Category: Historical Fiction
The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned by Anne Rice
(Cover picture courtesy of The Towering Pile.)
Ramses the Great lives…
Reawakened in opulent Edwardian London, he becomes Dr. Ramsey, expert in Egyptology and member of a group of jaded aristocrats with strange appetites to appease. But searing memories of his last reawakening, at the behest of Cleopatra, burn in his immortal soul. For he has drunk the elixir of life and is now Ramses the Damned, doomed forever to wander the earth, desperate to quell hungers that can never be satisfied. And his most intense longing of all, a great love undiminished by the centuries, will force him to commit an act of unspeakable horror….
I’ve read a lot of Anne Rice’s books, but The Mummy is my absolute favourite, no question about it. It has the perfect mix of tragedy, romance, history and emotion that Anne Rice pulls off so well, without any extra flab added to the story. Compared to her other novels, The Mummy is incredibly short, with my version only being 398 pages. Believe me, they read fast!
Maybe I’m a bit biased because I’ve always loved ancient Egypt and have been fascinated by Ramses the Great. I’m not necessarily an admirer of him, but he does play a significant role in history and did have an interesting life. Well, Anne Rice brings him to life in The Mummy and he is as charming, well-spoken and lecherous as one would expect. But he also has a soft side, which is what makes it so easy for Julie and readers to fall in love with him. Julie herself has a few too many modern sensibilities for the era, but she is an interesting character because she is so strong. She’s the perfect match for Ramses.
Anne Rice showcases exactly what it is that makes people want to devote their entire lives to the study of Egyptology. If you haven’t fallen in love with Egypt by the time you finish The Mummy, you likely never will. I didn’t even catch any glaring historical inaccuracies. Sure, some things were changed around if you believe in the traditional Cleopatra story, but Anne Rice presents a compelling alternative that makes sense in the context of the story. Her vivid descriptions reveal the passion she has for ancient Egypt and that enthusiasm continues throughout the entire novel.
Her later Vampire Chronicles works seemed to lack heart, but The Mummy certainly does not. It’s fresh, a fitting retelling of the very old, generally cliché shambling mummy coming back from the grave story. Of course it has fantastical elements, but I don’t think they’ll be overwhelming for people who don’t normally read fantasy. Anne Rice achieved perfect balance in The Mummy and it’s a book I would highly recommend to anyone.
Warning: This is an Anne Rice book. Of course there are explicit sex scenes and gore that could be offensive to young or sensitive readers. I would personally not recommend The Mummy for anyone under 14, but everyone matures at different rates. Use your common sense when buying books.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
I, Claudius by Robert Graves
(Cover picture courtesy of Bookyurt.)
Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus lived from 10 B. C. to 54 A. D. Despise as a weakling and dismissed as an idiot because of his physical infirmities, Claudius survived the intrigues and poisonings that marked the reigns of Augustus, Tiberius, and the mad Caligula to become Emperor of Rome in 41 A. D. I, Claudius, the first part of Robert Graves’s two-part account of the life of Tiberius Claudius, is written in the form of Claudius’s autobiography and stands as one of the modern classics of historical fiction.
I love both Roman history and historical fiction, so when I got the classic I, Claudius for my birthday, I was incredibly excited. But did it live up to all of the hype?
Actually, yes.
I, Claudius is written from Claudius’ point of view and really did a lot to repair the reputation of one of the most unlikely emperors in the history of Rome. Claudius was often portrayed as an inept fool who survived only because he was the butt of the Imperial family’s jokes, but Robert Graves’ classic really did make people start to examine the real Claudius. Due to my interest in Roman history, I was lucky enough to be introduced to this Claudius through Mike Duncan’s History of Rome podcast. Both Mike Duncan’s incredible podcast and I, Claudius do Claudius justice and shed a lot of light on the complicated politics of Imperial Rome.
