Dietrich depicted Ethan Gage using both his skill sets as a spy and a treasure hunter to augment his skills as a diplomat.  At The Barbed Crown’s center was the story of the heist meant to upset Napoleon’s coronation; Dietrich placed this story in the context of the hunt for mystical objects, diplomacy, and war.

The Three Emperors is darker, mainly because Gage’s life seems in real peril.  Astiza and Harry also seem to be dangling over a precipice that leads to awful deaths.  At the same time, The Three Emperors has a quality that recalls the Indiana Jones movies, as Gage and Astiza and Harry – separately and together – race from one dangerous, exotic, and mysterious locale to another in search of the Brazen Head.

The chase and locales are what make The Three Emperors such an engaging read.  Dietrich colorful and vivid prose transports the readers, placing them side-by-side with Gage or Astiza and Harry.  Sometimes, I felt as if my neck were also on the line, as if I were in danger of becoming the main course for a hungry dwarf.  I probably prefer The Barbed Crown’s lighter moments, but I thoroughly enjoyed the perilous journey William Dietrich offers in The Three Emperors.

B+

www.williamdietrich.com

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux

The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for syndication rights and fees.



Saturday, May 25, 2013

Book Review: THE BARBED CROWN

THE BARBED CROWN
HARPERCOLLINS – @HarperCollins

AUTHOR: William Dietrich
ISBN: 978-0-06-219407-7; hardcover (May 7, 2013)
368pp, B&W, $26.99 U.S.

William Dietrich is a novelist and non-fiction author. Before he was a novelist, Dietrich was a journalist. In 1990, along with reporters Ross Anderson, Mary Ann Gwinn, and Eric Nalder, Dietrich won the “Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting” at The Seattle Times “for coverage of the Exxon Valdez oil spill and its aftermath.” As an author, Dietrich is known for a series of novels, “the Ethan Gage Adventures,” which began with Napoleon's Pyramids (2007).

Dietrich’s latest is The Barbed Crown, a recently released adventure novel. The Barbed Crown is “An Ethan Gage Adventure,” the sixth novel in the series that stars spy, adventurer, and treasure hunter, Ethan Gage, and is set during the Napoleonic wars.

Gage had fought beside Napoleon Bonaparte in Egypt and was Bonaparte’s agent in Italy. Now, Gage blames the ruler of France for the death of his wife, Astiza. Leaving his only son, four-year-old Horus (Harry), in England, Gage heads to France to join a royalist conspiracy trying to unseat Napoleon and restore the Bourbon monarchy to power.

Gage’s adventure includes a motley cast of characters. There is Comtesse Catherine Marceau, a royalist sympathizer, and the smuggler Tom Johnstone, who helps Gage and Marceau get to France. He meets inventors and technology pioneers, Robert Fulton and Sir William Congreave. And, of course, there is Napoleon Bonaparte himself. As Great Britain and France prepare for war, Gage finds himself caught between two empires, both determined to use him as a pawn, but he really just wants to save his life and his family.

In the “Historical Notes” at the back of The Barbed Crown, William Dietrich writes that “History is life: complex, confusing, and inclusive,” but he doesn’t let that stop him from turning history into a great romantic adventure in the vein of 19th century novels. In the same paragraph, Dietrich also writes of history, “Problems drag, personalities linger, careers meander, and love sometimes goes unconsummated.” Of course, a skilled writer can turn that into juicy storytelling, which Dietrich does.

Ethan Gage is an attractive character, not because he is so smart and resourceful; so many characters in fiction are too smart, perfect, and live mostly trouble-free lives. Gage is never trouble-free. If the world is a stormy sea, Gage’s life is small boat tossed about by relentless waves and choppy waters, and that’s a good thing. The sense of peril and danger and the significance of the conflict are heightened, so we come to believe of Gage that “this dude ain’t gonna make it!” His troubles made me hold onto the likeable Gage even harder.

The Barbed Crown deserves to be described as “a good read,” because it is a darn good read. It is filled with colorful characters, is set in a Paris that is both glittery and squalid, and there is always a backroom, corner, or hideaway where people are hatching conspiracies. The epic confrontation on the high seas that dominates the last act is like a second novel added onto the adventures in Paris. With its surprising ending, The Barbed Crown will have you anticipating the seventh entry in the Ethan Gage series.

B+

www.williamdietrich.com

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux