Days Dark As Night

Rating:
Summary: Exciting AND informative
Review: It is rare to find a book that is both an exciting adventure story and an informative work of history, but Days Dark as Night manages to accomplish this. There is a Michneresque attention to historical detail combined with "edge of your seat" story-telling. The book works on many levels: as a history, as a romance, and as fantasy. Even if you are not a fan of fantasy, you should consider this one.

Rating:
Summary: Exciting AND informative
Review: My wife has a lot of medieval fantasy books. I don't much like the genre. But Days Dark as Night is different; indeed, it can hardly be called fantasy. It's much more historical fiction.

That's because, as in, say, The Winds of War, the fictional characters exist in a meticulously-researched real world. The history, mores, technology, and language of the 13th century are painted vividly into this book.

On top of that, you get a strong female lead character, but not one whose ideas are 700 years ahead of her time. So often, women in period fantasy seem like they were pasted in from Redbook. The heroine in Days Dark as Night is a) not an Amazon and b) motivated by her own experiences. She is conscious of inequities of the system but not on an anachronistic political rampage.

So you really get two books here. One is a medieval fantasy piece with believable characters, both good and evil. The other is a fascinating work of history. They just happen to come in one cover for your convenience. That's quite a find!

Rating:
Summary: Two books in one!
Review: My wife has a lot of medieval fantasy books. I don't much like the genre. But Days Dark as Night is different; indeed, it can hardly be called fantasy. It's much more historical fiction.

That's because, as in, say, The Winds of War, the fictional characters exist in a meticulously-researched real world. The history, mores, technology, and language of the 13th century are painted vividly into this book.

On top of that, you get a strong female lead character, but not one whose ideas are 700 years ahead of her time. So often, women in period fantasy seem like they were pasted in from Redbook. The heroine in Days Dark as Night is a) not an Amazon and b) motivated by her own experiences. She is conscious of inequities of the system but not on an anachronistic political rampage.

So you really get two books here. One is a medieval fantasy piece with believable characters, both good and evil. The other is a fascinating work of history. They just happen to come in one cover for your convenience. That's quite a find!

Rating:
Summary: Fire Down Below
Review: This is an historically very well researched and still very exciting story of war and magic, religion and the lust for power, loyalty and betrayal, oppression and revolt, ideas, passion, love and revenge - all brought to life with good horses, broad swords, a beautiful powerful heroine, a strong handsome hero, a cool dwarf and yes, even an evil Cardinal and a couple of nice wandering Jews. The authors have done a good job fleshing out these and a variety of other characters, high and low, and furnishing their daily lives amidst the dramatic plots and historic events that drive the story. Watching the heroine's power and wisdom (and not coincidentally, her beauty) grow with experience is particularly satisfying. Also nicely done is how the importance of magic is handled - we don't know whether the magic is "real" or whether its power derives from the characters' belief in it, but either way it has real consequences in people's lives that could be sometimes as long and slow as the seasons and sometimes - often - noble, brutal, and short.