caitri | A Book a Day: Island of Ghosts (Reply)

Every day I'm posting an image of a book I like. This is one of my all-time favorite historical novels, and it's about the absolutely true time that the Roman Empire decided to dump several legions of Sarmatian cavalry at Hadrian's Wall. The Sarmatians were nomads from the Eurasian steppes and were culturally related to the Scythians; both cultures had women warriors that may have inspired the legends of the Amazons. There's also some arguments, loosely based on archaeological evidence, that the Sarmatian mythology--which has a tendency towards pulling magical swords out of things--may have laid the cultural groundwork for some of the Arthurian legends. (This came up in the 2004 film where the "Sarmatians" really liked yelling nonsense a lot and Ioan Gruffud and Hugh Dancy looked really good in black leather. Pity no one could ride a bloody horse though.)

ANYWAY, this novel posits the culture clash and reconciliations that happen when an imperial power decides to move nations of people wholesale, and folks suddenly have to learn new languages, customs, bartering and trade, and also not get too too mixed up between the indigenous locals and the occupiers they have very mixed feelings about (the old Roman chestnut of great sanitation vs. religious oppression, for instance). The characters are well-drawn and their collective traumas--they lost a war, are uprooted from their homeland, are separated from their families, and are now under the command of people they were fighting to the death only months ago--are thoughtfully and sympathetically discussed. If you need some escapism (and don't we all right now?) this one's good for that.