Download Raptor by Gary Jennings PDF
By Gary Jennings
From Publishers Weekly
In the hole pages of Jennings's ( Aztec ) immense, audacious old novel concerning the Gothic conquest of the Roman Empire, Thorn, the hermaphrodite hero/heroine, is seduced first through a monk after which by means of a nun. Evicted from a monastery and a convent, Thorn is then schooled within the methods of the realm by way of the grumpy, blasphemous woodsman Wyrd. Rugged but delicate, often dressed as a guy, Thorn is to elim fragment raptorial (i.e., predatory) in his thirst for enthusiasts, female and male, and for event. He serves as box marshal, sidekick and secret agent for bloody Theodoric (A.D. 454-526), king of the Ostrogoths, depicted the following as a benevolent despot. For all its sexual titillation and gory battles, this majestically paced epic with its unconventional hero regularly rewards because it leads readers via unique byways of the fragmented Roman Empire, delving into pagan customs, Christian mysteries, corruption, slavery and the tolerant Arianism embraced by way of the Goths yet condemned by way of the Catholic Church as a heresy. in the course of the androgynous Thorn, attuned to the warfare betwen the masculine and female aspects of his nature, Jennings subtly explores the gender-based roles imposed through society. Spiced with medieval style, the unconventional will captivate readers keen to devote themselves to an extended, particular, occasionally ploddingly written yet eventually intoxicating narrative.
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Extra resources for Raptor
Sample text
The British offensive at Arras was only the precursor of the major French offensive between Reims and Soissons under Robert Nivelle, and due to the new German defensive systems the offensive failed with extremely high casualty figures. The British fared no better in Flanders. While their attack on the Messines Ridge could be considered as one of the most successful Allied offensives, the ensuing engagements during the Third Battle of Ypres ended again in a bloody disaster, the price for just a few miles of terrain gained in a gruesome attritional battle.
24 Once the Territorial and Reserve Forces Act had passed, Haldane devoted much of his remaining time at the War Office to the execution of his scheme and, in particular, to the daunting task of inducing large numbers of his countrymen to support the new organization. In the course of doing this, he managed to convince some of the County Associations to make modest preparations for a possible expansion of the Territorial Force in the course of a general war. 26 The greatest obstacle to the implementation of Haldane’s concept of a locally based ‘nation-in-arms’ was the rule that neither the officers nor the men of the Territorial Force could be sent beyond the borders of the United Kingdom without their explicit consent.
If we refer to that narrow context and place emphasis on the limitations on operational thinking at that time we can conclude that the general staff was rigid and inflexible. But if we extend our view and acknowledge that the German military leadership acted within a complex construct and adapted to continuously changing situations we see that the German High Command was able to engage in a wide range of different operations. The battle of Tannenberg in 1914, the Romania campaign in 1916, the amphibious landings on the Baltic islands and in Finland in 1917, and, in particular, the flexibly led defensive battles on the Western Front are clear examples of this.