“When you get to the front [line], you take off your outer clothes. You put your shoes in the box provided. When you go in, have your papers ready. When you are stripped for the search, you stand with your legs apart and your arms spread. If you need an interpreter, tell the clerk. One will be provided.”

“Strip and bend over.”

No, Aelric of Kent is not goings through a TSA strip search! The passage above describes the way the young barbarian is greeted by a custom official as he descends from his ship in the city founded by Constantine the Great. The year is 610, not 2019, yet it appears history has a habit of repeating itself. Especially in times of trouble, when embattled despots rely on fear and on an iron fist in order to hold on to power.

In the early seventh Century, the name of the dictator is Phocas and his reign of terror gives the title of this second episode in Aelric saga. The young man is sent by the papal office as a sort of unofficial ambassador to Constantinople, tasked with identifying and copying rare books in the city libraries, dealing with deviations from church dogma and heretic beliefs. Aelric is assisted by his secretary Martin, his bodyguard Authari and a slave retinue.

“Why do you suppose we do this, day after day?”

“The official answer, is that they are traitors. Really, of course, none may be guilty of anything at all. It’s really a matter of keeping control, isn’t it?”

In a matter of hours, Aelric realizes that he has no idea what his role in Constantinople is, who are his friends and who are his enemies, and even why Rome has chosen to throw him in this den of lions. Everybody assumes he is a spy on a secret mission. Strangers try to pass him encrypted messages. The eunuch Theophanes, master of spies for the Emperor Phocas, cultivates him. Priscus, leader of the death squads that roam the city in search of traitors, takes an interest in his whereabouts. The Permanent Legate of Rome is hiding from Aelric, locked away in his own quarters. And a besieging army led by pretender to the throne Heraklius is about to encircle the city. In the first half of the story, Aelric deserves the nickname “the man who knew too little”, since this novel reads more like a cold war spy thriller than a historical account.

I did struggle with this first half, mostly because of the deliberate confusion and false paths laid before the protagonist. And because of the language, which kept pulling me out of the mood with anachronisms and modern turns of phrase, out of place in the seventh century setting. But I never considered giving up on the book, because I am really interested in this early historical period and in the city of Istanbul / Constantinople. I have visited the place twice in recent years, and have been truly enchanted by its layers of history and by its modern vibrancy. Whatever shortcomings I found in pacing and language were balanced by the thrill of recognizing familiar landmarks and customs.

The Empire is no sort of democracy. But you need to know how to manage the crowd in the Circus if you want to last on the Imperial Throne.

My patience was rewarded in the later chapters, as the action really picks up, including sword-fighting, murder investigations, plots and counter-plots to unseat Phocas, a visit to the Great Church (St. Sophia), a day of races at the Hypodrome, culminating in the attack against the city fortifications by Heraklius. Aelric plays a swashbuckling role here, with entertainment value trumping historical accuracy (view spoiler) . The confusion of the spying game is largely revealed according to the usual rules of the game, where each player is a double or even triple agent. I found the discussion of heresy, inter-church politics and the accuracy of translations of sacred texts particularly intriguing and satisfactory, laying out the groundwork for the Great Schism, still several centuries ahead. Basically, it boils down not to the changing of one word in the Creed, but in the supremacy of Rome over the rest of the original Churches (Egypt, Antioch, Jerusalem and Byzantium).

So, I will read the next book in the series, but not as a high priority. The main reason for this comes from the influx of anachronism in the text, so pervasive that it often pulled me out of the ancient setting to land in the middle of the modern age. Even in the first volume in Rome I noticed numerous references to banking, stock exchange and insurance fraud as the methods Aelric used to get rich. They are repeated here, despite no evidence such operations were practiced before the 15th century. Roman priests talk of ‘spheres of influence’, a Byzantine soldier snorts a white powder up his nose, an eunuch drinks coffee, Aelric gazes at his reflection in shop windows multiple times, (view spoiler)

You see the rippling wave of green and blue as the victorious Faction stand briefly, row by row, and seat themselves again.

Almost all my bookmarks in the text are not of clever quotes or interesting descriptions of places, but of such modern images. The quote above describes the crowd at the Hypodrome making waves, like they do today at soccer games. The worst offenders for me are the instants of murder investigation, when Aelric talks like a Sherlock Holmes wannabe.

“Whatever we find, mustn’t be disturbed.”

“You will say nothing to each other. You will wait until I speak with each of you.”

or, “Cut the thing up,” he said, looking ferocious. “Cut it up in the lead bathtub. Wrap the body parts in old cloth and dump them one at a time into the rubbish bins placed at the main street junctions.”

Despite my complaints, most of the information about the decline of Phocas and his use of terror to control the city are accurate. Aelric is a personable scoundrel, and even if Blake is not in the same class as Cornwell, he is still worth a visit.

Review posted on Goodreads on the 6th September 2019

Tags: Historical Fiction, history, review