I enjoyed this elegantly written adventure book very much. It continues the story begun in The Abysinian and we learn about the characters twenty years later. Using history as the basis of the story, Rufin brings alive the historic characters, adds a few fictional characters to move the story forward, and has done amazing research to bring the times to life. I particularly enjoyed Tsar Peter the Great and the tree chopping scene.

Later in the book, elephants are used during the seige in a quite amazing and true-to-historical records way.

A fascinating book.

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