This note contains spoilers for the book.

Mike's World Fantasy Award winning alternate history novel. Also my first anniversay present from Pamela. I'm rereading some of Mike's books in response to his recent death.

Unfortunately, I continue to be not as excited about this book as other people. But I know why; I'm just not knowledgable enough to fully appreciate it. In this case it's my lack of knowledge of third-level characters in that historical period. So I'm sure I'm not getting all sorts of connections that help make the book more interesting and move the story along.

This book really has a lot going for it. We've got vampirism as a disease, and Italian doctors, and also Borgias.