Hmmm... for a historical fiction/fantasy, this WAS quite unique and interesting! It never would have occurred to me that occultism and war could fit into one book, but Mary Kowal Robbinette hit it right on! A tad sad, romantic, bittersweet, but quite technical too.

A shameful sidenote: I can't say I actually read the entire thing, I think I read the first half, then skimmed the rest to find out how the plot played out. Unfortunately that's just what I did... I'm not proud of it. Nevertheless, through that skimming, I felt a deflated dissatisfaction by the last page. I was hoping for a happy ending, ok? Can a reader ask that? Ok, ok, I don't want a cliche one, and let's not make it a "waking from a dream"... anyway. Nothing's perfect.

I really enjoyed this. It was a different take on the period books that are so popular right now. Her sense of setting and atmosphere are terrific, and the mixture of real history and imagined events is refreshing. It is nice to read a "fantasy" novel (this is really historical fiction to me) that is not populated by sexy vampires and buff werewolves... :)

Although I found it a bit plodding at first, I eventually came to appreciate the characters and setting.