Assessment:
Plot/Idea: The plot is swift but exciting as the tension builds between the Sicilians and the Angevins. The storyline circles back to deliver surprising revelations that will entertain and keep readers’ interest.
Prose: The author crafts skillful dialogue and changes timelines effectively—both to set the stage for the story and advance the plot.
Originality: The strength of this novel lies in its combination of action, history, and a character-driven plot that will hook readers.
Character/Execution: The author expertly builds characters, with careful attention to developing their motivations and backstories. Aetna matures over the course of the novel, working through different stages of anger and building her tenacity, while Guy de Rochefort and his hirelings are unreservedly evil as they hunt down the Teutoni Knights—and anyone else who stands in their way.
Date Submitted: April 18, 2023
Assessment:
Plot/Idea: Set in 1282 AD, Siciliana tells a vivid historical story of Sicillian revolution that firmly establishes its setting and era, while featuring a striking, well-realized heroine.
Prose: The prose is clear, evocative, and propels the narrative. The author provides a welcome mix of historical detail with narrative tension and emotion.
Originality: Treviso's focus on a particular slice of Sicilian history is unique and riveting. History buffs and fans of historical fiction will find much to love in the epic storytelling.
Character Development/Execution: Treviso richly portrays the brutal circumstances facing the central characters, ultimately humanizing the historical events, while also providing edifying factual information to readers eager to better understand the tumultuous time period.
Date Submitted: June 22, 2022
Treviso’s engaging historical novel of revolution and revenge, his accomplished debut, deepens the Puzo-fied public perception of Sicily and its history while offering the vivid, often bloody story of the Sicilian Vespers, the epochal 13th century uprising of the island kingdom’s people—and its stiletto-mastering cavaleri warriors—against the French king and his Angevin army. At the tale’s heart is Aetna, the young daughter of one of those knights, her name pointedly suggesting Mount Etna, a Sicilian volcano ready, like the island’s oppressed people, to blow. After bearing witness to tragic violence in her childhood, Aetna at age 20 becomes the living proof of her father’s words: “We are not fearful, because we know that as Sicilians, no matter where we are thrown, we will always land standing.”This epic telling of a story too rarely told is powered by that zeal, as Treviso vaults ahead in time, from Aetna’s childhood to the hours before Vespers–a chapter-heading timestamps add a thriller’s momentum to a novel deeply concerned with character, history, and the immersive dramatization of long-gone ways of life—but also enduring truths about courage, loyalty, and honor. Treviso proves adept at presenting vicars and generals, cathedrals and markets and a dazzling cave, and the horror and glory of fighting for what matters, as Aetna of the volcanic spirit faces overwhelming odds—and connects ever more deeply to her home and its people.
The action is crisp, clear, brutal, and frequent, and Treviso’s not shy about terror and torture: General Rochefort, a memorable villain, relies so often on a neck vise the he keeps it cinched to his belt. Readers who prefer historical fiction with less extravagant violence may be jolted by the stabbings and gaping wounds, but those who prefer martial adventure and tales of revolution, regardless of genre, will find much here to relish, tremble at, and in the end cheer.
Takeaway: This vigorous retelling of a 13th century Sicilian revolution will dazzle fans of martial historical fiction.
Great for fans of: Ernest K. Gann’s Masada, Bernard Cornwell.
Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
