Of Faith and Fidelity: Geoffrey Hotspur and the War for St. Peter’s Throne
I have to admit that I found this novel very difficult to read. This had nothing to do with the quality of the writing, or the subject matter, but the size of the font. This hardback novel has a size c.10 font, but what is worse is that there is so much blank page space that could have been used to increase the size of the font. What were the publishers/printers thinking about? It is hard enough for anyone to get a novel in print these days, and I found it heartbreaking that any author’s debut work should be blighted in this way. I suspect that I am not alone in having to wear glasses to read even size 12 font, and that unfortunately a lot of potential readers might be put off by the font size used for this novel.
The novel is set in 1394 during the schism of the Western Church and the battle over the control of the Patrimony. It is the first book of the English Free Company series. The central character is Geoffrey Hotspur, a young squire, an orphan, a gambler and bonded to the court of Sir John of Gaunt. This is an adventure story brimming over with corsairs, mysterious Frenchmen, Catalonian crossbowmen and the duel between honour and power. It has all the ingredients that will appeal to those who enjoy the genre and has clearly been very carefully researched from pudding servers to the Battle of Orte.
