Review of Hastiludes

[Emily Meadows]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Hastiludes" by S. Copperstone.]

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3 out of 5 stars

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Hastiludes by S. Copperstone is a medieval story about knights, nobility, warriors, witches, vampires, and ghosts. Set in the 1400s, Hastiludes is about a knight named Étienne Le Naper, whom we meet as a young man on the battlefield. Étienne is both French and Scottish; he fought against the English in the Scottish Wars of Independence. His horse, Eachan Dubh, is as much a part of the battle as he is, kicking and fighting against English soldiers. Étienne is young, not even twenty years old when we meet him. He is one of the few survivors of the first battle and gets bitten on the neck by something before the battle ends.

We follow Étienne from battle to battle. When Étienne isn’t on a battlefield, he’s earning money as a knight by winning jousting competitions, otherwise known as hastiludes. Or he is pillaging a village in the name of his king, Robert the Bruce. But things aren’t all that they seem. Étienne and his friend, Ywar, see ghosts during their travels. Étienne often feels as if he’s being watched, but he can’t figure out why. His horse sometimes gets spooked, and he trusts the horse’s intuition even when he doesn’t trust his own. We get our first hint that Étienne might be cursed when his father marries a witch. She tries to talk to Étienne, maybe to warn him, but he leaves without speaking with her. And we learn Étienne has an interest in a woman named Muriele. Will they find love with each other?

Étienne’s story moves quickly through the years, from 1314 to 1334, never lingering on an event or a person for very long. While this keeps the pace of the book high, it makes it challenging to get to know the characters. Just as we meet someone, we move to the next scene. The characters themselves don’t seem to see each other very often. They meet at a joust or on a battlefield every few years and quickly update each other on their marriages, children, and families. The missing details left me, the reader, to piece together the story. It took many chapters before I started understanding what was going on.

I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I had hoped to. It was easy to read, and the story moved quickly, but I often reread sections to determine if I had missed something in the plot. There were hints of the paranormal in the first half of the book, but it wasn’t until almost page 200 (out of a 250-page book) that the witch gave us some explanation of what was going on. The plot took many twists into the paranormal after that pivotal moment in the book. While it felt as if the author mostly honored the medieval time period, some moments felt more modern. For example, when Muriele and Étienne are standing together at a local market, and she tells him she “always desired him” (page 143). That seemed very bold for a medieval woman to say.

I rate this book 3 out of 5 stars. I found it easy to read but challenging to understand. The story itself doesn’t end; the final words in the book are, “This story continues…” (page 252). When I did more research, the author explained that this was book two out of a three-part series. It is the first part of the series to be published. This helped explain my feeling that we (the readers) were dropped into the middle of a much longer story. A good number of typos and word errors in the text were also distracting.

I would recommend reading this book when the other two are published! It does not stand alone as it is.

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Hastiludes
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[Diana Lowery]

Goodness, this sounds like a very challenging read. I am not much for medieval novels, but thanks for the review.

[Emily Meadows]

Goodness, this sounds like a very challenging read. I am not much for medieval novels, but thanks for the review.

Thanks for your comment, Diana!