While studying the New Zealand Land Wars, I came across Shadbolt's The New Zealand Wars trilogy. "What a stroke of luck" younger me thought. After all, how best to break the monotony of student life while salvaging my conscience than through a related piece of historic fiction?

Although not a reputed connoisseur of New Zealand fiction, I was nonetheless enthralled by Shadbolt's amalgamation of the factual and fictional to present a vivid portrayal of two divided peoples at war with each other and among themselves set against the backdrop of the island-nation's early sanguine history.

Who can forget the innocent but bumbling Hamiora befriended by the cynical yet honest erstwhile military officer George Fairweather who fights to prevent him from becoming a victim of miscarried justice?

Or, the American expatriate soldier turned rebel Kimbell Bent attempting to broach both the worlds of the pristine Maori and the avaricious British?

And how can we forego Ferdinand Wildblood with his literary doppelganger of Henry Youngman fleeing accusations of plagiarism in England but only to end up in a war for souls in bloody New Zealand?

Shadbolt's acumen is on full display in this trilogy. A marvelous work of infinite magnitude. ( )