Fast-paced and gripping . . . loaded with set pieces, contains wonderful dialogue, witty exchanges, explosive showdowns, unlikely alliances, and features some of the finest character creations that the genre has to offer.

Heart-stopping fights, impressive displays of magic and desperate final stands . . .the book has it all.

Engrossing . . . has all the hallmarks of great epic fantasy . . . an essential read for Malazan fans.

Everything you expect of a Malazan story . . . nail-biting and anything but obvious.

Impossible to put down and highly recommended for all fans of the Malazan Book of the Fallen.

The finest Esslemont novel so far, and a superb Malazan novel in its own right'

Han Kang's hypnotic Greek Lessons probes the limits of language

Han Kang is what most writers spend their lives trying to be: a fearless, unsentimental teller of human truths . . . Han Kang is a genius

Another stunning gem: quiet, sharply faceted, and devastating

If it's true escapism you're after, William Boyd can always be relied upon to transport the reader from reality and his next offering, The Romantic, another epic that follows Cashel Greville Ross from 19th-century Country Cork to Zanzibar via Oxford and Sri Lanka, offers a wonderful literary getaway as the nights draw in

Packed with passion, adventure, suspense, comic interludes and a range of colourful characters . . . the rollicking work of a masterful storyteller, The Romantic is both a vivid portrait of a life and a sweeping panorama of an age

The Romantic is certainly a crowd-pleaser . . . Boyd knows how to time the hights and lows, how to blend triumphs and tragedies, personal and historical . . . genuinely poignant and wise

A satisfyingly meaty novel in the rich vein of his earlier classics The New Confessions and Any Human Heart. As we have come to expect, here is exceptional storytelling - pristine, immersive, and intoxicating. The elegant prose is characteristically detailed and precise . . . It has the expansiveness of many classic 19th century novels. There's a Dickensian warmth and verve, an epic scale, a spirited sense of chance and adventure. Boyd as ever stresses period detail, and the novel is as informative as it is entertaining . . . It is bravura, high octane stuff, eventful and sometimes on the edge of chaos

A panoramic and deeply satisfying narrative from an author on top form

It's tremendously entertaining and, as always with Boyd, virtually impossible to stop reading

A globe-trotting adventure through the 19th century

Boyd's pile-up of set piece escapades offers a huge amount of fun

Boyd's books are so enjoyable that it's hard for us to resent the tricks being played on us, even as we find ourselves constantly reaching for Google, wanting to know what is and isn't real

There's a cornucopia of fine things here . . . The Romantic, always enjoyable, ranks with two of his best: The New Confessions and Any Human Heart. Both were intelligent and engrossing, novels you lived with. Both told a fine story very well. The Romantic does just that

A ripping yarn. And as such, it is pretty much faultless: as moreish as good chocolate, terrifically entertaining, and deeply humane

A huge amount of fun

One of our best contemporary storytellers

A narrative that Charles Dickens or Jane Austen would surely have been happy to claim as their own . . . there's a joy to Boyd's storytelling throughout and his hero is one to cheer for

A wonderful tale that spans a life of adventure, this is storytelling at its very best

Crammed with incident, the novel has the wonderfully freewheeling quality that one associates with the great 19th-century novelists. As with most of Boyd's works, it manages to be warm-hearted and deliciously sardonic at the same time

William Boyd taps into the classic novel tradition with this sweeping tale of one man's century-spanning life

There is no doubt that Boyd is a masterful storyteller . . . this is a book to get totally, utterly and delightfully lost in

A new novel by William Boyd is always a treat and in his picaresque latest, The Romantic, his hero is Cashel Greville Ross, born in 1799, a soldier, lover, friend of poets, bankrupt and adventurer who is swept into many of the most important episodes of the 19th century

This highly entertaining, engrossing page-turner is the fictionalised biography of Cashel Greville Ross, who was born in 1799 in Scotland and brought up in Cork. Such is William Boyd's mastery as a storyteller, one begins to believe that all of the events are entirely real

The Romantic is a rollicking read that will delight his many fans

A wild ride across the 19th century on the back of a narrative that never pauses for breath . . . this breakneck pace seems to be a function of Boyd's exceptional imaginative facility, which sees him just as irresistibly drawn to new ideas as his hero is

What could be more reassuring in troubling times than a new William Boyd novel? Trio is immensely readable, its descriptions full of light and colour, its humour spot on, its mood a perfect mix of frolicsome and melancholy

Reading William Boyd's Trio is like shrugging on a worn leather jacket on the first brisk morning of autumn: cosy but cool . . . He has enormous fun with the worlds - and egos - of page and screen

Breakneck pace seems to be a function of Boyd's exceptional imaginative facility, which sees him just as irresistibly drawn to new ideas as his hero is . . . there's something irresistible about that energy . . . if a whole-life novel is intended to represent the span of a unique existence, then The Romantic gets it right

The Romantic is a whole-life novel, a form in which Boyd excels . . . a terrific read