This was like reading a high fantasy novel with no magic or redemptive narratives. The brutal and senseless Middle Ages that comes through in this book explains why George RR Martin wrote his fantasy world the way he did, but doesn't explain anyone else's (the well-perfumed medieval world of the Kushiel's series is as far removed from this as Vulcan). I would like to see someone's fantasy treatment of the completely off-the-hook Pope vs. Anti-Pope schism that persists until the end of the book (and the century).