This duology was phenomenal. I initially gravitated toward it because it was fantasy. But after reading it and seeing that it was historical, pieces of information placed into a story line, or the base of the storyline really, And that it held such a powerful message, I fell in love. The series had everything. it had vampires.It had dragons.It had a cracken. it had magicians.It had slavery, it had war, Political undertones, love, defeat, strength, winning. it had it all!

And then I read the acknowledgements......
"With Declaration I wanted to mythologize history, to bring out its color and scale and grandeur and intensely human conflicts in the way that people have used myth to illuminate the past since time began. In this one I wanted to go one step further—to let those mythic elements shape a slightly different history, to let it give a place to individuals who might not have found one in ours, to explore how the old world might pass into a new age of magic. Above all, I wanted these books to be about the choices faced in fighting for a better world, and the people who make them."
And it was with those words I fell in love with the author.