So those are facts in them history books? The authors never took any liberties? I’ll grant you that history books (maybe even less than a ton) would provide a more detailed and accurate picture of the period, as much as one can tell, but in this case I’m not really interested in “the facts” as portrayed by historians over the centuries. Historical fiction is, well, fiction and I understand that.

I had started it, but I stopped after the first few chapters, because of all the history that was just gushing out of every page. And this is not the kind of history, that takes you on a journey jently. Its the “movie version” of the “book version” of the history.

Kinda like LOTR the movie, which tried to be too much like the book, and in the process, just ended up being too verbose and a lot less attractive.

Personally, I found it to be overbearing, un-interesting, and overly patronizing. The whole dialog with ‘quicksilver’ boy and subsequent paragraphs are just shoddy attempts at history-preaching that sacrifice the artistic integrity of the story-telling (which should be the main focus of a novel).

I just find incredible the kind of comments, a guy dressed in clothing that will qualify him as a witch (and therefore a taliban style hanging), is making 10 minutes after a “witch hanging” about Muslims (ie them being a more “enlightened” culture. no doubt the author is pandering to a certain group of readers), in Boston of that time. Yeah, I gotta suspend my belief, but darn it, It all has to make sense within the make-believe world of the novel at least don’t it?..