Rating: 
Summary: A First Rate History Book with a Little Fiction Thrown In.
Review: If you are at all interested in the events leading up to and during the 1916 Easter Rising, (and don't particulary like to read conventional history books) - then this is the book for you. It's excellent. You will be immersed in the whole affair, become well acquainted with the brave leaders, and most importantly you'll understand the events that led up to Easter rising, the rising itself and the importance of it all in the Irish getting their independence from Britain. The only bad thing (and it's minor) is the little fictitious story set in NY, that's going on in the background - it's not necessary. Other than that this is a GREAT read.
Rating:
Summary: A Must Read for All!!
Review: This is a story that takes you through the 1916 Rising in Dublin like no other book can. The characters are so completely developed and enjoyable you just wish you could know them in real life. Pearse is a man who was truly dedicated to a cause - yet Ms Llywelyn brings out the humanist not forgetting to delve into his family life (a fact so often left out of the history books.) This is the stuff of good detailed history - with a love story beautifully permeating throughout. It is also available as an audio book (Brilliance Corporation) in authentic Irish accent. Now Who could resist that? However you decide to enjoy this marvellous piece; just make sure to do it soon!
Rating:
Summary: A must-read for history and fiction buffs alike!
Review: I must be honest, I had this book on a shelf for a year before I actually read it, but once started I could not put it down! Sadly, Ireland's history is glossed over at best in American schools, and I was only vaguely familiar with Ireland's fight for independence. This book was enough to satisfy my love of a good novel, and cunningly interweaves fictional characters through documented history. I was a bit thrown off by the footnotes at first, but by the time I finished the book, I was interested enough to actually look up some of the titles to learn more about the Easter Rising. I am now reading the second in this series (I was very happy to learn that there are two more books beyond 1916!) and will be bringing the last in the series with me when I travel to Ireland next month! A great way to dip into history without being bogged down by dry facts.
Rating: 
Summary: 1916
Review: Although I maintain that women generally make better, and more accurate, authors of historical fiction, sometimes they let the love story get in the way of the history. Morgan Llywelyn will probably remain one of my favorite historical fiction authors. Her books "Finn MacCool" and "Lion of Ireland" were nothing short of grand, in both accuracy and readability. Granted, one must mentally dilute the romance as one reads, but overall they shone. '1916' on the other hand, left me feeling rather ...well, fooled with. I don't claim that Ms. Llywelyn didn't do months of involved research. Her facts are quite accurate. In fact, they're impeccable. She could have written a research paper with all the information she doubtlessly compiled. Which is part of the problem. She didn't write a research paper, she wrote a novel. A novel which, like her others, has a very strong romantic slant to it, and more than a little bit of hero-ization. I've read several books on or based around the events of the Easter Rising, including my favourite 'At Swim, Two Boys' by Jamie O'Neill. Although Llywelyn's interpretation of the events is historically valid, emotionally, I feel it's a bit of a flop. The love story between Ned and Sile gives the book a happy feeling, even though the events are anything but. Everything turns out OK for them in the end, even though the organisers and participants of the Rebellion were shot on the spot, hanged, or imprisoned. Which is another point. The characters are hard to feel for; their trials and motives concealed in paragraphs of dialog that could come out of a history textbook. Llywelyn seems to shy away from the gritty details which would have added a sense of reality to the scene. We don't get a sense of the desperation, frustration, or fear that the rebels undoubtedly felt. What about everybody who was shot? What about their families? What about the blood and tears and screaming?
The novel seemed more like a fairy tale in which Good is perfect and shining, and Evil is black and gets defeated in the end than an account of real events. Because everything turns out so dandily for Ned and Sile, Llywelyn gives the impression that the 1916 Rising was, overall, a very Good Thing. Which, if you read your history texts, it wasn't--at least not to the boys who were shot or the rebels who were hanged. I would really rate this book a 7/10, which translates to 3.5 stars, but since there are only 5 of the things, I rounded up. Not a complete disappointment, but try and remember your perspective as you read.
Rating:
Summary: The most enthralling historical-fiction of modern Irealand.
Review: I read this book at the end of a year studying in Ireland, primarily studying Irish History made this book particularly poigniant. My knowledge of early twentieth century Ireland was both helpful and enhanced by the experience of Ned's journey through this most important of Irish watersheds. By having Pádraic Pearse, Eoin MacNeil, James Connolly, the Countess, etc. as such integral characters and literally lifting them from the realm of historical jargon into breathing gives a reality to this maturing process that the story is. Those people who do not know the story of the 1916 Easter Rising will benefit even more by the fact that this was a real event, these people existed, and hear them speak.
