Title: Anna of Byzantium
Author: Tracy Barrett
Date: 9/21/03

I've read some complaints that Anna is unlikable, too much so for a protagonist, but when we see her upbringing in a hotbed of deceit and intrigue, one can hardly blame her. And though Anna is arrogant and ambitious, she is also strong and intelligent, and when her mind can be turned away from the injustices done to her, she is industrious about learning history and astronomy. And she has heart. But all her life she has been raised to see herself as the heir to the empire, above almost everyone else on earth--and she has made an ally, then an enemy, of the most dangerous woman in the empire, her grandmother. I see it as a triumph that she is ever able to overcome her upbringing and find a measure of peace. Anyway, I thought this was a good historical political thriller (although generally I find those kinds of books too frustrating to seek out specifically).

Favorite Part: I should say the very end, when Anna learns to focus on the people who care about her, instead of on revenge, but personally I liked hearing about her deliciously evil grandmother's downfall. I think most of us have a little bit of Anna inside us.

Least Favorite Part: There were so many instances of frustration and manipulation directed against the title character, it's hard to pick one--the most unfair, I guess, would be when she's disinherited, because her father is basing his decision on a conversation John (hardly a disinterested party) overheard in which Anna confessed she wished her brother dead once--about six years earlier, when she was all of five. But this story--no doubt built up in the emperor's mind by his mother, who can do no wrong--is enough to take Anna out of the line of succession. Because she was only five, though, he's not going to banish her.

Stinger:
"The parrot had been executed for the crime of treason."

Anna of Byzantium at Amazon.com