Sovereign (The Shardlake series, 3)

Product Information

Like I did with Dark Fire, I listened to portions of this via the audiobook. The audiobooks for this series are really well narrated and I loved that the narrator puts on different accents. It was nice hearing a Yorkshire/Northern accent and reminded me of home, as I was born in Yorkshire. Even in the physical copy of the book the accent came through in the way the words were written. So props to the author. This should have been an out-and-out 5 star score from me, but I've deducted a half for the patchy editing. It is a shame that a best-selling writer of the calibre of C.J. Sansom does not get the 5 star treatment from his editorial team. Q. During the gruesome Tower episode, Shardlake screams out that “torture is illegal in England.” I think many readers will find this statement surprising in that it occurs in a novel set in a time of widespread religious persecution. What is the legal provision, if any, behind his statement? I just want her to change one item of policy’ … Jacob Rees-Mogg on supporting Theresa May. Photograph: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images

This is the third book I have read in this series and for me, it is the best one so far. A rich tapestry of history and character development that is hard to beat. He has also written Winter in Madrid, a thriller set in Spain in 1940 in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War.No me gustaría terminar sin destacar la ambientación. Sansom busca con su narración ofrecernos una atmosfera de un York deprimido y en decadencia, lo que unido a la caza de brujas que el rey y sus partidarios llevaban a cabo tras la desvinculación de la iglesia católica, nos hace aproximarnos a la angustia y la incertidumbre que debía de vivir la gente en aquel intrincado momento. Resumiendo, libro espléndido, quizá lo más flojo es el desarrollo de la intriga, no tiene mucho margen y es bastante previsible, pero es lo suficientemente solvente para mantener las 5 estrellas, porque, vuelvo a repetir, el marco histórico y la ambientación es de 10. The Sovereign Individuals who would gain most from this “liberation” are “the brightest, most successful and ambitious” among us, they said, “those who can educate and motivate themselves…. Genius will be unleashed, freed from both the oppression of government and the drags of racial and ethnic prejudice.”

Q. A number of reviewers have compared your Shardlake novels with the work of Umberto Eco, especially The Name of the Rose. How do you feel about such comparisons? Is Eco an influence on your fiction? A key narrative thread throughout the novel is the dangerous information that the Tudor claim to the English throne is invalid, and that Henry VIII is the grandson of a bastard. Shardlake finds (then loses) some documents that relate to this proposition, and his safety is threatened several times as various scheming individuals try to get the information from him to satisfy their own aims. The resolution of this plot line at the end of the book was fascinating and gave me much food for thought. A. I am very flattered by the comparison. The Name of the Rose is a marvelous book, and one of those that seeps into the mind and must influence one’s writing. But apart from Dissolution, which is set in a monastery, none of the other books is set in a “closed” environment but rather in cities with plots set around the politics of the court. One thing all my books have in common is the struggle between reason and compassion (personified by Shardlake) and the competing religious fundamentalisms of his day—by which I mean doctrines that put versions of faith first while putting people and human values a poor second, and believe that doing such is what God intends. Ya no cuento nada más sobre la trama, la cual en general me ha gustado bastante, dejando muchos frentes abiertos y muchas opciones hasta casi el final de la historia. De los personajes también tengo muchas cosas buenas que decir, es imposible no empatizar con nuestro protagonista y su unión con Barak, un joven granuja que le hace muy bien de contrapunto, del que ya comenté en la anterior novela que había sido un acierto y me reafirmo. El resto de secundarios muy bien, con voz propia e única y con personalidades acordes a su rol en la novela. Set in the autumn of 1541, the novel describes fictional events surrounding Henry VIII's 'Progress' to the North (a state visit accompanied by the royal court and its attendants, the purpose of which was to accept the formal surrender from those who had rebelled during the Pilgrimage of Grace). Most of the novel is set in York though events in London and on the return journey via Hull are also depicted.

Success!

