Nicholas C. Prata

Angels in Iron

  Arx Pub., 2004

The sige of Malta by the Turks. A relevant moment in European history. Gripping, intense, and passionately told. The small island-fortress of Malta -the Rock- alone against the Turkish empire in 1565.

Accurate as far as history can tell, to-the-point, full of heroism and action as to leave no room to introspection, subplots or any literary embelishments. This is grab-your-seat historical fiction, closer to a Hollywood movie script than to your regular bookstore novel. The author -for accuracy- even mentions a couple of times the names of historians on whose work was based this narrative, and quotes some relevant lines.

There is no need to literary flourishments. The author knows it. This is one of those moments in history when telling it as it was makes it far more rewarding to the reader than trying to add stuff that is not properly historical. Of course the details as to how or exactly when each character did this or that is for the expert narrator to fill in. And this is done masterfully, with precision, never letting the tension slack. Short chapters, 2 or 4 pages long, dedicated to specific moments during the siege of Malta make the reading a hectic experience, a book that will be hard to put down.

It has the stuff that best-sellers are made up of. Only the lack of a major editing company has prevented this book from reaching far more audiences.