Hild

The author's note raised this book from a 3 to a 4 for me. Ha!

But srs. This is a long, looong historical novel set in the darkest of dark ages: 7th century British Isles, during the period when they went from Anglo-Saxon (aka Viking/Nordic/pagan/Germanic) to Christian (aka when the Romans came back and won - again!). I know nothing - and I mean NADA - about this place in this period in history, so this was basically like reading science fiction. Which I am good at! And enjoy! But yes. I listened to this on an audiobook (so pure - so connected to this illiterate kingdom), and so all the names and places in this review are being phonetically transcribed. Maybe if I had seen it on the page, I would have understood a bit more who X and Y were and how they connect to the present-day England/Wales/Cornwall/Scotland/Ireland. I recognized East Anglia!

Anyway, we follow Hild, the second daughter of a crafty, widowed lady in the court of the ...Northumbrian (???)... king, Edwin. Hild's mom - Brgeswith? - is super crafty, and imbues in Hild (a) a messiah complex (“you are the light of the world! I had prophetic dreams about you while pregnant!”), and (b) a super realpolitik brain. Indeed, Hild grows up canny and observant AS HELL. She becomes a “seer” in Edwin's court - and we know from history/wikipedia that she'll eventually become a nun and Catholic saint. But the spirituality in this book - from the prophetic dreams to the Wodin (Odin?) worshipping to the Jesus stuff - is totally stripped of any otherwordliness. Hild doesn't believe any of it, neither does (it seems) anyone else, not really. It's all a giant political game of endless 3d chess.

So this book quenched my specific thirst for deep, deeeep cut historical fiction. Oh boy, did it. But I didn't love it, mostly because I found Hild - in her various incarnations of precocious toddler, kid, teenager - an unpleasant heroine. I just found her humorless, self-important, self-pitying and a martyr. She reminded me of Harry Potter in the later books, when all his dialogue is in ALL CAPS. I much preferred her ...yamache (?)/bosom buddy/female life partner (?), Begu (?), as well as her house slave, Uladus (?). But hey - that's just me. YMMV. And there are some lovely, epic scenes and moments peppered throughout.