The wooden reworking of the biography of Basil II, the great, of Byzantium continues. This is not Harry's best work, but as a Byzantinist, I give it a half star for effort. ( )

After his own successful usurpation of the Videssosian crown, Krispos has to work hard to keep it and his head. assailed from without by a raider who used the grim Haloga tribesmen to wrher infedeak havoc in the northern reaches of the empire while Krispos tries to put down the rebellions inspired by the uncle of his predecessor. There are also doubts over who fathered the child growing in the belly of his empress - was it his, created during his affair with her while she was married to his predecessor, or was it that predecessor's brat, sired before his untimely end?

This is the middle book in the Krispos trilogy but is probably the best written of them all and in a lot of ways the one with most fantastical elements in it. ( )