Tagged: ancient rome
The First Man in Rome by Colleen McCullough
(Cover picture courtesy of Avon Romance.)
When the world cowered before the legions of Rome, two extraordinary men dreamed of personal glory: the military genius and wealthy rural “upstart” Marius, and Sulla, penniless and debauched but of aristocratic birth. Men of exceptional vision, courage, cunning, and ruthless ambition, separately they faced the insurmountable opposition of powerful, vindictive foes. Yet allied they could answer the treachery of rivals, lovers, enemy generals, and senatorial vipers with intricate and merciless machinations of their own—to achieve in the end a bloody and splendid foretold destiny…and win the most coveted honor the Republic could bestow.
After reading so many Young Adult books of late, reading something as heavy as The First Man in Rome was a refreshing challenge. Trust me, even if you know your Roman history well, this is a book that you should not read when you’re tired. You will forget all of the plot points.
I first fell in love with Colleen McCullough’s writing after reading The Song of Troy because her portrayals of historical characters were amazing. She made it feel that not only was I alongside these famous people, but that I truly understood them. Well, she does the exact same thing in The First Man in Rome. From Marius’ brilliant leadership in the battlefield to his dismal political career, I really feel like I know the legend as a man. We see the soft side of him when it comes to Julia, his more ruthless streak at the end of the novel and his never-ending ambition to become the First Man in Republican Rome. He’s a larger-than-life character and yet he seems extremely accessible. Contrast that to the brilliant, but debauched young patrician Sulla who develops the ruthless streak he was known for later in life. These two have an unlikely friendship, but it’s one that I absolutely love because it shows that not everything is in black and white.
If you don’t know much about Roman history, I can see where you would get confused by The First Man in Rome. Thankfully, Colleen McCullough includes a well over 200 page index that tells you everything from the English translations of Latin curses (very creative!) to the history behind many of the events characters refer to. But if you’re like me and have someone like Mike Duncan to thank for your knowledge of ancient Rome, you’ll just breeze through The First Man in Rome. In terms of historical accuracy, I can’t pick away at it. Everything is well researched and McCullough does an excellent job of defending her hypotheses in places where there are gaps in the historical record.
I wouldn’t call this a fast-paced book, but it’s not meant to be either. It’s meant to be a sprawling novel in order to draw you in to the cutthroat world of Roman politics and to explore the lives of the main players. The strange thing about Colleen McCullough’s books is that they have this sort of grand, epic feel to them that I can’t quite explain. It’s like you know they’re on par with classic novels, but there’s no sense that McCullough was trying really hard for that ‘classic novel’ status. Her books feel like epic novels in an effortless sort of way and that’s really part of the attraction of her writing: it’s larger-than-life, yet accessible to most readers. That’s why, despite the intimidating length and amount of time I need to spend on them, I’ll certainly be continuing her Masters of Rome series.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Vows of Revenge by J. F. Ridgley
(Cover picture courtesy of J. F. Ridgley.)
In 295B, Aelia and Lucianus struggle to survive in a world filled with pirates, godfathers and forbidden love. Where patricians rule and plebeians grovel. But, will Lucianus grovel? Don’t count on it.
[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook from J. F. Ridgley in exchange for an honest review.]
To be perfectly honest, I’m not a big fan of romance in general. Especially when a book focuses on the romance. However, I am a big fan of historical fiction that’s accurate and well-researched, which is why I agreed to read Vows of Revenge. After all, I’m generally open-minded when it comes to what I read. Once again, I’m glad my open mind led me to another great read.
As I said, I’m not a big fan of romance; my regular readers know this all too well. However, I really liked the romance between Aelia and Lucianus in this book. Yes, it’s a stereotypical forbidden love on the surface (pleb loves patrician), but there’s so much more to it than that. There’s Aelia’s abuse-ridden past, societal expectations and the novel’s villains trying to get in the way of their relationship. It’s definitely a struggle and it doesn’t feel contrived at all.
I wouldn’t call Vows of Revenge a fast-paced book because it’s more character-focused, but it’s far from boring. Aelia’s character arc is fantastic and seeing things from Lucianus’ point of view keeps things moving constantly. There’s something in here for both romance-lovers and history buffs because Ridgley has done an incredible amount of research. For once, I can say with complete confidence that this book is historically accurate. Yes, the characters are made up. But the details of Roman life, from the background war in Samnia and the severe patrician-pleb divide are accurate. There’s even an historical note at the end of the book for the curious.
Vows of Revenge is written extremely well and is generally free of the typos that you typically find in self-published books. There are a few minor ones such as a missing letter or a quotation mark that faces the wrong way, but nothing blatantly obvious. Certainly not that many to have an effect on the quality of the writing or story and not enough to annoy this picky grammarian.
Even if you don’t generally read romance or historical fiction, I’d highly recommend Vows of Revenge. It’s definitely a worthwhile read.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
The Skystone by Jack Whyte
(Cover picture courtesy of Jack Whyte’s website.)
Born of the chaos of the dark ages, the dream of eagles produced a king, a country and an everlasting legend—Camelot.
Publius Varrus is a veteran Roman officer and a maker of swords. In the early fifth century, amid the violent struggles between the people of Britain and the invading Saxonx, Picts and Scots, he and his former general, Caius Britannicus, forge the government and military system that will become known as the Round Table, and initiate a chain of events that will lead to the coronation of the High King we know today as Arthur.
