This historical novel is weird but quite entertaining and fairly well-documentend. It's the story of Thorn, an Ostrogoth who happens to be also a hermaphrodite, told from his childhood to his old age. He is a contemporary of Theodoric the Great, whom he befriends when both are youths, and thus his story closely parallels the migration of the Ostrogoths towards Italy, the birth of the kingdom and its evolution until the last tragic days of Theodoric's reign.

I've wondered why Jennings chose such a bizarre approach as making his character a hermaphrodite. The times are picturesque enough to create a complex story without giving the protagonist an added disadvantage (or is it an advantage?); on the other hand, this allows the author (and Thorn) to explore the way of life of both men and women of the times. Also it provides him with an unrequited love for someone unattainable who never sees him as anything else than a male comrade. Maybe credibility is a bit strained in that Thorn manages to be wildly successful both as a man and a woman, but the harrowing conditions of women are well depicted. The book might not be for all tastes because there's quite a lot of sexual violence in it, but a retribution always comes somehow. The only thing I really disapproved of is the depiction of the Huns as mindless and perverted savages, without any attempt to see them from the inside.

The story of the Ostrogothic kingdom is quite satisfactory, though the book rushes through the last decades or Theodoric's life in a Marion Zimmer-Bradley fashion (see "The Mists of Avalon" or "The Firebrand"). Of course one must never use a work of fiction as a source, but it prompted me to research certain uses or Gothic phrases (liberally sprinkled everywhere and mostly correct, for what little I understand, adding to the fun of reading). There are some artistic licenses such as Theodoric looking nothing like the portrait we have of him, but I can overlook them easily.

Historical characters come to life with vividness, attractive or repulsive but fairly three-dimensional. Theodoric himself is depicted in a positive light, with a ruthless streak that however fits the portrait of any commander of the times. Jennings even excuses his treasonous killing of Odoacer with the admittedly strained explanation that Theodoric wasn't aware of the treaty brokered by Bishop John. I don't think he's drawing from any primary sources for this but I'll keep looking into it. Jennings also gives the king a picturesque demise - or rather, the reason for his death is quite logical and poignant in the scheme of the novel, but the means is a novelty among all the various legends about his death. The women of his family, even his unnamed first wife and Queen Audofleda, are pulled from oscurity and put in a flattering light (entirely fictional, since sources on them are really meager), but Princess Amalaswintha gets a really bad portrait as a spoiled, vicious brat.

On the whole I recommend it, if you have a fairly strong stomach and don't mind a really looooong book.