Reader’s Diary

James Charles Roy

James Charles Roy is an American “itinerant independent scholar”, writer, and owner of a small Irish castle. “The Back of Beyond” is about his experiences guiding a small group of Americans on a tour of Norman and Celtic Ireland.

Roy is a crank, but a self-deprecating one, which prevents him from sounding mean even when he’s complaining about his charges. He delights in telling them bloody stories of Norman conquerors going native, tales of Irish monks on lonely islands, and accounts of the ruination of various Ascendancy families. The reader gets to enjoy those stories along with Roy’s comments on the tourists and on modern Ireland. The book is a well-written combination of travel, dry humor, and history.

William R. Forstchen

This is most recent book in the “Lost Regiment” series. It takes place 20 years after the defeat of the nomadic hordes, who have been reduced to living on a reservation. An empire to the south, of the same race as the hordes but more technically advanced than the northern humans, has settled its internal differences and seeks to conquer the Republic. Forstchen introduces new characters and military situations to the series while chronicling the start of the new war, which presumably will continue in future volumes. This has more of a science fiction feel than the previous books, which were more alternate history than SF, but the quality remains high despite the shift in tone.