This was a DNF. I started this as an audiobook three different times, and each listen only lasted an hour and a half to two hours into a 20 hour story. The main reason that I DNFed this book is that every time I started this book I couldn’t remember anything I had already listened to. This is because so much of this book is telling not showing. At least in the beginning there is so much set up for who the characters are what they’re doing, etc. It’s almost never ending. Even now, though I have listened to those first two hours multiple times I still cannot tell you anything that happened. I’m not saying this book was bad I’m just saying it wasn’t for me as an audiobook. ( )

Hits and misses in this one. Some really fascinating alternative history world-building, but also spots that slog rather a lot, and a few characters that felt quite one-note. I will read the second one, though, since I want to see where the author's going. ( )

3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 because I feel generous. While an amazing look at an alternate history, one where the French Revolution started because of magic, and vampires are real but have been long gone from the world, with some truly great world building, I felt like the ending was a bit rushed. Towards the end, Pitt and Wilberforce's ambling conversations were a bit tiring, and I found that I was more interested in Robespierre, even though he was about to be killed. I wanted more of Fina in what is now known as Haiti, and only got so little. I wanted to know who the Voice was, and though I know that he will be using Napoleon now (hint hint he said that his next tool will rule an Empire), I just want to know who he is. Will I read the next one? Probably, yeah! I just feel like there was something more out of this that I could get and I'm not sure what it was yet... ( )

Fans of slow historical narratives, like PBS Masterpiece series or HBO's The Gilded Age, will revel in the measured pace and intensive detail of this interesting fantasy, which takes the events of the French Revolution and situates them in the context of a Europe in which magic not only exists, but is wielded unequally. Familiar characters of history, including Robespierre and his compatriots on the French side and Williams Pitt and Wilberforce (who are the main characters, with the other perspectives coming slightly less frequently) on the British side advocate for magical freedoms alongside other civil rights and the walls of Parliament and the streets of Paris sing, literally and figuratively and magically, with the words of their inspirational declarations.

Those who are not fans of Parliamentary process or inspirational speeches, however, may grow impatient here. I found the level of detail delicious, but could see where others might find it tedious. The prose occasionally wobbles, though it does strengthen in other places. My biggest issue, and the loss of a star as a result, is that, as the novel weaves in a third perspective -- that of an enslaved woman in the Caribbean, fighting for her own freedom and that of others -- it sometimes reads as less meticulous and a bit more stereotypical than the white characters. I understand the context of this difference -- clearly, the author has access to considerably more resources on the Euro-centric parts of this historical moment -- but I hope that the characterization of the Black and POC figures in this story becomes more well-rounded as the duology continues. ( )

I agree with another reviewer--this was a hard one to rate. As you may have surmised from the title, this is an alt-supernatural-Western European history, a shadow history, if you will.

It's a fusion of history, politics, and fantasy/magical realism with historical figures (Robespiere as a necromancer, Toussaint L'Ouverture as a mage). Very well-written and comprehensively detailed which is why I bumped it over three stars. It reads as if it's intricately researched and crafted.

Be aware if you tackle this it's nearly entirely dialogue driven with political intrigue and legal arguments/hearings--500 pages that feel like it's entire job is to set the stage for the action to come in the next installment. It's scholarly, but not stiff--a pageturner it isn't.

Best analogy in tone I can muster: it's sort of like a supernatural Wolf Hall or maybe one of Caro's Years of Lyndon Johnson series if Johnson was up against undead world leader opposition.

Remember Seth Grahame-Smith's books from awhile back (Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter)? They're sorta playing in opposite corners of the same playground, but wildly different in execution and in tonality. If those were too one-note jokey, this is like eating dry toast. It works and you're fed, but it's a polite 'no thanks' if offered seconds. ( )