Book Review: Raptor by Gary Jennings

This odd novel takes place all over Europe around 490-526 AD during the last days of the Roman Empire when there are two empires, Rome and Constantinople. The main character is Thorn who we meet in a monastery as a child. He suspects his parents were Goths, of either Visigoth or Ostrogoth fame. For reasons I won't reveal here as it's a rather large part of the story, he is forced to leave the monastery and the surrounding region due to an interesting and rare genetic problem. Upon leaving he meets various interesting people, Wyrd, a sort of woodsman/soldier who teaches him many things including how to survive on his own. Later in the book he meets other Goths of the eastern Roman empire and Thorn sort of settles in among them for the remainder of the book, though not in the same locations. There are skirmishes and battles and a war or two including lots of description of war but without the excitement and danger one would expect in war. It's a dry but not quite too dry history lesson.

It's an odd book in that it's also a travelogue of ancient cities, all described via Thorn's point of view as he is the narrator. The Raptor of the title is what he decides he will be, a creature without feelings to keep himself from experiencing emotional pain. This is a good thing as a heck of a lot of people die in this book in his presence. The annoying thing about this book is that it is mostly a travelogue, very limited in the conversations between people, of bringing people to life. The people, while interesting in themselves, I found I didn't really feel much sympathy for, except intellectually, as "oh, too bad he/she died". But you do learn a lot of history. It's a long book, almost 1000 pages. I did find myself towards the last 200 or so wishing it would end soon. It was just interesting enough to keep me reading to the end, barely.

I would recommend it only to those persons with plenty of time to read and have an open mind because Thorn himself is different from the average human being.

(edited to make title consistent with prior posts)