We see Octavian's growing maturity as he acquires wisdom - and also cynicism.
The novel refuses to make an easy calculation of what he has gained and lost. He has been given music and religion - but has been deprived of the music and religion of his own people. Octavian's cultural heritage is extremely complex.
He has spent his childhood learning Latin and violin fugues, where his comrades have spent theirs on plantations. There he encounters war, friendship, heartbreak, betrayal, the difficulty of fitting in when he fits in nowhere. Picking up where the first book left off, Octavian - a slave raised in luxury with a first-rate education as part of an experiment - enlists with the Royal Ethiopian Regiment, which has promised to free any Rebel-owned slaves that join up. Octavian Nothing is not most historical fiction. Most historical fiction books for young people take as their object to show a Typical Person with a Typical Problem in a particular era and most historical fiction for young people reflects a sort of bland consensus view of history, something that is acceptable to teach in schools.
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