One thing I didn’t like, and this is more of a personal matter, is the fact that Robert Graves seemed to subscribe to the Livia-poisoned-everyone theory. Did the Augusta poison people? Almost certainly. But did she really have Augstus, Agrippa, Lucius, Marcellus, Gaius and Claudius’ grandfather poisoned (and many, many others)? Almost certainly not. However, this particular theory makes for excellent fiction and some of the incidents related by Claudius are probably embellishments, but that’s why it’s called historical fiction. These things could have happened, but they likely did not.
Claudius himself is a great character. Because of the autobiography format of the novel, we get to see him as he grows up through his eyes. The writing style is as if Claudius is writing many years later, so there is quite a bit of foreshadowing of certain events and we do get insight into some incidents we never would have gotten otherwise. My only real complaint was that the book ended just when things were going to get good: his ascent to the purple, so to speak. That’s also why I’m eager to read the much overshadowed sequel to this classic novel, Claudius the God.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Troy by Adèle Geras
(Cover picture courtesy of Winter Park Public Library.)
The siege of Troy has lasted almost ten years.
Inside the walled city, food is scarce and death is common. From the heights of Mount Olympus, the Gods keep watch.
But Aphrodite, Goddess of Love, is bored with the endless, dreary war, and so she turns her attention to two sisters: Marpessa, who serves as handmaiden to Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world; and Xanthe, who tends the wounded soldiers in the Blood Room. When Eros fits an arrow to his silver-lit bow and lets it fly, neither sister will escape its power.
After reading The Song of Troy by Colleen McCullough, Troy by Adèle Geras just pales in comparison. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad book. It just means it isn’t the best book about Troy.
Troy follows the story of Marpessa and Xanthe, two sisters trying to live their lives during the last months of the Trojan War. They’re both three dimensional characters with interesting backgrounds and we get to see them through other characters’ perspectives, but they’re not really all that memorable. There’s nothing that really sets them apart from other characters in fiction, so in my mind, they will always be good characters, but not great ones. For those of you hoping to see the traditional legendary heroes of the Trojan War, you’re going to be disappointed. Achilles, Hector and Odysseus receive practically no page time. However, if you want to read about the lives of those who were forgotten, the lives of the background characters, Troy is perfect for you.
The plot isn’t exactly fast-paced because Troy is more of a character-driven novel, but it isn’t boring either. Adèle Geras has certainly done her research about the Trojan War, but I wouldn’t say that there were any exceptional historical details. Just like in The Iliad, the gods come down from Olympus and interfere with the war, but what’s really annoying is the fact that their warnings are pointless since mortals forget meeting them anyway. What’s the point, besides to foreshadow what most people already know? As I said before, it is a good book, not a great one.
I give this book 3/5 stars.
Pandora by Anne Rice
(Cover picture courtesy of Books are a Garden.)
Anne Rice, creator of the Vampire Lestat, the Mayfair witches and the amazing worlds they inhabit, now gives us the first in a new series of novels linked together by the fledgling vampire David Talbot, who has set out to become a chronicler of his fellow Undead.
The novel opens in present-day Paris in a crowded café, where David meets Pandora. She is two thousand years old, a Child of the Millennia, the first vampire ever made by the great Marius. David persuades her to tell the story of her life.
Pandora begins, reluctantly at first and then with increasing passion, to recount her mesmerizing tale, which takes us through the ages, from Imperial Rome to eighteenth-century France to twentieth-century Paris and New Orleans. She carries us back to her mortal girlhood in the world of Caesar Augustus, a world chronicled by Ovid and Petronius. This is where Pandora meets and falls in love with the handsome, charismatic, lighthearted, still-mortal Marius. This is the Rome she is forced to flee in fear of assassination by conspirators plotting to take over the city. And we follow her to the exotic port of Antioch, where she is destined to be reunited with Marius, now immortal and haunted by his vampire nature, who will bestow on her the Dark Gift as they set out on the fraught and fantastic adventure of their two turbulent centuries together.
[Summary courtesy of Goodreads.]
