Etymology and historiography [ edit ] A 19th-century reconstruction of the keep at Château d'Étampes

Often you may hear a book have its prose discussed. Oh I loved this writing style (or not). For me prose is very much in the eye of the beholder erm reader. Like music it needs to match your tastes. What I think works for me is if the writing good storytelling. Does the language’s style suit the story? Many books are fairly flat unless the narrator is actually a character I’m always impressed when the third person narration itself suits the story. That is quite hard to get right. I was therefore so pleased that JL Worrad’s deliciously entertaining, murky, darkly funny, and poignant fantasy book The Keep Within delivered a wonderful story told with a unique and enthralling voice that explores the price of power. Yep I was impressed! The sets for the Romanian village were built at the disused Glyn Rhonwy quarry, a former slate quarry near Llanberis in North Wales. [12] Some interiors of the keep utilised the stonework within the Llechwedd Slate Caverns, near Blaenau Ffestiniog. Due to heavy rain, the film suffered significant delays in its shooting schedule. [13] Shepperton Studios near London was used for interior Keep scenes featuring the demon Molasar. [ citation needed] A secondary crew also went to Spain for footage depicting Greece. [14] An important subplot glossed over in the movie is how Molesar’s evil infects the surrounding settlement, with innocent villagers being filled with murderous rage and jealousy. The only scene hinting at this is when Robert Prosky’s priest – a character original to the film – is seen drinking the blood of a dead dog. Even this moment is so fleeting it’s hard to absorb what’s happening, but scenes were shot showing the village succumbing to madness. Even poor Alexandru – the caretaker of the keep – was shown being murdered by his sons during this sequence. The Keep Within was mostly very good. I liked the plot and I liked the characters. There’s a lot of intrigue and plotting to murder people and I love a good bit of plotting. The story is well paced and I never felt bored at all while reading it. Hulme, Richard (2008), "Twelfth Century Great Towers – The Case for the Defence" (PDF), The Castle Studies Group Journal, 21: 209–229a b c Alexander, Chris (19 October 2015). "In Defense of Michael Mann's 'The Keep' ". ComingSoon.net. Archived from the original on 8 January 2023. Liddiard, Robert. (ed) (2003) Anglo-Norman Castles. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press. ISBN 978-0-85115-904-1.

At the instigation of the local village priest, Father Mihail Fonescu, the Germans retrieve an ailing Jewish historian, Theodore Cuza, from a concentration camp. Cuza deciphers a mysterious message written in Old Slavonic using the Glagolitic alphabet emblazoned on a wall of the citadel. Molasar saves the professor's daughter, Eva, from sexual assault by two Einsatzkommandos and cures Cuza of his debilitating scleroderma by touch. Cuza becomes indebted to the entity, who demands that Cuza remove a talisman from the keep so that Molasar can escape its confines. Butler, Lawrence. (1997) Clifford's Tower and the Castles of York. London: English Heritage. ISBN 1-85074-673-7. Rybin, Steven (2013). Michael Mann: Crime Auteur. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-810-89084-8. The French model spread into Iberia in the second half of the century, where the most powerful nobles in Castile built a number of similar tall keeps, such as that at Peñafiel, taking advantage of the weakness of the Castilian Crown during the period. [85] Henry IV of Castile responded in the 15th century by creating a sequence of royal castles with prominent keeps at the Castle of La Mota, Portillo, and Alcázar of Segovia: built to particular proportions, these keeps became known as a key element of the Valladolid school of Spanish castle design. [86] Smaller versions of these keeps were subsequently built by many aspiring new aristocracy in Spain, including many converted Jews, keen to improve their social prestige and position in society. [86] The French model of tall keeps was also echoed in some German castles, such as that at Karlštejn, although the layout and positioning of these towers still followed the existing bergfried model, rather than that in western castles. [87] urban areas also offer significant opportunities for emissions reductions. These can be achieved through lower energy

