Keneally is, no doubt, a skilled and knowlegabel writer, and this novel based on the story of Joan of Arc is very well researched, but as the story of a brave and mystical hero, it's a dry and inhumane read which lacks passion, courage and inspiration. It's all too rational, too predictable, too over-explained.

The well-documented outline of Joan of Arc's story allows a skilled novelist plenty of creative space. Keneally's Joan, although resolute, is a human, vulnerable figure, unlike Mark Twain's saintly heroine.
This retelling emphasizes the very real sacrificial aspect of
her life. I thought the dialogue wonderful - plausible, informed, witty. To this former soldier, the ways Joan's fellow
military commanders skillfully translate her special charisma into battlefield advantage is imaginative. Joan's career after
Rheims is not covered. I greatly enjoyed this book, and its very different perspective.

This book is astonishingly poor. Characters are primitive and underdeveloped. Plot develops in jumps. I must admit the idea is not too bad, but the result is horrible. Waste of time.....

This is an action-packed novel, lighter than most of Keneally's works, with a flawed central character who makes a living as the manager of a tribe of Aboriginees who travel from city to city to put on performance art pieces. When their flight is hijacked during one such trip, undercurrents of prejudice, exploitation and social hierarchy in anarchical situations come to the fore. I read this straight through on a flight last year and was, for a time, transported- just what a well-written novel should do! Though written some years ago, this novel remains fresh today- fresher than ever given recent hijackings, and evidence that some things have not changed - we have just chosen to look the other way. Gripping.

This is a truly disturbing book. I adore most of Keneally's works and this work is truly uncharacteristic. I special-ordered this book as it is out of print- and left it in an airport garbage bin more than half-way through it, so disturbed was I by the psychological portrait of a "dutiful daughter" who is raised in isolation, tends to her bizarre parents, welcomes home the prodigal son... there are scenes of bestiality in this book that are truly disturbing and do not add anything positive. A disturbing book can serve a purpose if it illuminates a situation for the reader or increases one's understanding. This book does neither. It simply disturbs. Do yourself a favor and steer clear.

This book is NOT representative of Keneally's work and so if you are one of the unfortunate souls who actually read this, try some of his other works. It is hard to believe such garbage came from the pen of the same man who wrote "Schindler's List", "A River Town", "The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith", among others.

Shocked at the onset of puberty and the catastrophe she believes it brought on her parents, Barbara has since been a most dutiful daughter. Bound in dominance over them, she tends her afflicted parents, managing the beasts and the land single-handed on the isolated marshlands of Campbell's Reach. her brother Damian reveals the secrets that the family has shared for the past thirteen years. As the destructive forces within each of them move towards a climax, Barbara is impelled to make the ultimate sacrifice.

This is all very well, but the characters make decisions which are ultimatly unsubstantiated, and the reasoning protrayed in the novel is completely irellevant. Added to that it displays the darker side of the human psyche, and it brings farm animals into it as well.

This book, will be sure to freak you out. Unless you are one of those people who enjoy reading graphic scenes of semi/ beastiality and incest, i would sugest you steer clear. I wish i had advice like this, before i decided to read this book.