Pandora is part of Anne Rice’s New Tales of the Vampires (although they’re not that new anymore) and there is virtually no difference in writing quality or style from her more popular The Vampire Chronicles. What is different, though, is that we finally see the stories of formerly minor characters who aren’t really connected to Lestat. Lestat, although he is a very interesting character, does get annoying after a couple of books, so a book from the point of view of Pandora was perfect for me.
Pandora is a woman during Pax Romana, or the golden age of Rome during the later years of Augustus. Anne Rice paints a picture of a strong-willed woman very much in control of her own life and doted on by a loving father who is far from the average pater familias. She is a free spirit, a dreamer and when she falls in love with Marius, the logical, cold Roman man, it makes for an interesting relationship. The dynamics are definitely not that of a traditional one!
As with all of her novels, Anne Rice has done the research and paints a believable picture of ancient Rome in its glory and during its fall. From the reign of terror of Sejanus to the murderous paranoia and sadism of Tiberius all the way to the spread and eventual acceptance of Christianity, Anne Rice takes readers on an amazing introspective adventure. Pandora is actually my favourite book about Anne Rice’s vampires not just because I love Roman history, but because Pandora herself is one amazing three dimensional character.
I give this book 4.5/5 stars.
*Unfortunately, Amazon only has Pandora available in a double book with Vittorio the Vampire unless you want to purchase a used novel.
The Song of Troy by Colleen McCullough
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
In The Song of Troy, the bestselling author of The Thorn Birds recounts the tale of Helen and Paris, the immortal lovers who doomed two great nations to a terrible war. It is told through the eyes of its main characters: the sensuous and self-indulgent Helen; the subtle and brilliant Odysseus; the sad old man Priam, King of Troy; the tormented warrior prince, Achilles; and Agamemnon, King of Kings, who consents to the unspeakable in order to launch his thousand ships. This is an unputdownable tale of love, ambition, delusion, honour and consuming passion.
The Song of Troy is thus far my favourite book dealing with the Trojan War and I’m lucky I even found it at all because it was in the ‘Almost New’ section of my local bookstore. I almost never found it, except that the picture of Helen on the spine drew me to it. Yes, I judge books by their covers; I’m a horrible person. It’s nearly five hundred pages long but they read fast and before too long, it’s over and you’re left feeling sad. You probably know how the Trojan War ends (hint: the Greeks kick butt), but after falling in love with the characters over 500 pages, it’s hard to let go.
In any other author’s hands, each chapter being told from a different point of view would be annoying head-hopping. Yet in Colleen McCullough’s book, you don’t really get that sense. Each chapter is clearly labelled as being a new point of view and when each new person picks up the tale, they are moving the action forward, not merely recounting what happened to them up until that point. Of course characters like Helen, Odysseus, Achilles and Agamemnon get more page time than minor characters like Diomedes, Automedon and Nestor, but you get the sense that you know each character intimately.
What I like best about The Song of Troy is that we get behind-the-scenes explanations for each character’s motivations. Achilles, instead of being portrayed as a complete [expletive of your choice], we see how it was necessary to have a very public break with Agamemnon over—you guessed it—a woman. Odysseus is my favourite character in the whole book because he’s intelligent, crafty and politically savvy. He’s notorious for his irreverent, but utterly brilliant advice on how to win the war:
“You could, of course, starve them out.”
Nestor gasped in outrage. “Odysseus, Odysseus! There you go again! We’d be cursed to instant madness!”
He wriggled his red brows, unrepentant as ever. “I know, Nestor. But as far as I can see, all the rules of war seem to favour the enemy. Which is a great pity. Starvation makes sense.” (Pg 182)
This was my first Colleen McCullough novel and I’m most definitely looking forward to reading her famous series, The Masters of Rome. If The Song of Troy is any indication as to how much research she does, how well she plots novels and how sympathetically she portrays historical figures…well, let’s just say I will have stumbled onto my new favourite series.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
*Sadly, The Song of Troy is only available as a used book.