What George MacDonald Fraser and his Flashman character did for Victoria’s England, M. D. Eyre and his similarly cowardly, selfish, oversexed rogue, Tabnit Gisgo, does for Alexander the Great’s world empire. Written with tongue... Read More

“Iona is not a place one visits on a whim,” says a burly Scottish warlord to the Irish abbot who plans to colonize the isle. “Beset by vile storms” and surrounded by even viler barbarian Picts, the rocky, windswept... Read More

It is never a question of whether the incautious hero of Jeff Westmont’s contemporary political thriller, "Countdown to Jihad", will survive his many near-death confrontations, but of what classic mistakes the villain of the moment... Read More

Iranians possess such an “enormous national pride,” says Parviz Saney of his fellow countrymen, that they “as a whole never acknowledge defeat.” While this inner strength has often served them well in the darker periods of their... Read More

A devout Catholic for most of his more than eighty years, Thomas Arthur Nelson has, like so many of his faith, broken with the church and its hierarchy over what he believes is a hostile stance on homosexuality, same-sex marriage, and... Read More

“Your cousin may seem completely harmless to you, Ectorius, but I can assure you that after sixteen years in the Roman cavalry, serving during the entire second Punic war, he is supremely adept at homicide!” So says the historical... Read More

“You know, they don’t eat chicken in Iceland,” one scientist tells another in Judith Virta’s "Sheol Has Opened", a sci-fi mashup of Mayan, biblical, and other end-of-the-world prophecies. The paucity of poultry in Iceland has... Read More

Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, and Mark Strong, here is your next movie project. The title may be lackluster, but the story in G. M. Lawrence’s Q: Awakening has box office blockbuster written all over it. Lawrence’s book is exciting,... Read More