I shared these thoughts on r/Rosemary_Sutcliff earlier and would love to hear from more fans of Rosemary Sutcliff here! And if you are a fan of historical fiction and adventure but haven’t read Sutcliff’s works, I highly recommend checking them out. Her most famous novels take place in Roman Britain, although she also writes about later eras. Her books are truly captivating and highly engaging reads for both young adults and adults. *The Mark of the Horse Lord* shares many elements of *The Prisoner of Zenda*, but is set in the late 2nd century AD. It has more raw violence and verging-on-graphic detail than previous books I’ve read by the same author, so I would recommend it for a teenage and older audience, not younger readers.
Overall, I thought *The Mark of the Horse Lord* was very good but not nearly as magical and re-read-worthy as Sutcliff’s Dolphin Ring “trilogy” (*The Eagle of the Ninth, The Silver Branch, The Lantern Bearers*). It was interesting to re-visit the same geographical areas in Scotland that we visited in Eagle of the Ninth about a century before this book. Phaedrus and Conory’s friendship was interesting and I wish it had been more developed. The ending was certainly the most >!tragic one I’ve read so far in Sutcliff’s books, but it felt meaningful. Also, I wasn’t as attached to Phaedrus from the start (thanks to his bar fight, I suppose) as I was to the Aquila family protagonists in the Dolphin Ring sequence, so in a way that lessened the pain, and the fact that Midir and Phaedrus both sacrificed themselves gave me the (yes, rather sentimental) idea that the they would at least be together as friends in the afterlife, watching over Conory and Murna and her child. I kind of felt more attached to the real Midir than to Phaedrus and wished he could have at least got to meet Conory again. I had a gut feeling that it wouldn’t be possible for both the real and fake Midirs to survive together, but the ending just happened too rapidly, and I almost wish the person who spied on Midir and Phaedrus could have been one of Phaedrus’ own men turned traitor, instead of a generic spy on Liadhan’s side — it would have added a bit more complexity to the story.!<
>!I wonder if Conory will become a sort of regent king until the child Murna is carrying comes of age? Will he tell Murna that her husband wasn’t really Midir (she probably guesses this already)? If the other Companions and the rest of the Dalriads ever find out that their king wasn’t the real Midir, would they turn against Conory and Gault for perpetuating the ruse, or would they be thankful to them for their scheme because it succeeded in getting rid of Liadhan?!<
by milly_toons