There is so much detail but it's the wrong kind of detail for me. To give you a taste, here is a random sample: "Two days latter, sitting in the meddaeg sun in the ruins of Broac, Brocavum that was, Cian was still lost in tales of Yr Hen Ogledd, this time of Ceneu and Gorbanian, the sons of Coel Hen, as told by Uinniau, Rhoedd's younger sister-son, who had ridden with them to the remains of the fort." The actual reading of it was pretty much not at all enjoyable. Usually I read to try and avoid doing that stuff, which should tell you something about how Hild landed with me.
I was finding any excuse to put it down, from doing my homework to taking out the trash to really tedious stuff like renaming files on my computer. At the same time, I would rather do just about anything than read it. I do really love some things about the book-the political intrigue, the interesting and fascinating characters, and Hild's experiences most of all. I've been thinking the whole time that, gosh, there are probably people who would love this book and devour it and celebrate its own unique intricacies, and how unfortunate it is that I am not even close to being one of those people. So, I've been struggling with Hild: A Novel-or as I think of it, Hild: Nicola Griffith Did Her Research and She Really, Really Wants You to Know It-for almost a month now. Hilda of Whitby-to vivid, absorbing life. Recalling such feats of historical fiction as Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall and Sigrid Undset’s Kristin Lavransdatter, Hild brings a beautiful, brutal world-and one of its most fascinating, pivotal figures, the girl who would become St. Hild is a young woman at the heart of the violence, subtlety, and mysticism of the early medieval age-all of it brilliantly and accurately evoked by Nicola Griffith’s luminous prose. The stakes are life and death: for Hild, her family, her loved ones, and the increasing numbers who seek the protection of the strange girl who can read the world and see the future.
And she is indispensable-until she should ever lead the king astray. She establishes herself as the king’s seer. She has the powerful curiosity of a bright child, a will of adamant, and a way of seeing the world-of studying nature, of matching cause with effect, of observing human nature and predicting what will happen next-that can seem uncanny, even supernatural, to those around her. Edwin of Northumbria plots to become overking of the Angles, ruthlessly using every tool at his disposal: blood, bribery, belief. A new religion is coming ashore the old gods’ priests are worrying. In seventh-century Britain, small kingdoms are merging, usually violently.
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