Found nothing to hook me into this book
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Maybe it was a problem with the translation, but I'm afraid I read the first chapter or two and put it down, never to find any will to pick it up again. It probably gets better after that, but nothing in those first pages hooked me in the slightest. Shame, because I love historical novels (the reason why I selected this to review), and read a lot of them. I hope that anyone who buys this book has more success than I did.
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Medival Spain
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To me this book was simply amazing. I particularly like historical fiction, and in the Cathedral of the Sea there's not only that but also all the stories around it.
The book tells the life of Arnau and has a bit of everything: abuse of power, the inquisition, envy, romance, injustice and so on. It really addresses lots of different themes of the time plus all the historical background.
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Not quite Cervantes--but a good effort
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I can't remember when I last read a modern novel from Spain--but then that may declare by ignorance, rather than a low level of translated writing from modern Spain (rather than Latin America).
This novel has a lot going for it--dramatic sweep, passion, historical interest, and more. Set in the distant 14th century, probably not too many readers are going to pick up historical errors. And Falcones' love for Barcelona is evident.
However, I think I know enough to detect that many of the characters are a little overdrawn, melodramatic and 'cardboard cut-outs'--I hate the Spanish Inquisition, and all it stood for, but the chief Inquisitor is certainly overblown, and finishes up as a Pantomime 'ugly sister' rather than having much relation to reality.
However, it was overall a page-turner which I enjoyed. I guess I tend to measure most historical novels by the standard of Dorothy Dunnett and her 'Niccolo' series of Renaissance novels. Compared to them, this didn't measure up, but seeing that this is Falcones first effort, he is to be commended for it.
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No masterpiece, but certainly entertaining
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I bought this book at the airport, because I fancied a slightly trashy, but not too dumb novel. And that's what it turned out to be. The setting is wonderful and the author mixes in plenty of historic facts and fantasies so that you don't feel like you've picked up the trashiest book from the pile. The story and the characters are fairly straightforward so that you don't have to think too much. For a long haul flight this is perfect. It's like going to watch a romantic comedy: it's not going to be an award winning epic, but you'll be entertained and you'll leave the cinema all warm and fuzzy inside.
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If you loved Pillars if the Earth then you might like this...
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... but sadly I didn't, and think both books suffer from the same faults the prime one being the author's inability to 'show' anything, relying simply on 'telling' his story. As a result all characters are one-dimensional and cliched, there is no dramatic tension, no conflict, no narrative drive.
Set in the early C14th in Spain, this tells the life story of Arnau, a serf born of the rape of his peasant mother by the feudal lord at her wedding (even this opening scene, far from being emotionally harrowing reads like a Stella Dartois ad gone wrong...)and his consequent life. Masses happens, but many incidents take just a paragraph so while this is full of action, none of it is deep or leads anywhere. Sadly the epithet 'epic' as used on the cover so frequently means shallow and that's certainly the case here.
If you like your reading action-packed a la Ken Follett then you'll probably like this. If, however, even in a page-turner (and no-one wants to read 'heavy' literature all the time) you expect interesting characterisation, dramatic action and a story with which you can emotionally engage (like Bernard Cornwell at his best) then give this a miss.
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