Historical Fiction is my favourite story time, this book has familiar references from reality set in a fictional empire that allows the author scope to take a trip, sort of Game of Thrones style but not! there are a couple of pages available on the website http://tonyrobertsauthor.com/ also it's on Kindle so you can get a free preview on that, highly recommended.

Cracking tale covering the first years of a noble family taking on a failing empire, their fight to save and retain the empire pitted against the background of how their personal lives have been radically changed for better and worse.

Tony does an excellent job of narrating the story through eyes of the ageing emperor, his younger second wife and two adult and one young child, the story viewpoint switches constantly and even where there is friction between family members you as a reader are torn as you have had the narration through both sides of the story. I particularly liked the viewpoint of the young prince who starts the story being woken from his bed to be deposited in the castle as a new prince. His reaction to the constraints of being protected of learning things constantly and being moulded into his mother's perception of a ruling class, are both entertaining and thought provoking.

This book should be sold in airports, it is the perfect read for a two week holiday, less good if you have to put it down to get up for work in the morning. Addictive and detailed means I have spent a few late nights "just a few more pages" leads to dawn breaking before bedtime.

When I reached the end I was glad as even the washing up has been neglected, and I need to get on with things. Also very sad that I have to wait for book two as I really need to follow the story on its journey. ( )