The only thing that didn’t really gel for me was the tone of the book in some places. It’s a very darkly comic novel, which is fine, but when characters feel genuine emotion, it tends to veer a little too far into melodrama. Harry is the perfect example of this. He spends so much time being the butt of the joke, especially in the beginning, so that when he is genuinely feeling some emotion, it feels a little too comedic. The reasons for the transition from timber to stone keeps are unclear, and the process was slow and uneven, taking many years to take effect across the various regions. [30] Traditionally it was believed that stone keeps had been adopted because of the cruder nature of wooden buildings, the limited lifespan of wooden fortifications and their vulnerability to fire, but recent archaeological studies have shown that many wooden castles were as robust and as sophisticated as their stone equivalents. [31] Some wooden keeps were not converted into stone for many years and were instead expanded in wood, such as at Hen Domen. [32] Nonetheless, stone became increasingly popular as a building material for keeps for both military and symbolic reasons. [33] As far as dark worlds go, The Keep Within doesn’t disappoint. It takes an already dark world and layers a bit more complexity on it. I loved the characters . . . as much as one can love a group of despicable gray characters that would rather stab someone than consider their own insecurities and shortcomings. Which, you know, is a lot of love, given Burton, Peter (2008), "Islamic Castles in Iberia" (PDF), The Castle Studies Group Journal, 21: 228–244 Contributions should be travel related. The most helpful contributions are detailed and help others make better decisions. Please don’t include personal, political, ethical, or religious commentary. Promotional content will be removed and issues concerning Booking.com’s services should be routed to our Customer Service or Accommodation Service teams.

The Norman keep (r) and prison (l) at Goodrich Castle, built to a square design in the early 12th century I would like to thank Olivia from Titan for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review Stubbs, John H. and Emily G. Makaš. (2011) Architectural Conservation in Europe and the Americas. Hoboken, US: John Wiley. ISBN 978-0-470-60385-7. By contrast, the remainder of Europe saw stone towers being used in castles, but not in a way that fulfilled the range of functions seen in the western European keeps. In the Low Countries, it became popular for the local nobility to build stand-alone, square towers, but rarely as part of a wider castle. [72] Similarly, square stone towers became popular in Venice, but these did not fulfil the same role as western keeps. [73] In Germany, rectangular stone castles began to replace motte-and-bailey castles from the 12th century onwards. [74] These designs included stone versions of the traditional Bergfriede, which still remained distinct from the domestic keeps used in more western parts of Europe, with the occasional notable exception, such as the large, residential Bergfried at Eltville Castle. [74] Kenyon, J. and M. W. Thompson. (1995) "A Note on the Word 'keep'", Medieval Archaeology 38, pp.175–6.

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Creighton, Oliver Hamilton and Robert Higham. (2003) Medieval Castles. Princes Risborough, UK: Shire Publications. ISBN 978-0-7478-0546-5.

This assessment shows that limiting warming to around 2°C (3.6°F) still requires global greenhouse gas emissions to peak before 2025 at the latest, and be reduced by a quarter by 2030. Creighton, Oliver Hamilton. (2005) Castles and Landscapes: Power, Community, and Fortification in Medieval England. London: Equinox. ISBN 978-1-904768-67-8. Sir Harry Larksdale, bastard brother of the king, falls in love with a mysterious lad from the mountains, driving him into the world of intrigues that revolves around the Britland royal family. At the same time, Queen Carmotta is trying to secure her life and her unborn children, as a coup is being gestated among the courtesans, led by the Third Queen; without reliable allies, she will totally depend on her own ingenious and some forces she cannot trust. Anderson, William. (1980) Castles of Europe: From Charlemagne to the Renaissance. London: Ferndale. ISBN 0-905746-20-1. Jones, Mari (12 June 2016). "Horror film shot in Gwynedd has become a cult classic". Daily Post. Archived from the original on 23 January 2022.

With this premise, we get a story that is not afraid to show the goriest and most violent aspects of the fantasy, setting the tone from the very start; taking the grimdark premise of showing the full specter of morality to the extreme. From the start, we are the spectators of a really complex plot, with complicated characters, most of them being involved in more than what they can control.