Following recomendations from other bloggers I picked this up last saturday & finished it in three nights. A book that can be truly described as a real page turner.Sidebottom has a good premise for a story and details the elements of a siege very well. His characters vary in the quality of their definition. Some are well defined and understandable, others are harder to pin down.
Having said that the book is a ripping yarn and flows very nicely.
Having read the book I can't decide whether Sidebottom is anti religion, any religion, or pro-Greek. At times it feels as though he is promoting a theory that all religions for Eurasia stem from the Greek myths. then again there are moments when he sees religion as a hinderance.
My only other concern is that in the appendices where he expands on the historical background he does rather seem to use his own works a lot as a basis for the reasoning. Understandable given his profession but disconcerting in the sense that it smacks of an "I'm right & others wrong" attitude in places.
Still well worth the read and belongs on the shelf alongside Scarrow.
6 comments:
The second in the series is King of kings and is also worth a read. Clearly Sidebottom knows his period and he comes across as a more serious author than Scarrow. Still its better than some of the competition.
Regards,
Guy
Sidebottom?
Thanks for the review. From having no historical fiction at all there suddenly seems to be shed loads of it and to be honest most of it is dire.
It's always nice to know what may be worth parting with a few pence to read.
Rome had a long long history. Who are the Romans fighting in this siege and is this the empire or the republic? Just curious.
The book is set against the declining Roman empire & the rise of the Sassanid.
Re:Sidebottom. I don't know if this is an urban myth but apparently some years ago a bunch of students sent out invites to a party where all the guests had surnames including bottom ie Ramsbottom, Longbottom, Shufflebottom etc. It was only when the party was in full swing and everyone was introducing themselves to each other did the joke become obvious to the poor innocent guests.
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