I've finished, finally! I liked it with of course all the caveats above -- I feel like she did a better job investing me in the characters in some of her other books. I was also, okay, not expecting it to end with Aspasia and Ismail breaking up! (Of course Ismail couldn't stay and she couldn't leave, but I was hoping that they'd have a long-distance relationship or something!)
One thing I thought was kind of, idk, unknowingly (at least to the characters in the book) tragic is that so much is made of how the Ottos understand the idea of empire, and the Henrys don't, but of course Otto III never makes it to establishing that empire. Though I suppose that's why the book ends with Aspasia getting the training of little Henry. (I did really like that deal with Henry as a novelistic solution, even if it wasn't historical.)
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Re: Eagle's Daughter
Date: 2023-02-26 06:25 am (UTC)One thing I thought was kind of, idk, unknowingly (at least to the characters in the book) tragic is that so much is made of how the Ottos understand the idea of empire, and the Henrys don't, but of course Otto III never makes it to establishing that empire. Though I suppose that's why the book ends with Aspasia getting the training of little Henry. (I did really like that deal with Henry as a novelistic solution, even if it wasn't historical.)