I'm not sure how I feel about this one. The good parts were good (the characterization), the bad parts were bad (the... politics?), the mediocre parts were mediocre (the worldbuilding). That said, I can't tell how much of that is my own personal expectations not being met, versus the novel doing what it's set itself up to do. The book is very front-loaded with fairy tales, should I be disappointed in its lack of a darker ending, when so much of the book itself is dark and brooding?

Without giving any spoilers away, let me just say I think the book is perfect if you chop the epilogue off. But I'm maybe overfond of ambiguity.

Medieval Jews... don't make it out okay. Pagans... don't make it at all. This book seems to be somewhat more interested in history than fairy tales, but perhaps that's, again, my preference for historicity over fairy tales. I just can't buy that everything is going to be okay, after so much blood has been spilled.