A review by mary_soon_lee
The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie

3.0

This is a beautifully-told, intricate historical fantasy that switches between Renaissance Florence and the Mughal Dynasty in India, with two of the main characters being Machiavelli and Akbar the Great. Initially it reminded me of [a:Guy Gavriel Kay|60177|Guy Gavriel Kay|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1218804723p2/60177.jpg]'s fantasies, both in its style and also in its detailed reimagining and reshaping of history. But while I was interested in Rushdie's cast of characters, and at times moved by the story, I was not attached to the characters in the same way that I am by Guy Gavriel Kay. This is a work that I admired more than I liked.

Spoiler

Perhaps I was in a cantankerous frame of mind, but I wished the women in the story has played parts beyond those of sex, beauty, envy, and manipulation. It would have been great to borrow one of the Spartan women from Steven Pressfield's "Gates of Fire," a woman with courage, compassion, and intelligence.... Also, this happens to be the second book in a row that I've read that, alas, contains incest.