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zitongren's review
3.0
A rich book that includes huge diversity and scope. An enjoyable historical novel that takes place(mainly) in 19th century Africa focusing on the political situation of Abyssinia, or modern day Ethiopia. I don’t know much about the region’s history until the first Italian-Ethiopian War and this cannot say how accurate the novel is, though a quick browse on Wikipedia stated not very much. It does lose a star however because of the incredibly long backstory of which a lot of which was not really needed and could have been cut out. Furthermore, the book was highly sexualised, and while I understand it suits into the time period, a lot of it was unnecessary.
The two main characters, Jamie and Rachel do not even meet until after six hundred pages, yet the blurb on my edition already states their romance together, which first off, we have the blurb telling effectively telling over half of the main plot, but also leading the reader to expect the things to happen quickly, not drag on for hundreds and hundreds of pages. At first, the twins of Toomi and Magkingma were entirely irrelevant and there backstory could be summed up in a few paragraphs. It is only through reading through a good four five hundred pages that their relevance finally comes to prominence. This would be a good book for people who like historical fiction, but prepared for lots of backstory before the plot actually kicks into gear and also for lots of sex, nudity and rape. 7/10
The two main characters, Jamie and Rachel do not even meet until after six hundred pages, yet the blurb on my edition already states their romance together, which first off, we have the blurb telling effectively telling over half of the main plot, but also leading the reader to expect the things to happen quickly, not drag on for hundreds and hundreds of pages. At first, the twins of Toomi and Magkingma were entirely irrelevant and there backstory could be summed up in a few paragraphs. It is only through reading through a good four five hundred pages that their relevance finally comes to prominence. This would be a good book for people who like historical fiction, but prepared for lots of backstory before the plot actually kicks into gear and also for lots of sex, nudity and rape. 7/10
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