4.25 An interesting look at the early Byzantines through an alternate history / fantasy lens. Old Greek pagan creatures and believers still exist, while Slavic and Avar tribes duke it out with a Byzantine border town in both the military and mystical-religious side. The idea of all the religions giving power to their believers and their myths is nicely executed and with little prejudice (especially surprising since the book is over a quarter-century old). The Slavs and Avars remain nameless and I can't vouch for their accuracy (though sources are sparse on the ground, of course), but the Byzantines and the pagan Greek rustics feel whole and realistic - small wonder since Turtledove is a trained Byzantinologist. The author also doesn't fall into the trap of discounting the female characters, though the narrative is told from a male POV exclusively. Also no stupid focus on violence and rape (actually no rape, period - the only molesters are satyrs and even they are only into consensual sex).

I did enjoy the step back from Turtledove's epic multiple-volume, multiple-POV narratives and I'm going to read more of his earlier and standalone work. The only real complaint I have is that the Avars and Slavs remain a little too far away. Some of that is the Byzantine POV, but I could have seen one closer encounter. One more general twist would have been nice to have a bit more build-up at the end and I don't really like it, when authors spell out what every half-discerning reader had figured 150 pages earlier. Though the latter feels like an editorial insert.

Cover is more or less true to the book if you take the cross being more of a marker of the contents for prospective buyers. Blurb here on goodreads stupidly talks about Germanic tribes, but the actual blurb is truthful.

Bonus points for having a main character who is not stupid and a narrative that is not simply "Christianity (or Judaism - because there are certainly Jews in the book) is right". If pagan revival is your thing, you might be a little disappointed though. The alternate history is not the events, just in the dressings.