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Beyond The Words, Past
A Science Fiction / Fantasy Column
By Courtney Skelton   

The Historian
BY ELIZABETH KOSTOVA

The Historian is indeed a book that did not start merely start with a passing “what if”, question, but stemmed from years of well thought out preparation, and seeming years of planning and writing. Each page and every description painted so many textures that the story transports you exactly to the location of the happenings on the paper before you. It managed to detail some parts of history that I would have thought I would have a hard time grasping what transpired before me, yet I was able to keep up. The story start at a snail’s pace, and does keep going that pace for quite some time, yet it did pick up after a while. When that happened, I have no idea. I just know that at some point getting to the end of the book switched from quenching curiosity to almost seemingly sustenance.

It blended a great fantasy story about Vlad the Impaler and Dracula that not only intrigues you from the beginning, it holds your interest throughout. The Historian has successfully blurred the lines between fantasy and reality.

Character development was the area I thought Elizabeth Kostova really shined. There are so many characters that you meet along the way that seem small yet at the same time each had impact upon the outcome. Then you have the relationship between the young woman and her father.

That is how the core of this story. They both share something together that at the beginning only the father knows of, and yet the daughter find out what that is until end. The young woman’s father was my personal character. We meet him as an older man at the end of his life with tired eyes from a lot of mileage, both physically and spiritually. Then we learn his life’s journey. On the flip side, we meet a young woman, full of ambition, curiosity and questions. Her inquisitiveness starts her on a quest that she could not have anticipated, yet ultimately took with her eyes wide open.

To sum it up, Elizabeth Kostova has not only shown a great example of a fantasy book, she has shown all of us a great example of how a great story teller writes a book.

Recommended reading.

Elizabeth Kostova's Website


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