Rosemary Sutcliff

Yesterday was Rosemary Sutcliff's birthday - she was born in 1920 - and I'm curious as to how many people following these Storyteller threads have read her books.

I've not but the Eagle of the Ninth series specifically is on my reading list, and has been.

Anyone who has read this series think it matters whether I read them in series order? It takes a lot for me not to do that, but I have done dipped into other series (notably the Aubrey-Maturin and Alan Furst's Night Soldiers) with success. In those cases, primarily the decision was forced by chance: a volume other than the first fell into my hands, or could not be obtained at the library, and I couldn't wait. In the case of Furst, the series is not a single narrative, but with O'Brian it definitely is.

I have read many of Rosemary Sutcliff's books (name repeated for touchstone :)) - may catalogue holds 13, but I don't remember reading all of those, but I do remember others. I don't think I have read any for a long while now

2: I don't think it matters a great deal in which order you read them. They weren't written in chronological order (see the "Dolphin Ring Cycle" series vs the "Dolphin Ring Cycle - Publication order" series) and are only linked by being about different members of the same family, spread out through many generations and several hundred years. The Lantern Bearers was the one I read first, and it remains one of my favorites; another one I consider excellent is Mark of the Horse Lord, which isn't in the "Dolphin Ring" series. These are all "young adult" books; she also wrote a number of books for younger readers, and one or two adult titles. I didn't particularly take to her "King Arthur" trilogy, which is pretty much a straight retelling of Mallory, preferring her historically based Sword at Sunset version.

Looking at her author page, a further comment... Most of the books tend to fall into one of the following categories:

Historical novels (mostly young adult): The eight "Dolphin Ring" books, plus The Shining company, Outcast, Warrior scarlet, The mark of the Horse Lord, Knight's Fee, Song for a Dark Queen, Flame-Colored Taffeta, Blood Feud, The witch's Brat, Bonnie Dundee, The Capricorn Bracelet (chain of short stories), The Flowers of Adonis, Lady in Waiting, The Rider of the White Horse, Simon.

Historical stories for younger readers: Sun horse Moon Horse, Heather Oak Olive, The Chief's Daughter, Circlet of Oak Leaves, Eagle's Egg, the Changeling, and a few others.

Retellings of legendary material: Black Ships Before Troy (Illiad), Wanderings of Odysseus (Odyssey), The Sword and the Circle / Tristan and Iseult / The Light beyond the Forest / Road to Camlann (King Arthur), Beowulf, The High Deeds of Finn MacCool, The Hound of Ulster (Cu Chulainn), Robin Hood

I've left out a few of the historical ones for various reasons, usually because I'm not familiar enough with them - for more information about any given title see Anthony Lawton's website.

(Titles are listed in the order of popularity on her author page, not chronological order)

I've read a lot of them - basically whatever was available in various libraries growing up and again I've not read any for quite some time. The Arthurian ones were part of the reason for my own Arthurian phase, I think.

I did have an amusing conversation recently with one of my colleagues. Somehow we ended up talking about Mithras and he mentioned he had just found a great "new" book set in Roman Britain, namely The Eagle of the Ninth. He was a bit taken aback to realise the book was almost 60 years old...

(I'm currently working in the Shanghai office of my company. The selection of english language books available in shops can be interesting sometimes.)

Folio Society recently published the Eagle of the Ninth "trilogy", that & the recent film probably pushed this old title up into the light of (marketing) day.

I have a copy of the Folio Society edition of Eagle of the Ninth, and looked at the other two the last time I was considering joining, but I don't like the illustrations all that much. For me the best illustrators were Victor Ambrus and Charles Keeping. Roman Pisarev's illustrations for the Folio books just don't have the right flavor for me - sadly not the first time I've disliked their choice of illustrator for some of my favorite authors.

That may help me (or at least, my wallet)!

My rule for FS: only purchase books I've already read and very likely will read multiple times more. I've bent it slightly in that I've pledged to myself not to purchase anything until I complete the O'Brian series (which I've ready several volumes but not the entire set). It's difficult going, but in hindsight has served me well. Since I've not yet read Sutcliff, those titles are supposed to be off limits, but they're tempting. Reading this about the illustrations will bolster my resolve.

Well, for those titles, at least. There are plenty more that test my mettle, for certain.

I got about 2/3 of the way through the O'Brian series and bogged down. Just couldn't stand to see Jack screw up on shore any more and/or Stephen lose any more body parts / become addicted to any new chemicals. I had bought the whole set in trade paperback; maybe I will finish it one of these days! In the meantime I'm making it a rule not to buy more than one or two more of a series than I've read/am reading.

I read Sword at Sunset earlier this year and do believe, unless a ringer comes in at the end, that it will be my best book of the year.

Still haven't read a Sutcliffe title, but I'm confident it's only a matter of when. Meantime I enjoy hearing about others who enjoyed theirs!

As with gwernin, Sword at Sunset and Mark of the Horse Lord are two of my favorites. Also The Shining Company.