The Wolf Cub

This is the first in David Pilling's Soldier of Fortune series. I enjoyed the second, The Heretic, so I thought I would go back for this one. It covers the life of an English mercenary during the reign of Henry V.

Our hero, John Page, is the bastard son of minor gentry in England. He gets into a fight with his cousin, who wants the manor, and kills him. He flees with the intention of joining the English army in Normandy. However, he is captured and then joins a band of outlaws in Sussex, taking part in their raids on local manors. He escapes that life and eventually arrives in Normandy.

This is the post-Agincourt campaign, in which Henry V is still seeking the French throne. This involves a long, drawn-out campaign to capture and hold Normandy, culminating in the epic Siege of Rouen (1418-19). Our hero catches the king's eye for his valour in a previous siege and for his flattering poems about the siege. He is captured and tortured by a French baron, but is awarded the landholding when he escapes and captures it. Holding it is another challenge. 

While I enjoyed The Heretic, yet another Hundred Years' War tale didn't quite catch my imagination like the Hussite Wars. In fairness, the author has made an effort to pitch a different story, not least by making our hero a man-at-arms rather than the ubiquitous archer. The poetry is historical, although we know little about the real poet, John Page. The outlaws in Sussex were real as well.

I couldn't quite grasp what was different about the writing style until I realised he was writing in the first person. There is nothing wrong with this, although it means you cannot describe events happening in another room or reveal the secret thoughts of other characters. It can make the story one-dimensional, and that is a problem here. Just OK for me, but I might return to the series if he heads off somewhere interesting after the Hussite Wars.

Some of my 15mm figures of the period.