Got this from Bookmooch.com as I've enjoyed other books by this author - looks like it should be a good read.

What a surprise!

The only other book I have read by this author was his history of the International League for the Protection of Horses - it was well-written and I read it a few times, but it was essentially a non-fiction book. I was expecting this to be the same - it wasn't!

James weaves a tale around the life of the Byerley Turk - one of the three stallions considered to be the foundation of the English thoroughbred racehorse. From his birth in a storm, somewhere deep in the Ottoman empire, to the Sultan's palace, to war and finally to England after being captured.

It's completely magical - I don't know how much is really based on sources the author has found, and how much is pure myth, but that is what it read like - a suitable legend for a legendary horse. I jotted down so many inspiring and beautiful quotes, that if I'd chosen to add them to my review, I might as well type out the whole book!

Some of the battle scenes are pretty harrowing - there were more than one moment when I was sobbing, trying to read on through tears - but to me that is excellent writing. The relationship between the horse and his Seyis was fantastically written - we all aspire to have that sort of closeness with another animal.

Brilliant - fantastic - magical .... a book I will probably return to again and again.

This is my choice for the 'Favourite Book of 2017' book roundabout - I hope you enjoy it :)

Just received my January book for The Favourite Book of 2017 Roundabout, going to start it soon!

Thank you dark-draco for sharing this book, which was not as bad as I thought it would be! ;-)
I am not a horse aficionada, so I was a bit weary of the title, but I enjoyed the story, apart from the excess of war and army vocabulary in Turkish and English.
It took a while to catch my attention but as I always finish a book I start, I kept going and I quite enjoyed it after all. Very emotional ending.
I will now forward it to bookwormess for the February read, hopefully she will like it more than my previous mailing!...

This is a book release for February of the Favourite Book of 2017 Book Roundabout.

Hope you like it...

Please let us know when you release it again...

Thank you, the book is here. It'll be an interesting read as it really looks like non-fiction. Horses have never really been my thing, they are a bit scary...

Now, this has taken time. I've been trying to read it every now and then, but there's something about the language that makes me frustrated as I feel like I don't understand enough. Weird feeling as I read a lot in English. As I've been holding it a bit too long it's time to let it move again.

Off to Fifna. The story itself was quite interesting, so I hope you'll enjoy it! :)

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The book has arrived here. The envelope was torn and the postal service had put it in a sealbag. I think that may have delayed it a bit though.

I was apprehensive about this book, not being much of a horse fan. But I do like history, so that aspect did appeal to me. And I quite enjoyed it, despite the extremely sloppy editing. Lots of typos, some grammar and style issues, and the author seemed compelled to list ten adjectives or nouns when three would have sufficed. As a result, the first half felt too wordy and I felt he was trying too hard to conjure up this exotic, unfamiliar setting. This changed once the story moved to England and Ireland though.

But it's such an interesting story, regardless of how much of it is fact or fiction, that I managed to persevere, and make it to the very emotional end. What an amazing horse.

Thank you for sharing this. This is a book I was would certainly never have picked up otherwise.

Travelling to marsala.

The book got here safely. I wonder what I will think about this book. I don't care for stories with horses in them at all, but maybe this will change my mind. I do enjoy some history and nonfiction so I hope there will be something in it for me.

Edit after reading: I'm sorry, but I did not finish the book in the end. I did not like the writing at all, to me it was just all over the place and I struggled to get into the story line. Hopefully the next readers will enjoy it more then I did.

Safely arrived yesterday, thank you.

I'm so sorry. There are horses everywhere around me and a horse trail in front of my garden and a few kind riders in my family. I love them all but give up on that story. Very interesting but not my thing just now.

On its way to weeder in U.S.A. Enjoy !

"The Byerley Turk" arrived on my desk today. If this were for my Permanent Collection I'd mark words, sentences, and paragraphs I enjoyed or had questions about. It seems a difficult book to read but I promise I won't mark it at all. It may be a book I'd like to purchase for myself. I'll see.

Comments from other readers peaked my interest in this story. How much of it is history and how much mythology? The settings of eastern Europe, Russia and England added interest to the story as well.

Being mailed to Aramena in OK, USA.

Arrived today (or Friday or Saturday - I was out of town so I'm not sure!), as did earthcaroleanne's book. As soon as I finish my current read I'll be diving in!

In my youth I was your typical horse crazy teenager. And I was a huge thoroughbred racing fan. I could recite all of the Triple Crown winners, along with their trainers and jockeys. In fact, I wanted to be a jockey, and I was crushed when I found a boarding school that was centered around the racing world and included riding and training race horses, and then my parents wouldn't send me there! ("What kid WANTS to be sent off to a boarding school?" they asked.)

Anyway, all that to say I eagerly dove into this book, and then slowly fell out of it. I just could not get into it. I'm with Marsala, in that the writing felt all over the place. I finally gave up, and I'm sending it on to JudySlump612.

What a lovely, and intriguing, surprise! Thank you for sharing this very interesting book, dark-draco.

Like Fifna, I like reading history, and that's what I first thought I'd find here. In that I was disappointed, although that's no fault of the book. The title makes clear that the horse is the central figure, so if I want background on the breakup of the Ottoman Empire, or those feckless Stuart monarchs, I should go find other books. Actually, James helpfully includes a substantial bibliography for that very reason.

Writing a book about a horse's experiences presents an interesting challenge, unless you're going the fantasy talking animal route. James has a good solution. There's an unnamed groom, referred to only as "the seyis" who accompanies the horse and interprets its moods and actions. He has almost no life of his own, but provides background narrative as the horse could not.

Nitpicks: Fifna is quite right about the sloppy editing, so much so that I checked the Merlin Unwin site to see if it's a vanity press. Also, there's a LOT of travelling in this book, and a map would have been helpful.

Finally, anyone who's read much about horses knows about the three progenitors of the modern thoroughbred - James mentions this specifically in the Epilog. With that in mind, I would have liked to have learned about the development of breeding records. James touches on that only briefly, in a story about how Azarax's last owner discovers an employee has been shopping the horse around at stud, and keeping the income.

This is another good example of what I hoped to get through the Roundabout: a book that I would never have picked up on my own, but turned out to be very interesting. Thank you for sharing, dark-draco!

Mailed today to Mathgirl40, next in the Favourite Book Roundabout.

This book arrived in the mail today. Fortunately, the Canada Post rotating strikes did not cause too much of a delay!

Like some of the readers before me, I too disliked the writing style and found the writing generally repetitive and somewhat sloppy. This book could have been excellent if it had received better editing. However, I did like the story and characters (both human and equine) and felt I learned a lot about both horses and the period of history that the novel covered.

This book is on its way to earthcaroleanne now!

Arrived today

It's taken me a long time to try and read this one. I don't normally read reviews before I've finished the book but I did this time, looking for a reason to continue. The reviews did slightly lean towards more enjoying it but I'm afraid like others, I didn't manage to finish it. I think it was the language used that really put me off - it was a bit of an effort.

Sending on in the favourites roundabout.

With me now

Reserved for the non-fiction sweeps