The Princes of Ireland by Edward Rutherfurd

After posting a poll about whether I should finish the book, I thought about the pros and ons of each side. TThe advice I got was very similar to what I was thinking. The first half of it had interested and engaged me--maybe I would get interested again. I don't like to spend $15 on a book and then not finish it. At the same time, though, I'd struggled through 100 pages and was hopelessly bored. I didn't think I'd want to pick up the book again, not later, not no how.

Since I did read almost all of the book I thought I would write about it anyway. Edwsard Rutherfurd's been called this age's James Michener. That's not necessarily a good thing as Michener's books can drag on and be excessively wordy. Another problem is when you want to cover centuries in a book, you lose a lot of the characterization.

Early on, I found Rutherford's characters interesting and engaging. I think he spent more time fleshing them out and it probably would have been better if his Dublin Saga had been split into 2 or 3 books to give equal time to everyone. The story starts in mythic Ireland, covering a tale I'd become somewhat familiar with: Deirdre escaping with the nephew of the king and incurring the king's wrath, the great cattle raid of Cú Chulainn. Rutherford moved smoothly from mythology to the arrival of St. Patrick and Catholicism with many characters carrying over from one age to the next. The sections about the Vikings and Brian Boru were also fascinating although by then new characters were introduced. I began to get bored during the Strongbow section and struggled at the end. I struggled for 100 pages and then tried skpping around. It didn't work.

By this time, the characters weren't so rich or interesting anymore. They just seemed like incarnations of people already introduced. I lost interest, did the poll, put the book down and moved on to something else. I'm glad I did!