See the other lawyer by his side, the one that dropped his cap! I know he is a southron, see what a poor bent bottled spider he appears” Los capítulos donde se narra el encierro en la Torre de Londres, son espléndidos y merecen las 5 estrellas, casi llegas a sentir en tu propia carne el pánico y el miedo a la tortura, ríanse los ingleses de la inquisición española, que lo que se cocía en la Torre de Londres no tenía nada que envidiarle (y ellos no tienen leyenda negra) y ¿las ejecuciones por destripamiento? creo que no se ha inventado nada más horrendo....en fin, que hay que leerlo señor@s. Con respecto a la historia en si, volvemos a disfrutar de las aventuras de Matthew Shardlake, un abogado jorobado que a pesar de sus reticencias siempre anda metido en líos políticos y esta novela no iba a ser menos. La trama se centra en la Gran Jornada que hizo Enrique VIII en su día por buena parte del norte de Inglaterra. Esta ruta con intenciones políticas terminaba en York, capital de los rebeldes papistas y una de las zonas más beligerantes en contra del monarca, en la que los nobles de la zona deberán humillarse delante del rey y su sequito para conseguir su perdón.

Matthew Shardlake does it again. He retains his integrity while solving another involved crime. Who is sovereign? Is it the brutal, infamous king, Henry VIII? Do the conspirators from the north have proof of the authentic ruler? After a career as an attorney, C. J. Sansom now writes full time. His previous novels include Dissolution and Dark Fire, both Matthew Shardlake mysteries, and Winter in Madrid, a thriller set around the Spanish Civil War. He lives in Brighton, England. Politicians are crooks. Welfare is awful. Tax is at all costs to be avoided. The new cyberworld allows all three to be sidelined. Move wealth offshore. Force the privatisation of, well, everything, including “the ultimate form of privatisation – the sweeping denationalisation of the individual”. Starve the nation state to death, and the rich individual becomes sovereign. “Only the poor,” they say “will be victims of inflation”.Thus, I can’t quite give it 5 stars. However, that is really a fairly minor quibble and some may even appreciate the stretching out of the narrative. Regardless, this is a superior series and the writing and plotting are top drawer and will make you see 16th century England when you close your eyes. Finally, Matthew Shardlake is an amazing character and acts as the perfect guide through these stories. Honorable, brilliant, determined, practical and very efficient. A GOOD MAN!! Bajo esta tesitura, nuestro abogado recibirá dos encargos, el primero sencillo y acorde a su oficio, lidiar con las diferentes suplicas judiciales de la zona que con la colaboración de un letrado local, tendrá que analizar y hacer llegar al rey las que crean de su incumbencia. El segundo encargo será algo más especial, sin el apoyo de Lord Cromwell y con problemas financieros, Matthew deberá ayudar al Obispo Cranmer a la hora de vigilar a un rebelde que posee información vital sobre los traidores de la zona y que debe de llegar sano y salvo a Londres para ser interrogado. As the title alludes to, this book is about the King, Henry VIII. The thing that has hovered over the monarchy for years is still an issue. It was something that Shardlake was familiar with since his time with Thomas Cromwell. “Queen Catherine was in her forties, past child-bearing, and she had not given the King a male heir. Unless he could marry a younger woman who might provide an heir, the Tudor dynasty would die with him…And there were many of us who thought the only way to preserve true religion in England was for Queen Catherine to do what the Pope himself had suggested to her: go into a nunnery, allow the King to marry again…Foolish, obstinate woman. By insisting God intended her to be married to the King until death, she brought about the very revolution to religion she hated and feared.” Sovereign is the 3rd book in the series (there are currently five) and follows after Dissolution and Dark Fire. In this one, King Henry VIII is traveling to York on the famous “Progress to the North” to accept the submission of “papist” rebels and grant pardons for those involved. Master Shardlake, an attorney, is sent ahead to York to assist with processing petitions to the King. At least that is his public reason for being there. Privately, he has been requested by Archbishop Cranmer to ensure the welfare of a dangerous conspirator and bring him safely from York to London...so he can be properly tortured in the Tower of London.