Wessex Culture

Wessex Culture

Thursday 20 September 2012

I'm Back...and review of FIRES IN THE MIST BY BARBARA DOLAN

I have kind of left this blog in limbo, while working on my own novel, STONE LORD, and maintining regular posting on the blog for it (book due out soon, hint, hint!)
Anyway, I am going to continue with Pre-hysterics but not with really in depth reviews of books, just a general synopsis and brief opinion of how  each prehistoric novel seemed to me.

FIRES IN THE MIST BY BARBARA DOLAN
Prehistoric novel supposed  to take place in Ireland around 2000 BC.I  was quite excited at the thought of this, as there is only one other neolithic/bronze age Irish novel out there, BENDING THE BOYNE, which I reviewed earlier.
  I was a bit disappointed. Basically, it was just a retelling of  some of the stories in the Book of Invasions, with characters a little more fleshed out. There were a few mention of stones and other monuments,  one short ritual and a human sacrifice to Crom Cruac, but the rest seems pretty standard and kind of anachronistic--people fighting with full length swords, playing  bodhrans and so on.
  There's little that would differentiate it between other periods such as the iron age, so falls into what I've described as 'generic prehistoric.'
   I actually plan to do something with the book of Invasions myself at some point--something similar, making the Invasions real instead of mythical.  However, I  hope I can get bring out the sense of it being in the real neolithic/bronze age rather than a mythical times of Kings and Queens in fancy robes and crowns.

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