Poison Study, by Maria V. Snyder (REVIEW) -- A Taste of Freedom... or a Taste of Poison?
Maybe it's the near-total absence of any modern technology, or perhaps it's nothing more than the simple yearning for something totally different (the "grass is always greener" syndrome)... but whatever the reason, there's this special sort of magic that I often feel when reading something set in the long-ago past--especially if it's a past full of horses and castles. A lot of people like to read about yesteryear because they think it evokes a more "innocent" time, but I disagree. After all, there's certainly no shortage of "bad stuff" going on in most historical books; for every gunshot wound, stabbing, bomb, or car chase you read about in a modern setting, you can find a comparable sword fight, beheading, burning at the stake, or chase on horseback in something set in a long-ago era, too. And, a lot of bad stuff has remained unchanged-- things like bare-knuckle brawls, sexual assaults, and abductions have always been a part of lif...