Book Review of The Cuckoo by Leo Carew

 

Name of Book: The Cuckoo

Author: Leo Carew

ISBN: 978-0-316-43034-8

Publisher: Orbit 

Part of a Series: Under the Northern Sky (The Wolf, The Spider are prequels)

Type of book: Fantasy, military, war, army, strategy, conquering, breaking traditions, sacrifices, rulers, reputation, desires, alliances, allies, enemies 

Year it was published: 2022

Summary:

Albion continues to be divided by revolt and bloodshed, as alliances collapse and are made anew.

Driven obsessively for glory, the upstart Bellamus and his exiled queen Aramilla are marshalling resistance and building a powerful army.

Returning to the Hindrunn, Keturah is forced to fend for herself, battling enemies on all sides just when she is most in need of a place of safety.

And all the while, the young Black Lord must deal not only with the aftermath of a great betrayal, but the cold shadow of the Kryptea, threatening to destroy everything he has fought for...

For more from Leo Carew, check out:

The Wolf

The Spider

The Cuckoo

Characters:

Main characters include Roper, a young and charismatic king who is very popular and well liked among friends, and respected by enemies. Roper has had to make a lot of sacrifices in order to try to achieve his dreams and he doesn't let others stop him from getting what he desires. Keturah is Roper's wife, a very resourceful and dedicated woman who is also loyal and will do what she can to ensure happiness of others. Ormur is Roper's younger brother, a complex young man who has witnessed too much tragedy in his young life, and this tragedy shaped him into the man he became. Bellamus is the enemy, a covert and crafty foreigner who works for queen Aramilla and will do what he can to preserve himself first. 

Theme:

Sacrifices have to be made for greatness

Plot:

The story is told in third person narrative from Roper's, Keturah's, Bellamus's as well as Ormur's and Grey's points of views. While reading it is as a stand-alone can be done and is possible, for emotional punches, I would highly recommend reading the previous two books. The tale begins with a betrayal and then moves on to the contenders: Roper, Bellamus and Keturah. As the story goes on, the reader gets to know and see the bad and good points of each character. Later on other characters such as Ormur, Roper's younger brother, are introduced as a main character. I should also mention that while the novel is characterized as fantasy, it doesn't have the magic element in it, but its fantasy because it takes place in a different world. (Quite similar to S.C. Emmet's trilogy, except no political/verbal swordplay.) 

Author Information:
(From goodreads)

The third of four children, Leo Carew grew up in the centre of London, in the shadow of St. Paul’s Cathedral. Inspired by audiobooks, he developed a late interest in reading and began trying his hand at writing soon afterwards.

Carew read Biological Anthropology at Jesus College, Cambridge, after which he pursued a long-standing love of cold and wild places to the High Arctic archipelago of Svalbard - Old Norse for 'The Cold Edge.' Here, he lived in a tent for a year, training and working as an Arctic guide, and subsequently an explorer. This was also when he revisited a novel he had begun at the age of 12, which was rewritten as The Wolf, the first book in his Under the Northern Sky trilogy.

A reluctant return to London followed to pursue a career as an army medic, during which he completed the sequels - The Spider, and The Cuckoo. Carew currently works as a British Army doctor, plotting his next book, and his next expedition to high north, south or altitude.

Opinion:

'Ambitious' seems to be a paltry word when describing the third book. If it was up to me, I would describe it as pioneering, or monumental, quite similar to Light Perpetual, minus the extreme violence that characterized Light Perpetual. To be honest I haven't read the first two books of the series, but I really should make time to read them. The tale works well as a stand-alone, but I imagine that for the emotional punch, its best to read the previous two books, namely The Wolf and The Spider. The book strikes me as something a chess master worked on because of the various moves and countermoves that the characters initiated. While there is a lot of action and battle sequences, the reader does get to know various characters and does form a tie to them, or forms opinions, and we get to see the characters' both bad and good sides, and see that they are too human. 

This was given for review

4 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)