Rating: 
Summary: Addictive!
Review: I loved this book, and couldn't put it down. It is a wonderful love story blended superby with the history of twelveth century Wales.
I think this is one book I'll pick up over the years and read again and again. As sorry as I was to reach the end of the book, I am anxiously awaiting the second book in the trilogy, Falls the Shadow.
Thank Ms. Penman for many hours of enjoyment.
Rating:
Summary: My Favorite Penman novel.
Review: I loved every word of this book. I loved the characters, and I loved the story. I simply could not get enough. I hated for it to end. Penman has an incredible gift and truly takes the reader on fabulous ride through fascinating bits of little known history. Her intimate part of the characters feelings and emotions were interesting and compassionate. I, again loved every word of it!
Rating:
Summary: A TRIUMPHANT MASTERPIECE!
Review: My dog's veternarian turned me on to Ms. Penman when she found out I love Dorothy Dunnett. This book is full of layers and textures given to the reader in clear, broad strokes and clean lines. At the very center is one of the most beautiful love stories I have ever read. Joanna is given in a political marrigae to Llewellyn when she is 14 and he is almost 32. This was a definite sign of the times and Penman is deft in the handling. She does not make Joanna appear the awkward teenager nor does she make Llewellyn appear the "dirty old man". What she gives us is a girl on the verge of womanhood who accepts this marriage of countries as her fate while dealing with the fact she is falling in love with her husband. Her maturity and growth throughout the book is given to us through a wonderful progression of events including: adultery, childrearing, death, learning those we love are not always what we want nor what we believe them to be. Llewellyn is drawn just as deeply. He has children older than Joanna, but, he realizes the marriage is becoming more than political - he, too, is falling in love with his mate. He never treats her like an addled headed adolescent. He treats her with respect and love. Even though he lives within the double standard of the times concerning adultery, he is willing to follow his heart and take Joanna back and does not care what his subjects will think. The scene when he goes to see her at the home to which he had banished her is breathtaking! The struggles Llewellyn goes through in loving this daughter of his enemy and what that could mean for Wales are shown to us realistically. This is the first historical I have read were the characters are the protagonists and not just backdrop for fictional characters. I applaud Penman for the risk in doing this. Penman's character development, action, and plotting are woven together so beautifully and intricately that one is swept away.
Rating:
Summary: This book overtook my soul! Penman in peerless.
Review: I was lucky enough to begin reading Sharon Kay Penman's book here at the beginning with Here Be Dragons and have waited breathlessly ever since for her next book to appear. This book completely over took my soul. I fell desperately in love with Llewleyn Fawr, comparing every man I met with him, and of course finding most of them falling quite short. Never have I found an author able to tell a story or breathe life in characters the way that Penman does. If you have any fascination for the Middle Ages and early Norman rule in England (two things with which I am completely obsessed) you must read this book and the two which follow it in the trilogy. However, be prepared for the deep depression which sets in when you are done and have to return to the mediocrity of comtemporary reality.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful and almost masterly written
Review: Do you know the feeling you have when you wish you've never read a certatin book? That's how I felt after reading "Here be Dragons". I just wished I could feel the thrill of discovering a truly marvellous book for the first time. In a year I reread it three times. Then I discovered "Falls the Shadow" and "The Sunne in Splendour", and I've only just learnt Penman has written two books about Eleanor! Can't wait to begin with them. After reading Dragons I had a thing about Wales which lasted for two years. Penman's style is fine, and her use of archaic words and phrases makes the scenarios more vivid and engaging
Rating:
Summary: A truly divine book ... I loved it!
Review: One of my favourite historical fiction works of all time (one of the only ones available with a happy ending too) ... As a devotee of the genre, very few books come up to my standards of historical research and accuracy ... this one excelled them
Rating:
Summary: Stunning historical adventure saga
Review: Finally I've found a series, of which this is a part, that captivates, teaches, enthralls, and fills you with the taste, feel, adventure, and thrill of the early middle ages in Norman Europe.
Clear historical explanation, in adventurous style, of just what the hell was going on in the late 1100's, 1200's 1300's, and the early 1400's in not only Britain of that time, but,in an unconfusing, lucid manner, it touches importantly on what was happening in all of Norman Europe of the period.
At last, pre-Renaissance West European history made understandable, and excitingly so. I've read this series time and time again since I came upon it by accident in a small-town library, and consider the series one of my most delightful finds.
If you are at all curious, let alone interested, in that period of time in western Europe, and want a superb adventure to take you through a summer-time of reading, this is the one to get.
You want to learn a little about King John, Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry II, Richard Lionhart, the black prince, the powerful Welsh Lords, and feudal England, this is the place. Family politics and intrigues, Church and State conflicts, Thomas Becket, you name it, you'll find it cleverly woven throughout in a captivating tale .
How did the rich and powerful live, fight, worship, and die, and how did common folk do those same things for that matter? How did the two groups intertwine with each other? What did people do for a living, what did they do for food, money and amusement? It's all here..
This amazing tale is a "must" read. Sit back, get out the lawn chair, open up the book, and escape to a time now shrouded in mystery, a time that lay the groundwork for today's western societies.
ENJOY!
Rating:
Summary: Penman's history comes alive with passion and adventure.
Review: Sharon Kay Penman's HERE BE DRAGONS is the first
of a trilogy about the fight for Welsh independence from English rule. Penman spends years meticulously researching the history of the period, and weaves the facts together in a tapestry of passion and adventure.
The story begins with King John marrying his bastard daughter Joanna to Prince Llewelyn of
Wales, in an attempt to stop the Welsh rebellion.
What follows is the development of Llewelyn and
Joanna's relationship, the children and the country
they share, and the trials they face.
I am a devoted fan of Penman's work, and have read
everything she's written; HERE BE DRAGONS is one
of my favorite books ever.
The trilogy concludes with FALLS THE SHADOW and
THE RECKONING. THE SUNNE IN SPLENDOUR, WHEN CHRIST AND HIS SAINTS SLEPT, and the Justin de Quincy mystery, THE QUEEN'S MAN, round out Penman's
current repertoire, and I highly recommend them
all.
Rating: 
Summary: the last of the great Cymru Princes
Review: I have not read Sharon K. Penman's recent work "When Christ
and His Saints Slept" but I have read two of her works. Out
of the many books I have read "Here Be Dragons" is one of
the best. It is a Saga of one of Wales' last princes and
the love for his dominion and his wife. It follows his life and his childrens' and is based on a true story. It is of true romanticism and chivalry. About the struggle of one tiny country with a big heart and plenty of courage
against British expansionism and the sinister King John. It is not only an enlightening page turner but has many comical parts aswell. It would truly make a good full blown feature length movie possibility worthy of sequels. You will never look at Wales the same way again.
Rating:
Summary: A fantastic combination of history and story telling
Review: This is one of my all time favorite historical fiction novels. I have read it again and again, and I am always amazed that the characters were real people. It is a wonderfully creative mesh of the historic and the ficticious. I recommend it to history buffs, and to anyone who just loves a good romance
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