This is quite a blend of historical fiction with touches of fantasy and eroticism with some scenes that may shock some readers; a love story with duels and plenty of political intrigue and conspiracies. You’ll be forgiven for thinking you’re reading a gay romance to begin with, but then the book takes a turn. That’s not to say it’s an easy read. Often I get through 100 pages a day, even when it’s a complex plot, but found I needed to take my time with this. This mostly gripped me, but there was a sense of wondering whether I’d ever finish, although it’s hard to say why. I’ve read books more involved than this, but some scenes felt needlessly long. I can’t help feeling I’m doing the book a disservice by saying some pages flashed by, others were a slow amble, and the tone of the book changed throughout, which also threw me. The author is meticulous, maybe overly so, but I found sticking with this worthwhile. A story that begins in France with the arrangement of an assassination moves on across the world. ( )

This is a difficult book to review. It is an alternative history in which, among other things, a coup is staged against James I/VI by a Doctor Robert Fludd, an astrologer who can predict the future using a complex mathematical theory. The said Doctor has calculated that a comet is due to destroy Earth in the 22nd century, but if he can pull off the assassination of James I/VI, a society will arise capable of producing technology to avert the comet. Hmm.... didn't find that at all believable.

The story is told from the viewpoint of a character who apparently did exist though was undoubtedly nothing like the way he is portrayed here. Valentin de Rochefort as I'll call him for short (his actual name is much longer) is a duellist, spy and sometime assassin working for the Duc de Sully, a chief minister of King Henri of France. Rochefort is blackmailed into helping to assassinate the king, as the party concerned has arranged to kill his master if he doesn't comply. He tries to bungle it, but the attempt succeeds in spite of him, and he has to flee France, forced to accept the company of a young duellist, Dariole, who has a thing about humiliating Rochefort which soon turns sexual. On the coast they rescue a shipwrecked Japanese military man who was part of an ambassador's entourage to James I/VI. He is the sole survivor and feels duty-bound to continue the mission. So all three go to England and try to arrange to see King James. Before long, Fludd forces them into trying to bring about his design and some very unlikely happenings occur involving actors, cross dressing, a masque staged in a cave, a nun who turns out to be a colleague of Fludd's, and other peculiar people and events.

I note the synopsis on Goodreads for this particular edition has two major spoilers: annoyingly, I couldn't help seeing them when adding the book to my shelf. Funnily enough, the second one, concerning Rochefort's sister, isn't true at all. Anyway, the first is a true spoiler but is revealed after about 100 pages so it wasn't a major issue when reading the rest of this long book. What was a major issue, however, was the character of Dariole who I found a right royal pain. I didn't appreciate the whole sado-masochistic nature of her relationship with Rochefort. Although it eventually is supposed to be a 'game' for them, at one point she savagely beats him. In fact, there is a lot of violence in this book, graphically described, but that's partly due to the subject matter - sword fights etc. It is well written but the main premise lacks conviction for me and I didn't like Dariole so I can only rate it 2 stars. ( )

La Europa continental disfruta de una breve paz después de años de guerra, pero Enrique IV de Francia planea invadir los principados alemanes. En Inglaterra, solo cinco años antes, los conspiradores han estado a punto de conseguir volar por los aires al rey Jaime I y su Parlamento. Las semillas de la guerra civil inglesa y la guerra de los Treinta Años se están plantando a la vista de todos. Pero a Valentin Rochefort, duelista y espía al servicio del poderoso ministro de finanzas francés, le importa poco..., hasta que se ve arrastrado a los palacios resplandecientes, los callejones obscenos y los teatralismos asombrosos de la Francia renacentista y el Londres shakespeariano en una conjura mortal para matar al rey Jaime I. Este espadachín sin conciencia se verá atrapado entre la lealtad, el amor y el chantaje,
entre reyes, reinas, políticos y rosacruces... y la mujer por la que, sin saberlo, ha cruzado tierras y mares.

OK, this wasn't quite as riveting as I remembered it on rereading it but I'm not reducing the score as some of the story actually felt quire new (though it's been a long while since it was last reread). Can history be calculated in advance? And, if so, what are the moral responsibilities of those who know of these techniques? Those questions lie at the heart of the story as the spy Rochefort, and his tormentor/lover Dariole travel through early 1600s Europe and Japan in search of the enigmatic Robert Flood. Modern theory would tend to say that it is impossible to give a definitive answer to the possibility of calculating future conditions but this book allows for the possibility and Rochefort gradually finds himself acknowledging that he has a duty to that ill-defined future - inaction is it's own sort of action and not without it's own set of consequences.

The main problem I had with this book this time was its length and wordiness to no real effect ( )

I bought this book fifteen years ago. And it has sat unread on my bookshelves ever since. Despite the fact I’m a big fan of Gentle’s fiction. But. She writes such big novels. 1610: Sundial in a Grave is 594pp! And my copy is the hardback edition. It must weigh about ten kilos. (Slight exaggeration.) I am a big fan of brevity (see the Apollo Quartet…), but I also recognise the appeal of longer works. And with Gentle you know you’re certainly getting your money’s worth. Her research is incredible. 1610: Sundial in a Grave is, like Ash: A Secret History, a series of nested narratives, with the innermost one providing the bulk of the contents. An “introduction” describes how the author (unnamed, but surely Gentle herself) was as a child a big fan of a particular (invented) Dumas-esque book, and was surprised to learn it was based on real historical figures. There then follows a fragment of a document by Robert Fludd, a Jacobean occult philosopher and mathematician (like the earlier Dr John Dee), which is described as one of several documents found with the memoirs of Rochefort. And it is Rochefort’s memoirs which form the main narrative of 1610: Sundial in a Grave. The disgraced son of the retired Marshal of France, Rochefort is responsible for the assassination of Henri IV, at the instigation of Henri’s wife Marie de Medici, although he had been blackmailed into it and had planned for it to fail as his master, the Duc de Sully, wanted… But Rochefort ends up fleeing France, knowing there are plenty of people who want his head. Including hothead duellist Dariole, who had been challenging Rochefort for months. All of which leads to Rochefort on a Normandy beach fighting Dariole, rescuing Saburo, the sole survivor of a Japanese mission to King James I, taking ship to England with both, becoming embroiled in the plot by Robert Fludd to assassinate James I, foiling that plot, and… It’s all about the mathematics invented by Bruno Giordano – a real historical figure who appears in, and inspired, Gentle’s White Crow novels – which is capable of predicting the future, especially a comet due to obliterate life on Earth in the twenty-first century (yes, please). As well as numerous events before that cataclysm. Rochefort and Dariole are great characters, not that much different from White Crow and Casaubon (and yes, Dariole’s secret was pretty obvious right from the start) inasmuch as they’re both almost too good to be true. There’s a unexpected strain of BDSM throughout the novel – the relationship between Rochefort and Dariole is predicated on it – but if anything it adds depth to their interactions. The historical detail is, unsurprisingly, hugely convincing. Gentle does historical filth and smells extremely well. At 594pp, 1610: Sundial in a Grave is not a short book, but it doesn’t feel like it overstays its welcome. Surprisingly, the book ends on a happy note, although there’s a cunning slingshot inasmuch as it suggests an origin, and a purpose, for the Rosicrucians, which ties into the whole occult mathematics mythos. I thought the book excellent, and I’m only sorry I didn’t read it sooner. And I really do need to read two other books by Gentle I own which I’ve yet to read. ( )