I liked it. I like pure historicals, things that give Erimem a chance to be the ruler type, and things where Five gets confused for the court jester. So those were all there and thus it was good. Peri rather annoyed me with her instance in believing that all of the legends about Dracula were true though. She was worried about her girlfriendErimem so that gets a pass.
Although I am left confused by all the people who think it would have been great for Erimem to have run off with Dracula and had this be her exit story. Umm…no. Sure he wasn’t as bad as the myths claim, but he was still called Vlad the Impaler for a reason. Also the part where he tried to kill Erimem, several times. And basically forced her to agree to marry him. Honestly, not as bad as previously claimed, but not really good enough for Erimem.
Overall I liked that it had the overall lesson that no one was really the good guy in the situation and the even Dracula had reasons behind impaling 10,000 people. Also killing all those other people. I also liked the message that Rado wasn’t that different and everyone was a product of their times and upbrining.
It kinda felt like going a bit backwards in Erimem’s character arc though. She’s been going in the direction of leaving behind all of the Pharaoh stuff while still maintaining her basic outlook on life and this felt like it was going back to the Pharaoh stuff. Erimem is a leader, but I think she has the potential to become the kind leader who doesn’t agree with impaling people on spikes. Or marring a guy that thinks impaling people on spikes is a good plan. But maybe that’s just me.
Overall I liked it. Can’t understand the squee for Erimem/Dracula. Although that’s a pairing made in crack heaven.
