More of a YA Read – 3 Stars
In A Wandering Warrior we, the readers, start our literary journey in the 12th century. Thomas Beaumont, a peasant who possesses incredible fighting skills, has just lost his older brother, and his uncle, to the foolishness of a petty war between neighboring noblemen. Thomas, not agreeing with how his brother John was cruelly put to death while captive, sets out to avenge him.
As he sets out upon this journey of righteousness, he comes across two girls being chased by men with murderous intent. He rescues them from certain death; sends them on their way, but he remains behind – having sustained some serious injuries. While attempting to recover, he is beset upon by a pack of hungry wolves. Losing consciousness during this final battle for his life, he awakens and discovers that he’s in an unknown bed. Apparently a gypsy/travelers band had happened upon his predicament – they saved him from the wolves, and then nursed him back to health. I don’t want to provide anymore of this tale, but I did wonder (on a rather continuous basis) if Thomas would ever get the chance to actually avenge his brother’s death.
Now that the premise has been discussed, I can move on to the review. For the most part, I did enjoy A Wandering Warrior, although I had difficulty with the believability as well as the writing style. Being that I too am writer, I’m a big proponent of using different, descriptive words and phrases, (or at least placing the same words and/or phrases far enough away from each other so that their closeness doesn’t become distracting to the reader). The usage of “old friend” at the bottom of page two is a great example of what I am referring to.
Another thing that I found bothersome was the lack of adjectives providing the correct empathy/emotion for the situation. Page eight provides an example of this. If two girls are running for their lives (literally being chased by dogs and men wanting to kill them), I think some appropriate adjective choices would be “cried” or “whimpered,” but certainly not “whined.” I do understand that the girl’s personality is such that whining would be an appropriate description of her in the future, but not in this specific scene – not when the reader is only just meeting her; with zero insight into who she is.
My final challenge with A Wandering Warrior was that it was listed as Historical Fiction. In truth, it seemed that the only thing anchoring it in the past was the era listed on the back cover. When I read historical fiction, I like to feel the history surrounding me due to the author’s skillful use of known and/or less-well-known facts. That was not the case with this title – consequently I struggled to see it as anything other than straight fiction.
In summary, A Wandering Warrior by Harry E. Gilleland, Jr. was okay, but it was definitely not a nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat experience.