Review: Fifteen Twenty-Six, Rowan Sylva 

By Luke Frostick 

Fifteen Twenty-Six is a historic fiction about the tremulous sixteenth century, a murder and a mystery in a fictional territory somewhere in eastern Europe. Written by editor and indie novelist and editor Rowan Sylva, whose poetry -I should point out for disclosure’s sake- was published in the very first edition of the Bosphorus Review of Books. 

I have reviewed quite a few self-published and indie novelists at the BROB over the years and it is very rare that they impress me. In fact, quite a lot of them end up being quite unready for release. Fifteen Twenty-Six is a welcome exception. It is well put together both as a text and a story. I did spot a few very minor typos, but nothing that couldn’t have snuck past the proofreading team at a large publishing house. If indie published books were reliably of this quality, I would read more of them. 

The story follows the trials of the fictional realm Eisenberg that is being shaken to its core by the fall of Hungary to the Ottoman Empire. Moreover, society is on the brink of implosion as the internal divisions between the catholic authorities and spreading Lutheran heresy come to the boil. At the same time, a young man is found dead whose murder might be the key to the events spiralling out of control. The novel sets a fast pace with the sex and violence turned up and is aiming for a tone closer to Game of Thrones than Wolf Hall. 

The story is told from numerous perspectives from powerful bishops and lords to Ottoman spies to Jewish citizens trapped between the warring Christians. There are a lot of characters in this book. The idea is to give as many perspectives on the time and the conflict as possible. However, the problem is that, combined with the short chapter length you are not with many of the characters for long periods and don't get a particularly deep insight into them. This is not always the case. For instance, Bishop Lock gets quite a bit more space than other characters and as a result, is a much better-rounded character than some others. 

The pace also felt too fast, with the status quo constantly being upended and new events unfolding in rapid succession. I would have appreciated a bit more downtime in the novel. One of the joys of historic fiction can be the more mundane day-to-day lives of the characters and Fifteen Twenty-Six could have done with a bit more of that to give characters time to breathe and the reader chance to experience the world without being swept along by the plot. 

Though the characters were interesting, the villains were weaker than the protagonists. They felt stripped of nuance with most of the books villains being sadistic monsters, a few too many Ramsey Boltons and no Cersei Lannister. 

The world building feels solid. I am by no means an expert in the period that the book covers, but it seems well-realised and one of the advantages of the frantic pace is that you get a very wide view of the world. I appreciated that the word felt mysterious and magical, a place where despite ostensibly being caught up in a Christian reformation, the characters still have pagan beliefs and folklore in their psychic makeup. I also enjoyed looking into the Jewish and Roma cultures of the area that the book is keen to foreground. 

The prose style is solid and fits the tone and themes of the book well. It may be a small detail, but I appreciated the prints by Albrecht Dürer thought the book. They are beautiful and ever so slightly uncanny in their own right and set the scene. 

All in all, this is a solid historical thriller though it does strain in places. The central plot and mysteries are resolved neatly. If more books come out by Sylva, I’ll certainly read them.