If you’re a regular reader of historical fiction, you will know that some places and times are better served than others. Ancient Rome has more than its fair share, as does the Napoleonic era, and I enjoy several of the authors who concentrate on both. However, it is sometimes a real bonus to find a book or series set somewhere unusual.
I first came across Peter Darman’s work when I picked up ‘The Parthian’, the first in his series which became The Parthian Chronicles. Set at the same time as a lot of Roman fiction – and connecting with some of the same events – the focus was on a culture that was outside the Roman area of influence, and was never conquered by it. If you haven’t read any of this series, I can warmly recommend them.
The author then turned his attentions to a lesser known theatre; the Northern Crusades. My knowledge of these events was extremely limited; I’d heard of the Teutonic Knights, and knew that there had been crusades into Russia and the Baltic area in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, but that was about it.
The Crusader Chronicles series follows Conrad Wolff, a young lad in a German town, cruelly orphaned, who is offered a chance to join the Sword Brothers (officially, the Livonian Brothers of the Sword). The series follows him to Riga, and through his training and subsequent adventures in what were, in reality, a morally dubious campaign to convert the pagan populations.
This is the fourth book in the series. Conrad has become a powerful figure in Estonia; a powerful knight and, more importantly, a great leader of men. He has built what amounts to his own personal army – the army of the wolf – by working with some of the many local tribes (Christian or not) and helping them to achieve peace.
Whilst this is pragmatic, it doesn’t go down too well with the Church or incoming merchants, or with those crusaders who turn up fresh every year and are expecting an easy campaign against barbarians. As with their Middle Eastern equivalent, the incoming crusaders have taken no account of the hostile conditions, and certainly don’t believe that the local people can teach them anything. They are there to convert, conquer and kill.
There is a wealth of potential stories here for an author. Firstly, there are a huge number of native tribes in the area, all of which are at best, wary of one another. Others have been raiding, killing and enslaving each other for centuries. Add in the Russians, the Danes, the various German states (ridding themselves of bands of ex-soldiers causing mayhem by paying them to go on crusade as mercenaries) and the Church (with it’s hypocrisy and in-fighting). All this means there is a rich palette to choose from.
Peter Darman has built a convincing set of storylines around all this. The main protagonists all have slightly different aims and agendas, and this leads to misunderstanding and surprising alliances. The principle characters are an interesting group, and have developed well over the series, as they have aged and matured. Some appear more or less throughout, others come and go as the plot lines diverge and rejoin. There is a good mix of friendship, rivalry, loyalty and betrayal, much of which is fluid as the story progresses.
For me, his style has improved over the series. In the first couple of books he had a tendency to overdo the long descriptive passages; lists of what was in wagon convoys, or what each knight wore tended to be repeated too often. Now, he does this sparingly but effectively and it adds to the atmosphere.
You do need to concentrate, as all the various tribes, and their principle characters, can get a little confusing at times. But it’s worth it, and adds much to the enjoyment of the book. It makes a refreshing change to read good fiction in a new setting, but if this review has whetted your appetite, I urge you to start the series at the beginning, otherwise you may struggle to make sense of what’s going on.
This is a review of the 2015 Kindle edition.
