Somehow, my copy of the e-book didn't make it clear that the subtitle is "A novel of Cleopatra, the Vampire." I'm not really into vampires, and vampire in Classical Egypt was just too much of a stretch. I've read some of Headley's other books and loved her writing, but the writing in this was not engaging enough to draw me in. I didn't finish.

Not worth reading for either historical fiction fans or vampire novel fans. Odd, strangely boring mish-mash that still didn't seem to have any real action 20% of the way in. Didn't bother finishing. ( )

This was such a good book, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone; however, for some reason it took me forever to read it. I could only read so much at a time before I had to put it down and move onto something else. For me, not a quick read, but a good one. ( )

Dark fantasy novel which takes as its premise the idea that Cleopatra did not commit suicide, but sacrificed to the dark goddess Sehkmet to try to protect her country and her husband from the invading Roman army -- and found that she had sacrificed her own soul as part of the price. A price paid in vain, as Octavian tricks Mark Antony into committing suicide and the Romans take her children as captives. But Sehkmet's new servant is now immortal, and consumed with a quite literal bloodlust for revenge. Octavian will find that his conquest of Egypt and its ruling family is not complete just because the Queen appears to have died at her own hands...

Cleopatra as a newly-made vampire fighting with a goddess for control of her own body while in pursuit of her stolen children is an intriguing premise. Headley's novel has its flaws, but she makes good on the promise to the reader to provide an unusual twist on historical fact and historical myth. I'm glad I bought this.

There's an excellent review by Snat on LibraryThing which says pretty much all I would have liked to say about the book: http://www.librarything.com/review/75919863 ( )

I love me some alt-history. I love me some Egyptian-Greco-Roman alt-history especially, so when I kept getting this listed as a recommendation, I took it.

A good chunk of this book was three star for me. It seemed a wee bit on the cheesy side (Cleopatra does a blood oath with Sekhmet and becomes a vampire? really?), but I did get into it. I see why Neil Gaiman gave it his stamp of approval (the reason why this book actually made it from a recommendation to an actual book on my to-read list). It is fantastic pop-corn.

So many of my favorite parts of the book were good surprises, so I’ll just keep it general. After Actium, when Octavian has taken the war to Egypt, Cleopatra gives her soul to Sekhmet, Egyptian goddess of destruction. After that, she’s immortal, but must feed on life for Sekhmet’s power. She goes to Rome to take care of business with Octavian/Augustus who has her children as well, and he is rightfully afraid. He surrounds himself with witches/priests/magicians (much to Agrippa’s awesome disgust) and they try to find a way to defeat her.

Everyone has their own motivation, which may or may not actually align with Octavian’s, so he has to stay alive and find a way to kill the immortal before she exacts her vengeance on Rome.

I loved that they brought in several different cultures/mythologies, and I do like that they brought in characters that are usually overlooked by most authors (Cleopatra Selene, Agrippa, etc.). It’s a great dark fantasy/history mash up.

I read (somewhere) that this is the first in a series, and I look forward to any sequels. ( )