A Dream of Eagles is yet another series that I didn’t start at the beginning. Instead, I received one of the spin-off books, Uther, for my birthday. I loved Uther, which made me track down The Skystone, the first book in the series. But in the back of my mind I was wondering if I would like Jack Whyte’s earlier writing just as much as I liked his later writing.
The answer? Absolutely! Jack Whyte’s A Dream of Eagles (or The Camulod Chronicles, depending on when it was published) is a series that documents how the Arthurian legends could have really happened. That means there’s no magic and a bit of historical speculation, but otherwise the series is accurate. Rome really did withdraw from Britain in the late 300s AD when the Motherland was being threatened (hint: it didn’t help). Before the chaos of Roman withdrawal, we meet Publius Varrus, our narrator, and his best friend, Caius Britannicus.
Publius is an amazing man, but is also a flawed character. He can be incredibly wise and Jack Whyte has given him an unique voice, but he does things that will make you want to reach in and slap him. Publius is far from perfect, but I guarantee you’ll love him anyway. Caius doesn’t feature nearly as prominently as I would have liked, but he undergoes an amazing transformation in the last hundred pages or so. And the ending was fabulous, tying together the mystery of the skystone and one of the very, very important parts of the Arthurian legends. I can’t wait to read the next book, The Singing Sword.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Claudius the God by Robert Graves
(Cover picture courtesy of 10Thirty.)
Claudius has survived the murderous intrigues of his predecessors to become, reluctantly, Emperor of Rome. Here he recounts his surprisingly successful reign: how he cultivates the loyalty of the army and the common people to repair the damage caused by Caligula; his relations with the Jewish King Herod Agrippa; and his invasion of Britain. But the growing paranoia of absolute power and the infidelity of his promiscuous young wife, Messalina, mean that his good fortunate will not last for ever. In this second part of his fictionalized autobiography Claudius—wry, rueful, always inquisitive—brings to life some of the most scandalous and violent times in history.
To be perfectly honest, until I finished I, Claudius I had no idea there actually was a sequel. The first book has definitely overshadowed its own sequel, which does tend to happen to classic books. I was lucky to even find a copy in the bookstore, which I took despite absolutely hating the cover. Whoever designed it goes by the maxim ‘sex sells’, you can be sure of that. But I digress.
In some ways I enjoyed Claudius the God more than I, Claudius. One thing I really did like was that poor Claudius finally does get to be the good emperor we all know he would be. In fiction I can be a sucker for tragedy, so the inevitably of his death upped the tension for me and since Robert Graves wrote this as a memoir, we have Claudius dropping little hints about his fate. This is especially true when he talks of how much he was in love with Messalina and didn’t discover her betrayals until much, much later. Thus the subtitle “and his wife Messalina” in some editions of the book.
At the same time, I wasn’t as emotionally invested in Claudius the God as I was in the first book. Perhaps it was Claudius’ eventual change from idealist who wants to restore the Republic to cynical Emperor who does not fight fate when it comes to Nero taking the throne after him. Of course Graves had to stick to history, but I would have liked to see Claudius care a little more about what would happen after he died. His friendship with Herod Agrippa was interesting and certainly played a huge part in the story, but I also felt it got more page time than it should have. The backstory on Herod was absolutely necessary, but it did slow the action to a crawl for the first part of the book.
I had a hard time getting through parts like the Herod backstory, but Robert Graves more than made up for it in the sheer attention to detail. We learn so much about Roman life and get a sense of how the Romans really viewed the world around them, including their conquered territories and provinces. The interactions between the different power players of the day (Vitellius, Messalina, Narcissus, Agrippinilla and many more) were pretty much the best part of the book. And you can’t help but love poor Claudius, despite his flaws.
I give this book 4/5 stars.
Look What Just Arrived! (#5)
Well, I went book shopping in Ottawa and was extremely lucky because Chapters had a sale where you could buy three books and get the fourth free. I bought eight books there, four of which were Christmas presents. Anyway, here are the books I bought in the store:
- The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart
- Pillars of Rome by Jack Ludlow
- Claudius the God by Robert Graves
- World War Z
- Antony & Cleopatra by Colleen McCullough
The Crystal Cave is a book I just happened to stumble across and picked it up because it is about Merlin. As you are probably well aware by now, I love the Arthurian legends. Pillars of Rome by Jack Ludlow is also a chance find but I picked it up because I love ancient Rome. Claudius the God by Robert Graves was certainly not chance and it was hidden so well that I actually had to ask one of the clerks to help me find it. I found it and would have liked to find a more…tasteful…cover but that was the only version they had. Since I’m desperate to hear of Claudius’ years as Emperor, I wasn’t too picky. And lucky me, I stumbled across a bunch of Colleen McCullough’s books! I picked up Antony and Cleopatra because the first book in her Roman series wasn’t available.
Now you’re probably wondering where World War Z fits into all of this. Well, I was sitting in the airport and noticed that my plane was going to be delayed so I immediately headed for the nearest bookstore. I hadn’t brought any of the books with me because they were too large to fit into the pocket of my laptop case. That’s why I bought World War Z: It was long enough to keep me occupied on the long flight back home, but not too long as to be bulky to carry around. Also, one of my friends who loves zombies recommended it. He doesn’t recommend books often, so when he does you know it’s good.
So what are you reading now?