Crossing time periods, various exotic countries, and different perspectives, The Historian is an epic tale about the hunt for the truth on Vlad Tepes III, otherwise known as Dracula. With an imaginative plot and wonderful prose, The Historian is a good read, although it gets abit draggy at some parts.

I’ll try again in the future, perhaps actually reading it.

I had been listening to the audio version, but the narrator has a voice that grates on my nerves and it’s done in a multiple reader style that I can’t get into.

I did enjoy her prose and the pacing was good on the whole, if a tad draggy towards the end. I may pick it up to read again some time in the future.

A nice book, but perhaps not worth the hype. I enjoyed the prose… the author does have a nice way with the language, and I definitely empathised with the few characters that we got to meet at all. I at turns enjoyed and was put off by the flipping back and forth between points of view (and decades), but thought it an effective way to tell the story. Also, while not overtly horrific, there were a few points at which I was distinctly uneasy – Kostova managed our fear well, in spite of our knowledge of certain characters’ ultimate fates.

I liked it. It got a bit long-winded in parts, though. Still very enjoyable.

I don’t exactly favour books which go near the subject of vampires, but this book is different. Sure, it may be a tad too long for others to digest, but I feel that those “extra” pages flesh this story out a lot. It is, I agree with gweasley, “a book of reminiscences, a catalogue of memories”. Perhaps it would be a lot better if one puts away those calculative eyes and immerse oneself in the book, not just reading. (:

A beautifully written book with articulate illustrations conjured from precise and sensitive wordings. : D definitely worth it!

...And I was not at all disappointed. I am extremely nitpicky with books and get bored easy. I don’t think the point of this book is to BE a vampire book, but a book of reminiscences, a catalogue of memories, a codified journey that happens to involve a vampire. This is not for those who do not like to take their time reading things, relishing and appreciating the rhetoric, as much as a work’s plot. Her words are poetic; her imagery crystal clear, her plot, satisfactory. Easily one of my most favorite books of all time.

I just picked this up over the weekend and I’m already half way through it!

This book is awful. I can’t believe I wasted reading 500 pages on stuff that you can read in any history textbook. Not to mention the “scientist’s dumb daughter” plot device. It wasn’t scary, it wasn’t well-written. I imagine it was only published because of the use of the historical Vlad Tepes. Poor Vlad. I’m sure he’s turning over in his grave.

Get this woman an editor! This was a good book, but had at least 200 too many pages. Just because Anne Rice can get away with over-long novels doesn’t mean everyone else can…