Having now disposed of wife number 5, loveable heart-throb Henry VIII is busily wooing lucky Catherine Parr, who unaccountably seems a little reluctant to become his bride. “Hell is empty and all the devils are here.” Another positive was the reduction in swearing (which was liberally applied in Sovereign and which did not add but rather detracted from the whole. Revolving moreover around religious fervour of the time and it's effects on individuals and society in general. Usually there is much made of the political skullduggery this was less evident and was refreshing. This book is dark, full of foreboding and is really quite grim, with much less hopefulness. The positives: Narration for me once again was excellent the 'voices' of the main characters have remained consistent and this is no mean feat. The subtext of Baraks marriage problems and this not being explored fully would not be missed within the larger plot, it just seemed like a superfluous addition. I found there were far more repetitive phrases that did get a tad irksome. There are numerous ramblings that add naught. First the negatives: better editing would have cut about 2hrs worth of listening at least and the story would have been better for it. Having listened consecutively now from Dissolution this book took me by surprise.
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