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Robert Lyndon

Imperial Fire Hardcover – 14 January 2014

by Robert Lyndon (Author)

63 ratings

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In the world after 1066, vast empires clamour for dominance.

From the Normans in the north to the Byzantines in the south, battles rage across Europe and around its fringes. But in the east, an empire still mightier stirs, wielding a weapon to rule the world: gunpowder.

Seeking the destructive might of this 'fire drug', the mercenary Vallon - a man made as of grit and earth as much of flesh and blood - is sent by the defeated Byzantine emperor on a secret and near-impossible quest to the far off land of Song Dynasty China. Alongside a squadron of highly trained soldiers, Vallon is accompanied by the learned physician Hero, hermit-like tracker Wayland and a young, ego-driven upstart named Lucas. All have their own reasons for going, all have secrets.

It's a quest that will lead them across treacherous seas and arid desserts and into the uncharted land of mountains and plains beyond the Silk Road. Many will die... but the rewards are unbelievable.

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Product details

Publisher : Sphere; 1st edition (14 January 2014)
Language : English
Hardcover : 528 pages
ISBN-10 : 1847444997
ISBN-13 : 978-1847444998
Dimensions : 23.8 x 4.7 x 16.9 cm

Customer Reviews:
63 ratings

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Review

What makes this novel exceptional is an in-depth characterisation seldom found in the adventure genre. (Historical Novel Society)

An incredible journey (For Winter Nights (blog))

Imperial Fire is a true tour-de-force... a page-turning odyssey packed with the perfect blend of adventure, conspiracy, pulsating action, a sprinkling of romance, and history in all its raw, brutal, grim and glorious reality. (Blackpool Gazette)

Book Description

Imperial Fire is the latest epic masterpiece from the highly acclaimed author of Hawk Quest.

5 star		56%
4 star		21%
3 star		11%
2 star		6%
1 star		5%

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Sean the Bookonaut

A good solid historical with some minor flaws

Reviewed in Australia on 25 January 2014

Lyndon's biography lists him as a falconer, climber and traveller in remote places, so it's not surprising that those experiences translated into fiction, give the book an air of authority, a certain verisimilitude. Imperial Fire follows the continuing story of the characters that surfaced in Hawk Quest, though it's not necessary to have read it to enjoy Imperial Fire, the novel stands very well on its own.

Vallon, commander of a group of Mercenaries called the Outlanders, is given command of the military component of a Byzantine delegation to the Chinese Empire ruled by the Song Dynasty. It's a bit of a boys own adventure, featuring perilous environments, treacherous friends and polite enemies. If you like history and ancient military history, Lyndon brings that history to life.

The book's greatest strength was the journey, the description of the places that the Outlanders pass through and the description of the chracters experiences. The time period and that area of ancient history is fairly untouched in my own study and so I find what the story is about refreshing and interesting from a purely historical point of view. That interest combined with competent action scenes keeps the book flowing. The characterisation, and some of the interpersonal interaction felt a bit "off" at times...perhaps stilted is a better word for it. It was enough to drop me out of my enjoyment at points. This could be down simply to style or that Lyndon's strength is in his creation of the environment.

There was also a tangential adventure taken by a secondary character (Waylander for those who have read book one) that I think broke the impetus of the main plot. I would argue that the subplot, while interesting, should have had its own novel or have been better woven into a following tome. I say this because it takes up valuable space in the last bit of the novel and at 512 pages a felt the point of novel, the point of the story was truncated. While I enjoyed the fairly long read I felt let down at the point at which the story finished. I'd have still read a follow up novel without a soft cliffhanger that we were handed.

Fans of Hawk Quest will no doubt enjoy returning to old characters, for those with a historical fiction bent, Imperial Fire covers a time and place that isn't well ploughed by popular culture. If your a fan of epic fantasy its not quite as dark as Joe Abercrombie or Rowena Cory Daniells but it has its moments of gritty realism underpinned by a basis in real world history.

This book was provided by the publisher.

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JPS

Another Quest in the other direction, but a slow one...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 April 2014

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This is volume 2 of the adventures of Vallon, the Frankish mercenary captain from Aquitaine, Hero the doctor and Wayland, the Saxon huntsman. It starts in 1081, some 8-9 years after Hawk Quest, the first volume of the series. At the outset, it is fair to mention that this volume can be read separately from the first instalment although, and almost as usual with series, it might to preferable to read to read Hawk Quest first.

If you do this, however, you might be a bit disappointed, or at least I was since I preferred the first volume to this one. “Imperial Fire” is not a “bad” book, although it took me over a week to finish it which is never a very good sign for me. This is because I found the book to be somewhat uneven, and perhaps even a bit of a mixed bag.

The first part, which takes place in Byzantium during the first very troubled months of the reign of Emperor Alexis I Comnene, is one of the best ones. The first twenty pages or so, which see Vallon becoming a hero during the disastrous Byzantine defeat at Dyrrachium against the Normans, is certainly gripping, and a largely successful attempt from the author to drag and immerse the reader into the action.

Except that even there, there are some problems and some elements which are rather unrealistic. One of these is Vallon’s attendance at the Emperor’s war council where, of course, he comes up with wise advice which will not be followed. To have a mere mercenary squadron leader, and a Frank to boot (where the enemy are the Italo-Normans of Robert Guiscard and Bohemond which included a number of Frankish knights as well as Lombards) attending such a meeting stretches credulity to the limit. In addition, the events at the war council, at least as reported by Anna Comnena (the daughter of the Emperor Alexis) in her Alexiad did not quite happen as described by the author. While the battle itself is rather well told, having Bohemond offering Vallon a job just in the middle of the fighting is another rather unrealistic feature. Finally, the unit commanded by Vallon is presented as light cavalry but it includes a mixture of Franks, Slavs, Patzinaks and Turks, something that is rather odd since the mercenary units serving the Byzantine tended to be recruited and formed on ethnic lines. These (and a few other similar details), however, are merely quibbles that will only (slightly) bother readers that like their historical fiction as accurate as possible.

