As with the first book, this one is decidedly and deliciously unsettling. Biscombe is a great place to read about, but I don't think it's safe to visit there. These stories combine that good old science fiction trait of making you think about things you thought you knew in a different way with the chill of the supernatural. Until I read "No Truce With Kings," I'd never realized that we citizens of the USA should have a more sympathetic view of Oliver Cromwell than I learned from my history classes and books. If I thought that what goes on in "Let the Train Take the Strain" were true, I'd be terrified to drive my car again. On the other hand, I'm sorry that "Rollover Night" isn't true. What a show! You'll meet with an interesting modern look at an ancient profession in "Canterbury's Dilemma" (No, thank you, Mr. Fersen). "Oh, I do Like to be Beside the Seaside (Within Reason)" is another story I firmly hope is purely imaginary because the implications are so dreadful. "I Could a Tale Unfold" should make you want to know more before you buy that piece of used furniture you have your eye on. [In the next-to-the-last paragraph of p.164, shouldn't that be "tail" end, not "tale"?] I'd hate to be guilty of writing the poem on p.167! As for "Up From the Cellar", it's good to know Mr. Disvan had a reason for putting up with Mr. Oakley all this time (even though the end makes even more interesting by implication the second promise that Mr. Disvan made at the end of "It Has Been Said" and what Mr. Oakley thought he saw on p.56 of "Rollover Night"). I'm sorry that Mr. Whitbourn won't be writing the stories that he describes at the end of the book, but it was nice of him to scatter these crumbs for his readers. He certainly succeeded in leaving me wanting more.

Once you come to start reading you can't help feeling the story unfolding is but a strict biographical chronicle of the Civilisation's key figure, good and bed as he was, but certainly as real as Michelangelo, Pope Clement V or any of the Borjia family even for the price of believing in the elves, phantoms and gigantic sprut of the secret organisation ruling the History from the darkness of hidden caves and dungeons. And that costs something, doesn't it? Add vivid language, keen and subtle humour you want to learn by heart to have something to smile at if you are upset, and you get "Popes and Phantoms", the best fantasy book I have ever read and the very right guide how to become an Admiral Solovo keeping in mind the fair ideas of Marcus Aurelius Augustine.

"To Build Jerusalem" tears apart the fabric of rural England. With matchlock, sword and magic spell it shatters the dream of the good old days with a violence that has to be read to be imagined. And yet, through the turmoil which forces each protagonist to walk through the fire of self discovery, there shines the author's love of England that was, England that is, and (Dv) England that will be. If you think you can find a better historical fantasy than this, I will meet you one misty dawn on the bridge by the golden ford and we will settle the issue...forever.