This Rough Magic

Lusciously set in alternative-history 16th-century Venice, Corfu and
sinister points northeast, this huge sequel to the authors' equally
massive and magnetic Shadow of the Lion will appeal to adolescents of
all ages. In this world, broken off from ours in A.D. 349 (when St.
Hypatia saved the Alexandrian Library), Christian magic battles blackest
sorcery, with a wild card-the old, old Mother Goddess still worshipped
in Corfu's mountain caves-eventually entering the fray. On the human
front, young Benito Valdosta, a roistering rascal and irresistible
scamp, derring-dos into modern-man maturity, even snatching Maria, his
early love, from the arms of Death himself. The convincing characters
range from stalwart Vinland Vikings and conniving courtiers to
sex-crazed jealous wives and a fatally shape-shifting shaman, not to
mention sadistic King Emeric of Hungary and Emeric's lethal
great-great-aunt Elizabeth, Countess Bartholdy, who's bathed into
eternal youth by gallons of virgins' blood.