BRB, moving this book to the top of my "to-read" queue on the basis of this review. It sounds amazing.
Question: I can't remember if you've read John M. Ford's The Dragon Waiting. It's another Roman Empire historical AU (although really it's a Byzantine Empire AU, with the point of divergence being Julian the Apostate) and I strongly suspect I'm going to be reading Cold Magic in contrast with it.
One thing I wound up thinking about in the context of that book, which I suspect will ping for me with this book too, is how much sentimentality for the Roman Empire depends on its being *gone*. When they're still an active presence, no quantity of appreciation for the past will reconcile fifteenth-century France to being called Gaul again, or convince the Medici family to give up ruling Florence without a fight.
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Date: 2012-08-01 19:51 (UTC)Question: I can't remember if you've read John M. Ford's The Dragon Waiting. It's another Roman Empire historical AU (although really it's a Byzantine Empire AU, with the point of divergence being Julian the Apostate) and I strongly suspect I'm going to be reading Cold Magic in contrast with it.
One thing I wound up thinking about in the context of that book, which I suspect will ping for me with this book too, is how much sentimentality for the Roman Empire depends on its being *gone*. When they're still an active presence, no quantity of appreciation for the past will reconcile fifteenth-century France to being called Gaul again, or convince the Medici family to give up ruling Florence without a fight.