Unfortunately, there are other features in this book which I found more problematic. The whole new Quest with which Vallon, a detachment of his men and his chosen companions (or, more accurately, the companions that are chosen for him) is also difficult to believe. With the Empire facing defeat and invasion by the Normans in the Balkans, after having lost most of Asia Minor (modern Turkey, more or less), and the Emperor and his clan quite literally fighting for survival, the reader is asked to believe that the Emperor would deprive himself of some of his already insufficient troops on what another reviewer has quite rightly termed a “suicide mission”. The biggest problem here is not so much the mission itself – to go right to China and bring back a powder called “the fire drug” (gun powder) and possibly swap it against a sample of Greek Fire, although this is also quite implausible. This is because it is hard to believe that the Byzantines, for whom the recipe of Greek Fire was such a State Secret, would casually give some away to an embassy that is to travel to the confines of the known world. Added to this, the travel to and back from China is to take about a couple of years, at least, with this taking place when the Empire is on the brink of collapse.

Having mentioned the problems I had with the plot, there were also some good and even brilliant pieces, such as those taking places in China. Also rather good was the crossing of the Caucasus, and the various dangers that the embassy was exposed to. I was however somewhat disappointed with the depiction of the Central Asian cities on the Great Silk Road, which I found somewhat bland. Maybe I was expecting too much to begin with.

I also had a bit of a problem with some of the characters, and some of the plot features that the author saw fit to introduce. The romance with the gypsy girl, if it can be called that, is another somewhat implausible feature. Since this happened when the story happens to slow down and become almost boring, I could not help wondering if this was some kind of ploy that the author had introduced to try to keep the reader interested. I also had a similar thought as one of the main characters (and a few others) wonders of with this gypsy girl on his own little quest after the pseudo-source of Christianity. Neither of these features really worked for me and I could not help thinking that the book would have been crisper and the action less slow if these bits (which add up to close to a hundred pages) had been shaved off.

Another character which I found a bit problematic was Lucas and his “big” secret that he does not dare to share with Vallon. As soon as the reader understand what this secret is (and it is not very hard to guess well before being told!), you know that there will be an “explanation” between the two. However, it drags on, and on, and on for so long that when it finally happened, I perceived it as a non-event. A third plot feature that did not work very well for me was the rivalry with the Viking band which gangs up with the embassy. Here again, the reader can easily guess that this will end up badly but the reckoning was delayed for so long that it lost most of its interest and appeal when it finally (at last!) happened.

I have two final notes of disappointment. As mentioned by other reviewers, the book finishes in a rather abrupt way. While it is clear that this is a trilogy, I am always a bit annoyed when an author cannot be bothered to finish his episode with a plausible end and leaves everything “just hanging.” The note of disappointment is that I would have liked to have more about hawk training, as in the first volume, and since this is the author’s speciality and was one of the main originalities of the first book. There is only a little bit of it and, for obvious reasons if you read the book, there might not be any on the third volume.

As a result, this one did not work as well as Hawk Quest had for me. Because it is still mostly good, I believe it is worth a good three stars, but not more than that.

4 people found this helpful

Jeff

Totally absorbing epic

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 March 2014

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Very similar in its way to Lyndon's previous novel 'Falcon Quest' and no worse for that, this is another fascinating tale of a long journey in difficult terrain, this time across central Asia in 1089. If you haven't read the first book it might be an idea to do so as some of the characters roll into this one, but it isn't strictly necessary. One adventure follows another and you keep looking forward to the next with a sort of 'Boys Own' excitement [if you're of a certain age!]. Well written, exciting, with characters you can engage with. I was a bit indifferent to Vallon, the supposed main character, my favourite by far being Wayland, the charismatic drifter [and his dog!].
I was sorry when it came to the end. Talking of which [the ending] - I can't say I was totally happy. NO SPOILERS!! Lyndon disposes of a number of characters for some reason - one I can think of in a highly acceptable [if regrettable] manner but one I saw no reason for whatsoever and the one in the last page totally unnecessary. It's fairly obvious, I think, where the next book is likely to be set and there are sufficient indicators, I think, that some characters may return but how and in what context, I shall have to wait and see. I look forward to it very much. Highly recommended!!

bookworm26

Just as good as Hawkquest!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 April 2014

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Loved Hawkquest & am finding this sequel just as entertaining. 1am, & I'm still reading it; wake at 6 or 7am & have to read more! Will hate to finish it! Just love the combination of historical research & rich imagination; takes me beyond this world & into realms unknown!
No need to detail storyline/ plot...all here from other subscribers; just hoping to give an impression of how I enjoyed the book. Many thanks Robert Lyndon!

mikeyb

Hawk Quest 2

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 February 2014

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The cast of Hawk Quest find themselves on a perilous journey in search of the Chinese invention, gunpowder. For those not familiar with Hawk Quest, I recommend starting with this, before going to Imperial Fire. Both are superb books, filled with adventure and fraught with the perils of journeys across many countries a thousand years ago. Excellent

Neil Forde

This can best be described as a tour of the world in ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 31 August 2015

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This can best be described as a tour of the world in the 13th century. Very enjoyable and probable not fully historically accurate but nothing glaringly obvious within my limited knowledge.Room left for a sequel. The Byzantine embassy arrives in China , the next book will be getting home again. I am looking for ward to it.

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