Discussion: Do Historical Inaccuracies in Fiction Bother You?

What I want to discuss here are not times when the author has deliberately manipulated history and provides justification for it (either within the story or as a note at the end).  I do want to discuss when authors just plain get it wrong and if it bothers you.

The other day I was reading a novel that featured a little bit about ancient Egypt in it.  It was going pretty well until I came across the place where the author started perpetuating the myth that the pyramids were places where pharaohs “would even bury servants alive in there” (Earthbound by Aprilynne Pike, Page 219).  This is just totally wrong on two points.  The first of which is that pharaohs were buried alongside their retainers.  They were, but only until King Djet of the First Dynasty. (For a grand total of four kings.)  Secondly, the first pyramid was built for King Netjerikhet (Djoser) and it was built in the Third Dynasty.  Hundreds of years after the human sacrifice stopped!

After that I had a hard time getting back into the story.  I can definitely understand manipulating the facts to get a better story.  But what I can’t understand is stating something as fact and just getting it wrong.  Not even a little bit wrong but totally, utterly and completely wrong.  It bugs me because a) the author should have done even a little bit of research and b) her editor should have caught that mistake in the fact-checking process.

What I want to know now is this: Does it bug you when authors writing historical fiction just get something completely wrong?  If so, does it colour your opinion of the rest of the novel?

Song of the Nile by Stephanie Dray

Song of the Nile by Stephanie Dray(Cover picture courtesy of Stephanie Dray’s website.)

Sorceress. Seductress. Schemer. Cleopatra’s daughter is the one woman with the power to destroy an empire…

Having survived her perilous childhood as a royal captive of Rome, Selene pledged her loyalty to Augustus and swore she would become his very own Cleopatra. Now the young queen faces an uncertain destiny in a foreign land.

The magic of Isis flowing through her veins is what makes her indispensable to the emperor. Against a backdrop of imperial politics and religious persecution, Cleopatra’s daughter beguiles her way to the very precipice of power. She has never forgotten her birthright, but will the price of her mother’s throne be more than she’s willing to pay?

Oftentimes the second book in a trilogy suffers from what I call Book 2 Syndrome.  It means that the book is essentially a set up for the more exciting final book and ends on a huge cliffhanger to sucker readers into buying another book.  This is definitely not the case with Stephanie Dray’s debut trilogy.

Cleopatra Selene is an even better character in this book not only because of her age but because of her life experience.  Stephanie Dray manages to find a perfect balance between Selene’s ambitious side and her religious side, the side that is totally devoted to Isis.  At the same time (for what will become obvious reasons) Selene has a hard time trusting and forgiving people.  She’s not a perfect woman and never pretends to be but her inner strength is undeniable.  Truly, Selene is spared nothing by Stephanie Dray and goes through so much suffering throughout the novel.  Yet with the suffering there is also healing.

Much like Lily of the Nile, this book was a one-sitting read.  I literally could not put it down, going so far as to read it while having supper, which is not something I’d normally do no matter how interesting a book is.  The plot is fast-paced but there’s so much character development not only for Selene but for Chryssa, Juba, Octavian and Helios as well.  It’s really a fascinating read from a lot of perspectives.

Song of the Nile is not a miraculous example of historical accuracy in fiction.  Yet I loved how Stephanie Dray admitted this in her ‘Dear Reader’ note and gave actual justifications for any changes.  There is also a huge gap in the record of Cleopatra Selene’s life so she did have a little more leeway with her characters than most historical fiction writers do.  Despite these changes where possible the novel is historically accurate right down to the details of everyone’s clothing.

If you haven’t started the trilogy yet I can’t recommend it enough.  It’s well-written so that you feel like you’re actually there with these historical figures.  It’s fast-paced but doesn’t sacrifice character development in the process.  And it’s historically accurate where possible.  What more can you ask for in historical fiction?

I give this book 5/5 stars.

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The 2014 Mad Reviewer Reading Challenge Has Begun!

(The draw for the 2013 prizes will be held on January 4 so if you’ve finished the 2013 challenge please let me know.)

The Mad Reviewer Reading Challenge ButtonYes folks, The Mad Reviewer Reading & Reviewing Challenge has begun for 2014!  All your reviews from now until December 31 count toward your goal.  If you need a reminder of the rules click here.  Just remember that if you signed up but didn’t provide a link in either your profile or your comment you aren’t officially signed up.  Please contact me with a link as soon as possible!

And if you haven’t signed up for the challenge but would like to please read the rules in the link above and comment on either that post or this one!  You can join anytime in 2014 and can count any reviews you’ve already done for the year toward your goal.

Below are some of the awesome book bloggers that have decided to join the challenge this year.  Anyone who is a returning participant is indicated with (R) beside their name.

Continue reading →

The Best and Worst of 2013

It’s 2014 already!  Which means it’s a new start for everyone, a time to improve a little bit.  And I certainly intend to improve my blogging.  That brings me to the point of this article: analyzing my 2013 stats.

But my yearly round-up isn’t just about stats!  No, I’ve always thought this blog is more than just stats so I want to share with you posts I thought were particularly good/enjoyed writing as well.  Yet in keeping with my tradition I’ll introduce the posts based on statistics first.

The 5 Best Posts (Traffic)

1.  The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome  (5,076 hits)

2.  Why Girls Hate Game of Thrones—A Rebuttal  (3,287 hits)

3.  The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton  (1,646 hits)

4.  The Day an Author Suggested I Kill Myself  (1,642 hits)

5.  The Giver by Lois Lowry  (823 hits)

(These are just the views for 2013, not all time.)

The thing I find so interesting about the top 5 posts is that if you look to The Best and Worst of 2012 it turns out my review of The Outsiders had more hits when I had fewer followers than it has this year.  It only has 1,646 hits compared to 2,615 throughout all of 2012.  I’m happy my old posts are still getting decent traffic but it’s interesting how that’s gone down.  Another interesting thing is that The Outsiders was my top post last year with just 2,615 hits.  This year my top post has over 5000 hits.  I think it’s due in part to my “Best and Worst of…” series but also because the post has simply been shared lots and I’ve had more traffic overall this year. Continue reading →

I Finished The Mad Reviewer Reading & Reviewing Challenge

I started my own challenge way back in 2013 so it’d be a darn shame not to finish it.  I actually read and reviewed 191 books in 2013 but I counted the longer novels toward my challenge.  Anyone who doubts whether I actually reviewed these books can go verify them on the ‘My Reviews‘ page.  Right now I’m just going to talk about my statistics from the reading challenge (in which I read 104 books).

Total pages read: 43,985

Average pages per book: 422.9

Time spent reading (assuming an average of 100 pages/hour): 436.85 hours

Time spent reviewing (assuming 45 minutes/review): 78 hours

Um, wow?  I had no idea I spent that much time reading, but I guess I really do spend a lot of my time with my nose in a book.  More than most people, I’m thinking.  Even with blogging, I had no idea I spent that much time actually writing reviews!  But by the time I find cover pictures, blurbs and actually write the darn things an average of 45 minutes has gone by.  That means that since I reviewed 191 books this year I spent 143 hours and 15 minutes writing reviews.  I earned my blog name, that’s for sure.