Dark Fire by C.J. Sansom

Genre: Historical Mystery

The setting is London in the summer of 1540.  King Henry VIII is on the throne. He is displeased with his current wife, Anne of Cleves.  And he is displeased with with his adviser, Thomas Cromwell, who had encouraged the marriage.

Cromwell has learned that the secret for the ancient weapon, Greek fire, has been rediscovered.  To curry favor with the king, he has arranged a demonstration of the weapon's fearsome power.  Then, when the formula goes missing, Cromwell presses Matthew Shardlake into service.

Shardlake is a self described jobbing lawyer.  He and Cromwell have had dealings in the past.  To force Shardlake into helping him, Cromwell uses his political influence to aid Matthew with another case.

In that case, a young girl is accused of murdering her cousin.  She refuses to enter a plea.  The rule of law at the time demands that those who do not enter a plea must be pressed by heavy weights until they make a plea, or die.  The girl is determined to die rather than plead.  Cromwell's influence postpones the judgement of the court and forces Shardlake to investigate the mystery of the missing formula. 

Shardlake is also saddled with a young man in Cromwell's service, Jack Barak.

As Shardlake and Barak investigate, we get a picture of London in 1540: crowded, stinking, politically corrupt, and dangerous.  It is the time of the religious reformation.  Professing the wrong political beliefs or religious beliefs could cost a person his head.  The same is true of supporting the wrong adviser to the king.

I enjoyed this novel.  Matthew Shardlake is a likeable character.   He and Jack make an interesting investigative team.  I like novels like this that paint an accurate picture of what live was like in the past.

Dark Fire is the second novel in Sansom's Shardlake series.



The first novel of the series is Dissolution.

The First Heroes edited by Harry Turtledove and Noreen Doyle

Genre: Historical Fantasy Fiction, Alternate History

This book is an anthology of original short stories set in the Bronze Age. The Bronze Age is an important era in human development.  It signals an important advance in technology.  Also, since bronze was an expensive metal to create and use, it had a significant effect in the cultures of ancient peoples.

Turtledove and Doyle have assembled an interesting group of fantasy stories. There are tales of the Bronze Age set in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, China, England, Central Europe and South America.  Each tale relates a unique perspective of the life and times of characters in the Bronze age.  The elements of fantasy vary widely from story to story.

Harry Turtledove is a master of alternate history novels.  He contributes a story of a world in which mythical creatures co-exist with humans.  S. M. Stirling is another master of the genre.  He adds a story set in his Nantucket universe.

The book was dedicated to Poul Anderson, who died in 2001.  He is the author of the final tale of the book.  His story comes at the end of the Bronze age when warriors fought against iron wielding foes.

When I am looking for something new to read, I find that anthologies are an excellent means to explore new authors.  This anthology would help the reader explore some of the authors in the Fantasy and Alternate History genres.