Babylonia

"Babylonia is set in ancient Assyria, in the ninth century BCE. It’s an amazing adventure story about an orphan, Semiramis, who, in this very turbulent, male-driven period, goes from nothing all the way through to being the empress of the whole area. There’s a wonderful blurb where it says about the three main protagonists, “And before long, all three will be forced to learn the lesson of the gods. In Babylonia”—which is the area it’s set in—”you must bend the world to your will. What doesn’t bend, you break.” It’s all about Semiramis, who goes into this world and makes it work for her and for her people. It’s such a powerful story. It makes me wish I were part of that era and in that ancient land, because it just sounds so exciting—brutal, but really exciting. With so many twists and turns…it’s just an amazing adventure. Yes. Maybe it’s because I’m a test pilot and I’m very factually driven, but what I loved about this book is that it was hugely researched. It does follow a historical story, or at least elements of it, because factually based information from historical times back then is so scarce. Costanza managed to find all these little pieces and put them together into a story that ultimately ran through all the factually based things that she discovered. For me, that makes it real. It means that I’ve grown not only in an imaginary sense, but in a real sense. The fiction scatters off in lots of different directions, but the fundamental basis that it’s built upon is true."