Hild

Great if you're into speculative history, not so much if you are looking for speculative fiction

This is a speculative history novel -- written about a historic person for whom little documentation of their life actually exists. It's interesting, expecially if you enjoy Middle Ages history. The author has clearly done exhaustive research, so as to be able to realistically construct a lifestory for the main character which is consistent with what we know to be historically accurate about those times.

It is not, however, what I consider a speculative fiction novel. It's essentially a docudrama. If you're looking for fantasy, you may be disappointed, as I was. It's huge -- 560 pages -- so a little over halfway through, I called it quits, because I was not enjoying it enough to make the time spent worthwhile.