For those of you whose cup of tea is historical novels, your samovar is about to runneth over. Czar! is jam-packed with history, intrigue and terror. With a snap of his fingers on the keyboard, Larry Townsend transports us to the world of Ivan IV, Czar of all Russias. Fasten your troika seatbelts, button up your ermine wraps, it=s quite a ride.

One thing that should be stated right up front is that this book is not for the faint-of-heart. Ivan was called The Terrible with more than good cause, and Townsend doesn't pull many punches in his descriptions of some of the atrocities committed by him and in his name.

In the preface to the book, Townsend asserts his use of legitimate history of the period as the background of the novel. The story is unveiled through the thoughts and ruminations of Prince Dmitri Simeonevitch Marensky, a fictional character whom Townsend places at Ivan's right hand from near-birth until the bitter end, giving the book the sense of history unfolding through the personal. Don't let Dmitri's title scare you into thinking this is another Russian novel where you'll have to decode all of the patrynoms and classic titles to keep up with who is being called what on which page. Townsend has Anglicized and Germanized all the names to eliminate the usual need for a road-map of characters that can confuse even the most avid reader of Russian books.

Townsend has divided this epic into three distinct parts, allowing the reader to absorb the totality of Ivan and the times in which he lived. Book One is The Orphan; Book two, Ivan the Good; Book 3, Ivan Grozny (Terrible). It's an excellent approach, one that lays the background and circumstances that, while they do not allow excuse for many of Ivan's later actions, they help explain and illuminate his descent into total madness.

Ivan IV Vasilyevich (1530-84) the Grandson of Ivan III (Ivan the Good) and son of Basil III, assumed the throne as Grand Duke of Russia at the age of three. After his mother died when he was about ten ( some assumed she was poisoned) Ivan was more or less a pawn/prisoner of the surrounding inner circle that held the rulership in an iron grip. A coup and usurpation of power allowed the young prince to grow into his heritage as Grand Duke. When his coronation was imminent, Ivan, though only sixteen-years-old, announced that he would be crowned as Czar, or Caesar of the Third Rome. The Duma (legislative assembly) conceded, making him the first Czar of Russia.

During the early part of his reign, Ivan accomplished much that was needed in Russia. He had a distaste for the Boyars (ruling-class nobles) who seemed to him to be greedily squeezing the life blood from the peasantry. He confiscated their properties and granted rights and properties to those who served him and were loyal to his leadership. He organized the Streltsi, a standing military force drawn from the most capable leaders of his armies. Wars and battles over lands and principalities were commonplace throughout all of the lands of Europe and leaders were constantly engaged in struggles to regain old and obtain new territories. (Ivan also had the Cathedral of St. Basil built during this period as homage to his father. It's rumored that Ivan had the eyes of the Architects gouged out so that they would never be able to recreate another cathedral of such beauty. The cathedral still stands in its onion-domed glory and often is mistaken for the Kremlin.)

Forming the Opritchina, ("The Ones Who Serve") originally composed of one thousand of his most loyal followers, provided the framework for Ivan's despotic actions. The black-robed group literally rode roughshod over the countryside raping and pillaging with the explicit consent and encouragement of the Czar. The Opritchina became a much feared police force of terror and horror.

As the Czar sank deeper and deeper into paranoia and schizophrenia he used the Opritchina as his militia of madness ordering the slaying of thousands. Depravity seemed to be the central coda of the court. Ivan had a personal torture chamber built into the subterranean levels of his palace where he kept the most up-to-date and cruel instruments of torture. What separates this Czar from many rulers who order mass murder and persecution of their own people, is his willingness to personally watch and revel in committing torture himself. It appears that he totally abandoned his sanity when, in a fit of rage, he strangled and stabbed to death his oldest and favorite son.