Rating:
Summary: A history lesson that goes down easy
Review: I enjoyed this novel very much, and not only because of its strong characters and riveting plot. Morgan Llywelyn entertains while she teaches, and I learned a great deal about Irish history and the fundamental reasons for the fractious state of affairs that exist today in the north. After reading 1916, I went on to read the other two books in Llywelyn's series, 1921 and 1949. Readers who enjoy 1916 are likely to enjoy the other two books as well.
Rating:
Summary: I would like to give this 4.5, but I don't see the option
Review: Once again Morgan Llewelyn has proven the power the words in her works have. This book, 1916, is fantastic historical fiction, therefore if you are interested in this period of time in Irish History(which is a very important era if you ask me), pick it up, please, and satisfy your appetites with this book.
Rating:
Summary: 1916 Good Story and Solid History
Review: 1916 Good Story and Solid History Some element of this book that I found helpful and interesting: * It's a novel that employs footnotes.
* Characterizations are excellent and historically accurate
* Maps are helpful
* Listing of Characters is absolutely great. I am not normally a fan of historical romance novels but 1916 was very well written. Really the romance portion was overshadowed by the momentous events of the day. The story of the 1916 Irish Rebellion (later called the Easter Rebellion) is a thoughtful tale of a country boy caught up in Irish nationalist fervor. Some key events led up to the Rebellion were: the forced conscription of Irish citizens for World War I, the rise of nationalism and German promises of assistance. The author brings all of these to light as well as other elements all interwoven in her story. Overall a good story well told. I recommend this book to readers that enjoy histories, light romance and especially Irish culture.
Rating:
Summary: I think it's really a 4.5!
Review: As an avid reader of Morgan Llywelyn, I was very excited to see her chronicle a more modern piece of the Irish struggle. I could not put 1916 down! I really felt she captured to essence of the historical personages, and successfully entwined them in the lives of her fictional characters.
One thing I have always enjoyed about reading historical fiction is that I am nearly always inspired to further my knowledge outside of the novel. All of Llywelyn's books have inspired me thusly, but never with such immediacy as did 1916. After finishing this bookI spent about a week on the internet looking up all of these people (Pearse, MacDermott, etc.) and finding out more! I learned so much, and have to thank Morgan Llywelyn for my knowledge. Even dry facts are touched with her magic!
Rating: 
Summary: Ireland's Great Historian Misses Her Stride
Review: I love Morgan Llywelyn's books. I was so excited to see this novel published that I recommended it to my book club before I read it. None of my fellow book club readers were familiar with her work, so I jumped at the opportunity to introduce them to this marvelous writer. Over the ensuing weeks, one by one, my fellow readers asked me, "Are all of her books like this?" I had not started it yet, and was mystified at the lukewarm reception the book seemed to be getting. Once I read it myself, I was not puzzled for long. Llywelyn's research is meticulous, as usual, but her telling of the story is stilted and her fictional characters have none of the complexity or depth of her other books. Perhaps because she was writing about people who lived so recently, and not people are lived centuries ago and are more legend than fact, she felt less at liberty to intersperse her fictional characters into the thick of the action. They seemed to be content to stay on the periphery, only arriving in the thick of the action by happenstance and not to fulfill their destinies. Granted, the events of Easter 1916 are well documented, but one expects more literary license to be taken by one's favorite historical novelists. And this is probably my mistake, not hers. I expected Lion of Ireland but instead found myself reading what I felt were a series of notes on the rebellion, interspersed with a fictional romance. My fellow readers and I never understood why the Titanic was involved, except perhaps to make the lead characters more sympathetic. My words here seem to convey that we hated the book. We didn't. It was a very good exploration of the politics and social crises of the time, and we all loved Padraic Pearse. The knowledge she gives us of this courageous, passionate man is alone worth the price of the hardcover edition. Her examination of the Irish Question is spectacular. What kept this book from rating five stars was the incidental plot line involving her fictional characters. Had she left out the fictional Hallorans entirely the book would have been improved. We did not find ourselves yearning to see the next chapter about them. We prefered to see Padraic Pearse, the O'Rahilly, or Thomas Clarke in the first lines of a new chapter. We sought out Edmund Kent and Sean MacDermott. We ached for more about the fascinating Countess Constance Markievicz, who by herself would make a wonderful subject of another historical novel about the Irish-English conflict. This is not a typical Morgan Llywelyn novel. It is a good novel, but not a great one. It is the one hiccup of an otherwise, in my opinion, highly exceptional writer. I will not hesitate to buy Morgan Llywellyn's next book in hardback, despite my disappointment with this book.
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