3.5 stars. Time to head back to Ancient Rome, for some political skulduggery in the company of our overworked and underpaid Roman sleuth, Falco. This 3.5 stars. Time to head back to Ancient Rome, for some political skulduggery in the company of our overworked and underpaid Roman sleuth, Falco. This book slots in between The Silver Pigs and Venus in Copper, and follows Falco as he embarks on yet another over-complicated mission for his patron Vespasian. Falco is always great fun to read about: like Cadfael, he’s a vivid and lively character, whose world is meticulously historically accurate, but evoked with a light touch. Unlike Cadfael, he’s prickly, full of himself, and still young enough to be trying to find his feet in the world. In Shadows in Bronze, Vespasian orders him to mop up the loose ends left by the aristocratic conspiracy we saw in The Silver Pigs but, as Falco heads down to the opulent Bay of Naples to round up a couple of recalcitrant senators, he starts to get the uneasy feeling that he hasn’t seen the last of the plotters. Although his trip to Naples is dressed up to look like a family holiday, he swiftly realises that danger is never far away. To make matters worse, his cut-above-the-rest love interest, Helena Justina, is also enjoying a break on the Bay of Naples, and Falco’s personal and professional lives look set to collide once again...
When I saw the second book in Manda Scott’s Rome series in the library, I pounced on it. It picks up the story in 66 AD, a couple of years after The EWhen I saw the second book in Manda Scott’s Rome series in the library, I pounced on it. It picks up the story in 66 AD, a couple of years after The Emperor’s Spy concluded. Nero is emperor; Seneca is dead; the Empress Poppaea is dying in childbed; and our subtle protagonist Pantera is heading south to Judea on the heels of the man who started the Great Fire of Rome. Pantera has wise and loyal allies, but he is the only one with the skills to track down the zealot Saulos. For Saulos, too, was trained as a spy by Seneca and Pantera knows that he is stepping into a cat-and-mouse game with a man as dangerous as himself, made even more lethal by the fiery convictions of faith. As tensions simmer below the surface in Caesarea and Jerusalem, it requires only one spark for the whole of Judea to flare into bitter internecine war. And Saulos, as we’ve seen, loves a good fire…
I always wonder about the current trend for historians to write historical fiction. It's become something of a fashion but it doesn't always work: gooI always wonder about the current trend for historians to write historical fiction. It's become something of a fashion but it doesn't always work: good historians may tell stories with novelistic flair, and good historical fiction writers have to get their facts right, but the two genres do demand a different skill-set. Not everyone can make the transition from one to the other. So I was amused to see that Adrian Goldsworthy, the celebrated historian of the Roman Empire, has decided to try his hand at a novel. Naturally, I couldn't resist; and I'm pleased to report that Goldsworthy is one of the rare breed who can make the leap. Focusing on the men based at the forts along the northernmost frontier of Roman Britain, he tells a story full of battles, diplomacy and honour, with a very enjoyable 'odd couple' pairing at its heart.
It's 98 AD and Britannia slumbers in apparent peace. It's been almost forty years since the great uprising of the Eceni queen Boudica, and the Roman garrisons have settled into a cautious modus vivendi with their British neighbours. Up in the north, at the tiny fort of Syracuse, the centurion Flavius Ferox has allowed himself to sink into the blessed oblivion of drink in the hope of escaping his past. British by birth - and Prince of the Silures (who lived in present-day South Wales) - Ferox has long since bought in to the Roman way of life, and takes his oaths of loyalty seriously. When sober, he serves as liaison with the local tribes, giving judgements and resolving disputes. But, one morning, his scout-leader Vindex (of the Brigantes) arrives at the fort with news of a murderous skirmish. Despite his hangover, Ferox forces himself out with the scouts to track down the malefactors, but discovers that this is more than a simple cattle raid...
The young cook Thrasius is purchased for an exorbitant sum of money in 1 BC by the wealthy Roman epicure Marcus Gavius Apicius. It proves to3.5 stars.
