Yalonda's Reviews > Promise of the Black Monks

It took a while to finish this because it was my exercise audiobook and I wasn't as dedicated to the gym as I should have been. With that out of the way, I also need to say again that I am not a history person; I just don't enjoy historical fiction, alternate history, historical biographies, or generally history. Now that this has also been said, I enjoyed this book more than I ever imagined. I believe that this can be attributed to the fact that it was the audiobook and not just text. The narrator made the characters more believable with a variety of voices and brought the story to life in a way my imagination would not have provided. I believe there is a kernel of a continuous story there that I enjoyed. I was fascinated by Tristan's journey - he met such interesting people and experienced so much life for a young boy who grew up in a monastery. As usual, there were chunks of history babble that I was not interested in but which did seem to actually tie things together. Hirsch is an exquisite artist, dedicated & knowledgeable historian, and created a tale so compelling that I simply had to keep reading to find out what happened to Tristan, Asta, the Danes, Marla, Pope Gregory, Odo, & (my personal favorite) la Gran Contessa Mathilda. There were some very graphic scenes, a lot of violence, mature subjects - this is definitely not a book for young adults. In his conclusion, Hirsch gives enough information about the future to bring things to a satisfactory close but he also provides such great foreshadowing that I felt driven to continue the series. I'll even admit that my emotions bubbled over in places especially in the final chapters. Kudos, Mr. Hirsch, I was almost convinced! However, I do not believe this series is for me.