Genre: Historical
Age Range: Adult
Star Rating: 4 stars
Series: second book
*SPOILER ALERT: contains SPOILERS for MASTER OF WAR*
Blurb:
1356. Ten years ago, the greatest army in Christendom was slaughtered at Crécy. Archer Thomas Blackstone stood his ground and left that squalid field a knight. He has since carved out a small fiefdom in northern France, but the wounds of war still bleed and a traitor has given the King of France the means to destroy the English knight and his family.
As the traitor’s net tightens, so the French King’s army draws in. Blackstone will stand and fight. He will defy his friends, his family and his king. He may yet defy death, but he can’t defy his master of war.
Blurb taken from Goodreads. Add to your shelves here.
Blurb:
DEFIANT UNTO DEATH starts almost a decade after MASTER OF WAR, following Thomas Blackstone as he holds his lands and tries to hold off his enemies.
While the previous book had Thomas as someone who found himself caught up in great events, in this book, the violence is centred on him – his enemies are trying to get him and it just so happens that they can use the wider war to do this. The story weaves through the major events of this part of the Hundred Years’ War including the battle of Poitiers, a crucial point much like Crècy from the previous book.
The schemes of the Norman lords return. There is a spy among them, feeding information back and setting them up for failure. I enjoyed seeing this side of the war again. The English invasions of France were just that, and so seeing the French side of matters – those fighting for the king and those for themselves – was far more engaging than if we’d been following (and asked to support) the English conquering another land
I did feel like the violence against Christiana was more as a motive to split the pair up than for any other reason, which I did not like. There were other ways to achieve this (and the book actually includes these) so it didn’t need this, which felt like a crass use of violence against women to further a man’s journey.
Read my reviews of other books by David Gilman:
Master of War (this series):
- MASTER OF WAR (#1)
Sifa Elizabeth Reads 