The young cook Thrasius is purchased for an exorbitant sum of money in 1 BC by the wealthy Roman epicure Marcus Gavius Apicius. It proves to be a match made in heaven. Although he’s only nineteen, Thrasius has already made a name for himself as the inventor of mouthwatering delicacies, and Apicius harbours designs to become gastronomic adviser to Caesar himself. Together, master and slave embark on a quest to create the most dazzling and most delicious banquets that Rome has ever seen. It’s a collaboration that will enter history, making Apicius’ meals a byword for luxury, producing the world’s earliest surviving cookbook, and probably its first cookery school. Based on scattered references in Pliny’s letters and other Roman writings, King has put together a tale of two men bound together in a common goal: to tickle Rome’s tastebuds...
Set in the duplicitous, cutthroat world of the Roman imperial family in the first century AD, this novel had the scope for plots and psychosis aplentySet in the duplicitous, cutthroat world of the Roman imperial family in the first century AD, this novel had the scope for plots and psychosis aplenty, an impression encouraged by its titular promise of 'confessions'. I hoped for something along the lines of I, Claudius, taking the story of the Julio-Claudians into the next generation with the same kind of meaty detail that I enjoyed in Tom Holland's Dynasty. However, George's decision to take a revisionist viewpoint, and present Nero as a well-meaning, misunderstand and popularly-beloved emperor, means that much of the story's dramatic flair is sacrificed. I sense that the book wants to be part of the traditional of fictitious Roman memoirs exemplified by the Memoirs of Hadrian and I, Claudius, but personally I don't feel it reaches this level. It never quite succeeds in creating the deep characterisation that both these books manage so well and, without that rich sense of personality, I found it very hard to see Nero as a person and not as a character on paper. The claustrophobia of court life, the inner torments of a good person forced to do bad things, and the struggle of coming to terms with the rule of a vast empire, could all have been brought out more effectively. Having said that, George has done her research very thoroughly and she is to be congratulated for trying to tell a familiar story in a less sensational and more thoughtful manner. It's just that, personally, I would much prefer a Nero with sharper teeth.
I’ve been eagerly awaiting this final book in Ben Kane’s Eagles trilogy, which completes a story that I’ve followed avidly in Eagles at War and HuntinI’ve been eagerly awaiting this final book in Ben Kane’s Eagles trilogy, which completes a story that I’ve followed avidly in Eagles at War and Hunting the Eagles. The series follows the military and psychological aftermath of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD, when three Roman legions under the command of Publius Quinctilius Varus were wiped out by a German tribal army under the aegis of the chieftain Arminius, a former Roman ally. In the first book we watched the tragedy unfold; in the second, set some years later, we saw the young general Germanicus stiffening the Romans’ resolve as Arminius tried to knit the tribes together into a viable force. Now, in 15-16 AD, the moment has come for battle to be joined again, and this time there can be only one victor...
Manda Scott; the Emperor Nero; chariot-racing; mystery cults; a love triangle; and an imperial spy fighting against time to prevent disaster: it’s a fManda Scott; the Emperor Nero; chariot-racing; mystery cults; a love triangle; and an imperial spy fighting against time to prevent disaster: it’s a formidably tempting combination. Needless to say, I’ve been itching to read this ever since I finished the last of the Boudica novels and was finally able to wait no longer. And it thoroughly lived up to expectations, as I tore breathlessly through an audacious, fast-paced story, plotted with an almost Dunnettian dexterity.
However, one thing is worth making clear right from the off. Although one could, in theory, read this as a standalone novel, its full richness and meaning will only become clear if you have already read the Boudica books. From that point of view, the Rome series must be regarded – at least in this opening instalment – as a sequel, rather than an independent story. But it’s a sequel that turns the story in a completely new direction, with new characters and a new mission: taut, daring and extremely well-crafted...
The Idle Woman
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