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kittiwake"The Dragon Waiting" is set in a late mediaeval Europe which is mostly ruled by the Byzantine Empire, and in which Christianity and Islam never became the dominant religions that they were in our world at that time. I had to look up the dates of various historical characters in Wikipedia in order to guesstimate when the events of this novel were taking place, since there were a multitude of different dating systems in use. The Byzantines impose their laws on the lands they conquer but not their language (Greek) or religion (Mithraism), so that their subjects have less reason to rebel against them, but there are still regions of Italy and Eastern Europe holding out against the encroaching empire at the time this story is set. Three hundred years ago, England and the Byzantine empire partitioned France between them, leaving a small French-ruled buffer in between, but now the Byzantines are secretly supporting the Lancastrian side in the Wars of the Roses and planning to take over England and the rest of France. The protagonists of this story each have their own reason to hate the Byzantines and set off to England in an attempt to foil their plots.
I tend to mentally divide alternate history into science fiction (could have happened if things had turned out differently), and fantasy (stories including magic, fairies, dragons, psychic powers, etc.). I much prefer those that I classify as science fiction, so I was disappointed to realise that this book included magic and vampires, even though magic was hard to do and slow to achieve its aims and vampires were seen as people suffering from a disease rather than supernatural beings.
I was also irritated by the characters, who seemed to react and over-react in the most unlikely ways, and although no-one expressed any surprise about Cynthia Ricci was a doctor, I found it it jarring that she was the only woman with an anachronistic (for our world) career, apart from a brief mention of a Valkyrie regiment of women soldiers at the end of the book.
Also, from the time the protagonists got together I found it very hard to follow exactly what was going on, and more importantly why. The politics were impenetrable, as were the doings of the magicians, and the characters were always hinting things to each other and letting their sentences trail off, leaving me very confused. It would have been helpful to have had some idea why Cynthia and Peredur spent two years wandering around Wales and to have understood the point of the Robin Hood references, and I'm still unclear as to whether Peredur considered betraying Richard at the Battle of Bosworth.
It's not that I expect everything to be laid on a plate for me, but this book was so much of a struggle that I could hardly be bothered to finish it. It won the World Fantasy Award and I was expecting to enjoy it, so it was a big disappointment.
I tend to mentally divide alternate history into science fiction (could have happened if things had turned out differently), and fantasy (stories including magic, fairies, dragons, psychic powers, etc.). I much prefer those that I classify as science fiction, so I was disappointed to realise that this book included magic and vampires, even though magic was hard to do and slow to achieve its aims and vampires were seen as people suffering from a disease rather than supernatural beings.
I was also irritated by the characters, who seemed to react and over-react in the most unlikely ways, and although no-one expressed any surprise about Cynthia Ricci was a doctor, I found it it jarring that she was the only woman with an anachronistic (for our world) career, apart from a brief mention of a Valkyrie regiment of women soldiers at the end of the book.
Also, from the time the protagonists got together I found it very hard to follow exactly what was going on, and more importantly why. The politics were impenetrable, as were the doings of the magicians, and the characters were always hinting things to each other and letting their sentences trail off, leaving me very confused. It would have been helpful to have had some idea why Cynthia and Peredur spent two years wandering around Wales and to have understood the point of the Robin Hood references, and I'm still unclear as to whether Peredur considered betraying Richard at the Battle of Bosworth.
It's not that I expect everything to be laid on a plate for me, but this book was so much of a struggle that I could hardly be bothered to finish it. It won the World Fantasy Award and I was expecting to enjoy it, so it was a big disappointment.
