1066 What Fates Impose; A Shot in the Eye

This book is very historical, with a spin on it like the Lady of the Rivers. It does help that my lovely roommate it British and knew exactly what the book was about by the year. Delving into the world without any knowledge is kinda fun, you meet these characters, these men and women who have lived almost a millennium ago. To get to 'experience' all that the monarchy, the court, and what life could have been like is a journey that I am happy to take. . We have the opportunity to walk back in time, before the Church of England and Martin Luther existed, and when the Roman Catholic Church was the end all be all for Christianity.

The main character, Harold Godwinson, was a short reigning King of England (1066), prior to William the Conqueror. We get to experience his life from 1045 to his death in 1066. We get a taste of the weddings, how life was for Harold and the people around him, and I personally felt like I was walking beside him. The amount of imagery and detail given to everything is so precise it truly feels like you are watching a detailed movie or are in that time and place. We get a chance to walk next to Harold and all the people that were around him in that time period.

The characters are what made this for me, how startlingly real they are, while being different from what you would usually hear about in fantastical, old English stories. From Edyth, his first wife, whom he basically had a shotgun wedding with; to Sweyn, one of his brothers, violent, mad, and raving, who was known to have kidnapped an Abbess and fathered a child with her; Holloway gives us a glimpse at a man that lived, breathed, and drank. Sweyn is not a character, he is human, and being able to understand that the stories we hear are glorified and given a rose tinted glass is very eye opening.

The whole plot is rather interesting to me, mainly because of my love of history, but by the fact that it is well written, long but not boring, and filled with a plot and characters you'll keep going back for. I did, it felt like an addiction, I wanted to know what happens next. This book I must say is one for the History buffs. It is filled to the brim with historical information, from the proper way to forge a sword, to the difference in types of marriages available in those days. We get so many facts and tidbits, that I personally kept my computer and notebook at hand, just so I could look up everything that popped up and jot them down for future reference.