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nicktomjoe's review
5.0
Fourteen year old Owain has survived the last great battle between the British and the Saxons. Three generations after The Lantern Bearers and Sword at Sunset, the heroic hopes of the British are extinguished, and with Dog, the young war-hound that joins him, Owain makes his way across a southern Britain occupied by the invaders. But this is not a great escape story: it is hard to recount the story without spoilers, but he meets Regina, a young girl, and they travel together with a growing friendship until their paths separate tragically. I really hadn’t expected the events at this juncture, or that Owain would not be able to rescue his friend, but the pace slows here, and Owain, sold as a slave, must make a life in a little Saxon farmstead where he grows into adulthood. “Only, while one is young,” a old fellow-thrall advises him, “there is always the hope that one day something will happen; that one day a little wind will rise...” The hopelessness of this central section is breathtaking: it almost seems possible Owain will grow old in his thraldom.
Sutcliff is at her stunning best setting this. Owain makes the most of his life, gaining his master’s trust and the affection of the household, but the reader cannot escape his sense of loss, which increases with each turn. It is late in the narrative - half way through - that Owain’s chances begin open up, but even here change is slow at first; after all, he is at the forefront of the changes that will, over the coming centuries, bring the two warring factions together.
All the gold-star effects of Rosemary Sutcliff’s writing are here: superb landscape writing, heart-wrenching moral dilemmas, and brilliant use of the archaeology. She uses acute insights to explore complex themes of loyalty, loneliness and what it means to belong, as Owain is caught by longing to leave and his understanding of how the Saxon family have come to need him.
This is a vivid story, full of fascinating detail and emotional twists right up to the last pages.
Sutcliff is at her stunning best setting this. Owain makes the most of his life, gaining his master’s trust and the affection of the household, but the reader cannot escape his sense of loss, which increases with each turn. It is late in the narrative - half way through - that Owain’s chances begin open up, but even here change is slow at first; after all, he is at the forefront of the changes that will, over the coming centuries, bring the two warring factions together.
All the gold-star effects of Rosemary Sutcliff’s writing are here: superb landscape writing, heart-wrenching moral dilemmas, and brilliant use of the archaeology. She uses acute insights to explore complex themes of loyalty, loneliness and what it means to belong, as Owain is caught by longing to leave and his understanding of how the Saxon family have come to need him.
This is a vivid story, full of fascinating detail and emotional twists right up to the last pages.
annika2304's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
sadie_slater's review
4.0
Rosemary Sutcliff's Dawn Wind is full of the tropes of YA postapocalyptic fiction. It opens with the 14-year-old protagonist waking up to the realisation that everyone he ever knew is dead and he is all alone in the world; later, he and a girl he meets eke out a living in the burnt-out and deserted ruins of their home city, foraging for food and having to avoid lawless bands of armed men. So far, so standard; but the difference here is that the book begins in around 680AD, and is historical fiction, not science fiction, and the world that has ended is the last relic of Romanised Britain, crushed by the Saxons in the battle that takes place just before the story begins. Somehow this was the book Station Eleven most reminded me of, and made me want to re-read. It's also a hopeful book, as Owain serves out the years first as thrall and then as trusted retainer to a Saxon family and sees the beginnings of co-operation between Saxons and the British remaining in Wales; the "dawn wind" of the title beginning to blow after the dark century when the remains of the Roman civilisation were slowly destroyed by the invaders.
Dawn Wind isn't my favourite Sutcliff; that will always be Frontier Wolf, and more generally I much prefer the novels set in Roman Britain. The Saxon Britain of Dawn Wind is a much poorer place, a land of isolated farms in clearings in the woods, each settlement much more cut off from its neighbours than the Roman towns, as the roads crumble away and groups of bandits roam the land. It's a sad book; there's a real sense of how much has been irrecoverably lost. In the light of Recent Events, I got a bit teary at this bit:
Actually, I got a bit teary at quite a few bits. It's not an easy read, but I found it very rewarding this time round; I think it's probably one of Sutcliff's less well-known books, and that's a shame, as it deserves a wider audience.
Dawn Wind isn't my favourite Sutcliff; that will always be Frontier Wolf, and more generally I much prefer the novels set in Roman Britain. The Saxon Britain of Dawn Wind is a much poorer place, a land of isolated farms in clearings in the woods, each settlement much more cut off from its neighbours than the Roman towns, as the roads crumble away and groups of bandits roam the land. It's a sad book; there's a real sense of how much has been irrecoverably lost. In the light of Recent Events, I got a bit teary at this bit:
For the space of two men's lives at least, we have stood alone, we in Britain, cut off from all that Rome once stood for, from all that we thought worth dying for. And today we have joined hands with those days of the Long Wandering [...] - a light clasp yet, and easily broken, but surely it will strengthen. [...] Not the dawn as yet, [...] but I think the dawn wind stirring.
Actually, I got a bit teary at quite a few bits. It's not an easy read, but I found it very rewarding this time round; I think it's probably one of Sutcliff's less well-known books, and that's a shame, as it deserves a wider audience.
morgandhu's review
3.0
When I was young, I read all of the books written by Rosemary Sutcliff that I could find, but that was a very long time ago, and I do not remember if this novel, Dawn Wind, was among them.
It is one of her young adult novels, and thus not a particularly challenging read, but it is still a solid historical novel, with a personable young hero and an interesting time to tell a story in.
Roman Britain is almost gone, yielding to the incursions of Angles, Saxons and Jutes. Owain, a young British boy orphaned in battle, finds a young British girl, Regina, the survivor of a sacked Romano-British city. Together they try to escape to Gaul, but the girl falls ill, and to buy her a place in a household where she will be cared for, sells the only thing he has (other than his father's ring, which he buries rather than give it into Saxon hands) - his freedom.
Sutcliff's account of Owain's life as a thrall among the Saxons gives light to the events and customs of the period, as he witnesses the rise to power of Aethelbert of Kent and the arrival of Augustine of Hippo in Britain. And there's a happy ending, too.
It is one of her young adult novels, and thus not a particularly challenging read, but it is still a solid historical novel, with a personable young hero and an interesting time to tell a story in.
Roman Britain is almost gone, yielding to the incursions of Angles, Saxons and Jutes. Owain, a young British boy orphaned in battle, finds a young British girl, Regina, the survivor of a sacked Romano-British city. Together they try to escape to Gaul, but the girl falls ill, and to buy her a place in a household where she will be cared for, sells the only thing he has (other than his father's ring, which he buries rather than give it into Saxon hands) - his freedom.
Sutcliff's account of Owain's life as a thrall among the Saxons gives light to the events and customs of the period, as he witnesses the rise to power of Aethelbert of Kent and the arrival of Augustine of Hippo in Britain. And there's a happy ending, too.
bookwormmichelle's review
5.0
I try really, really hard to like YA literature, I really do. OK, I sort of do. But howcome none of it is THIS good anymore? Really, if you can read Rosemary Sutcliff, why on earth would you want to read Cassandra Clare instead? Sigh. OK. I sure wish books like this one were still in print and available. Great story, moving characters, ones you might wish you could know. Not a boring moment here! Also no prom dresses. Or dystopias. Or vampires. LOL
singinglight's review
4.0
Part of the Eagle of the Ninth/Silver Branch/Lantern Bearers series. It follows a young Romano-British boy in the aftermath of the Saxon invasions. While it didn’t have the emotional resonance of the other books in the series, it was still very solid. [Oct. 2009]
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