Reviews for The Queen's Bastard

The average rating for The Queen's Bastard based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-07-12 00:00:00 Gymmy Boy A richly atmospheric historical novel hypothesizing the claim of one Arthur Dudley, and the premise that his claim to be a son of Elizabeth I and her paramour Robert Dudley was true. We are certain that Elizabeth II, a vital woman with a strong appetite for things physical like dancing, riding and hunting was no virgin! And we can be sure that her great love relationship with Robert Dudley had a physical side. Could her relationship have led to the birth of a child, whose pregnancy she hid on one of her summer progresses. then spirited away by the Queen's trusty servant Kat Ashley and her Prime Minister William Cecil, while Elizabeth was told the child had died? Far fetched? Could have happened. There was a man who did claim to be the child of suck a liaison, who knows? Large parts of Arthur's journal detail the life he is given by Maxwell, included his love for horses inherited by his father , his cruel tretment at the hands of his insane adoptive mother Maud, his first sexual liaison, his military adventures in the Netherlands where he becomes a trusted confidante of William Prince of Orange and takes part in the struggle of Dutch Protestants for independence I partiucarly like the dutch section of the novel-it was rich and lively). And his adventures as a spy in Catholic Spain of the Inquisition and his love for a young Marrano Jewish widow Lots on the romance between Elizabeth and Dudley and a great chapter on the defeat of the Spanish Armada which was prophesied. Interesting perspectives and coverage of the great philosopher and seer Doctor John Dee. A tight packed historical novel...brilliant visual details. Also a good story, swift, various and at all times exciting

Review # 2 was written on 2009-10-03 00:00:00 Shannon Moeser Dear authors everywhere, Entire chapters in italics are annoying and unnecessary. Italics are to emphasize important points. If you believe your readers are too stupid to realize when a different character's voice is being used, you 1) are a poor character writer, 2) don't respect your readers and 3) could simply use the device of using the character's name as the chapter title. For the record, I do not read chapters printed entirely in italicized type. Therefore, I read only about half of this book. The parts I did read were not too bad.