Bought it recently. Have heard good things about it and cannot wait to read it!

A RABCK in honor of my one year bookcrossing anniversary! Happy reading! On the way shortly to conto in Portugal!

WOW! Great book....probably the best I've read year to date. At 642 pages it looks daunting at first, but once you get into it you are hooked. I like the switching back and forth between the three story lines/points of view. I liked how the storyline evolved like a puzzle falling into place. The short chapters kept the story moving forward. All in all a very good read!

RELEASE NOTES:

A RABCK on its way to conto in Portugal in honor of my 1 year BC anniversary. Enjoy!

And it already arrived! That was quick!!!

So... this is my amazing prize for entering tobysrus' anniversary RABCK draw!
Tahnk you so very, very much tobysrus and I just hope you'll have lots and lots of great years as BCer and, of course as a reader!

I think it will take some time before I can get to this one, once I've got a bit too much involved with BC and joined a bit too many bookrings and rays... they are kind of "falling" from all over right now, and of course I'll have to read those first as there's other people waiting for them.
(oh! But how I wanted to get my hands on it right now!!!)
Also, it IS way too big just to carry it around with me and read it through my lunch times and on the way to and from work... It will have to wait!

I'll let you know when I start it, anyway!

Well, not starting it just yet (still piling down my BRings/Rays TBR, I'm afraid!) but had to come here and post one image of the symbol of The Order of The Dragon which is very important to understand what the characters are talking about, at some point of the narrative, or so a friend of mine that just finished this book says.

Here it goes then, and it'll be waiting for the time I can finally get to read this huge book!

And I finally did it!
I started a while ago, but then went away on holydays (Thought I would be able to finnish it before going but couldn't and then decided against taking it because of its size) and was able to end it only now.

Liked it quite a lot, all along its 600 and something pages, but the final ones were a bit of a disappointment: it ended in a crude kind of way, a sudden one and a bit improbable one as well (if such a word in even conceiveble when one's talking about such a book!... I mean improbable considering the context of the story).
But I liked all the development until then, I liked the thorough descriptions of every place, monument and scenery and absolutelly liked the different characters that are presented, their minutious characterisation, etc. (although strange, within the story of course, that no one acts strangely when hearing their tale).

Quite a good read indeed, everything considered.

Thanks a lot tobysrus, once more, for this opportunity.

(and here goes the portrait of Dracula, as well described throughout this book)

This book's been standing on my shelf for way too long, and I know I won't read it again, because there are allways so many others I've never read that I want to.
This is mainly why I'm sending it off as a RABCK to someone I don't know much about reading tastes but states that welcomes almost everything. It's the winner of the Book & bookmark sweepstakes March-April 2021. Congratulations!!
This book has fantasy involved but also a lot of history, as far as I remember, and that's what I liked so much. I sure hope you do too.
If not, at least I hope the bookmarks (one or other) will be to your liking :)

Wow conto! Thank you very much for this book and the tons of interesting bookmarks. I flipped through the book and I kept discovering more and more cool bookmarks! I'm impressed!

Actually I've read The Historian in Greek many years ago and I vaguely remember I liked it although I found it a bit slow at parts. I am one of those people who like to revisit books again and again so this will definitely be read at some point.
Well, To be read pile is monstrous so it might take a while!

As I said, Ι've read this book many years ago and I vaguely remembered that I liked it, although I found it too slow sometimes. Now that I finished reading it a second time, I think my opinion kind of remains the same, but the "I liked it" part tends to be questionable.

Maybe my patience levels are lower nowadays and maybe I tend to be more critical than I used to be, but occasionally reading this book felt like a torture. I'm not fond of silly thrillers that are full of action scenes and a racing pace, but on the other hand this doesn't mean that I have to read hudrends of pages where the author beats around the bush and bombards me with irrelevant details!

Furthermore, even on books with a fantasy element, there should be some logic and realism within the setting and the plot. For example, your daughter is on lethal danger, you have to reveal crucial details to her that might inform her on what's going on and might prove life-saving, time might be running against you both, but on your letters to her you spend page after page to describe the scenery or to tell her what you ate on a meal twenty years ago. How realistic is that?

The narration style featuring texts within texts, references within references and the epistolary form, I guess is a way the author had to honor the historians and academic research, libraries and books, the inquiring minds that add to human knowledge and also a way to honor the epistolary form-written Dracula by Bram Stoker. But I think she lost her plot and overdid it.

All narrators' voices seem the same, all of them roam to irrelevant descriptions and topics and minor details, so the book stalls all the time and there is no rhythm at all. I'm not sure all this jumbing around different time lines worked in favor of the book either. To make things worse, the reader has to accept all kind of improbabilities, while major plot twists start to become obvious early on. And after a rather flat narration, when things seem to come to a head, the action scenes are a disappointment.

If one takes out the poignant, long-winded descriptions of scenery and food and traditions and political situations of each place, the references to real or fictional bibliography and the irrelevant details on who touched first the handle of a door or how people became an item just because, well...the core of the book is too poor.
The main premise is ridiculous on many aspects and not very clear as it is, the characters are cliche and one-dimensional while the pace is awful and there are many eye-rolling moments. I'm trying not to write spoilers here, but often I exclaimed "Really now?"

I read The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova a few months ago too and I faced the same problems. The stories had potential, while the individual elements of the book were very decent, but the execution left something to be desired. Maybe the author should keep lots of information and chapters for a different book, travel memoirs or a travel guide or something and also two-three different novels featuring different themes and stick to a core story in this one, without plodding among different subjects and themes in one long book. It got very tiring after a while.

I don't think I liked The Historian very much, but I can't say I exactly disliked it either. I have mixed feelings about this one...

The Historian will now continue its travels to USA as part of my 6th Bookiversary celebration parcel! And then.. Who knows?

Good Luck and Don't forget to write your news from time to time!

This hardcover book has done a good amount of traveling. At 600+ pages, I think I'll make it a wintertime read when I'll be spending more time indoors.

Thanks for the RABCK, Delphi_Reader.

It's very long, but I finally finished it! It's very different from any book I've read. With that said, I'm not sure I would recommend it; the author is a bit long-winded and I lost interest in sections that were overloaded with details.
I'm going to donate it to my local library's book sale; I hope the next reader enjoys it.