Roma (Rome 1)
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"* 'Saylor's scholarship is breathtaking and his writing enthrals' Ruth Rendell * 'How wonderful to have a scholar write about ancient Rome; how comforting to feel instant confidence in the historical accuracy of the novel' The Sunday Times * 'Saylor's gifts include authentic historical backgrounds and clever plotting.' Times Literary Supplement * 'entertainment of the first order.' Washington Post"
Newmarket Journal
`A gripping, informative read'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Is this a novel?,
By
This review is from: Roma (Hardcover)
The front of the cover reads "An Epic Novel" - but is it really a novel?
Personaly I would call it a collection of short stories - allthough the stories are linked together, primarily by an amulet which is passed down from generation to generation. Also, many of the stories span several years - divided into small chapters, or sections, each titled by a year in which the action takes plcase. All in all, this could be quite a fragmentary read - but it is not!! Steven Saylor is a fantastic story steller - also in short stories. The stories are told in his ususal style: good settings, lots of intresting details - but always with a clear focus on the cahracters and the story. Granted, the setting of the first stories is so far from our usual image of ancient Rome (and the time of the Roma Sub Rosa series) that some may be dissapointed, while others (like me) will find it facinating to get a glimpse of the early years Rome. And connectiing these 500 years of history gives the book a true epic feeling - novel or not!
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good and solid, though not as strong as the Gordianus series,
By
This review is from: Roma: The epic novel of ancient Rome (Rome 1) (Paperback)
I love Steven Saylor's Roman mysteries, but the fictional characters in this were not as well drawn or sympathetic, with a couple of exceptions like the Vestal Pinaria during the sack of Rome by the Gauls in 393 BC. I also love sweeping historical epics covering vast swathes of time a la Rutherfurd or Michener, but this lacked the depth of those. So to some extent this was a bit disappointing, especially when plot and action were sacrificed for lengthy expositions by older characters explaining the events of the past decades or centuries to younger characters. But much of it was still a good read with some memorable setpieces such as the aforementioned sack of Rome (for me, the best section of the whole novel), the massacre of the supporters of Gaius Gracchus and the assassination of Julius Caesar. The book stimulates wider non-fiction reading about Roman history and is a worthy book for this reason, though probably more likely to appeal to the reader who already has some interest in this area, rather than the general reader who might pick up one of the author's mysteries.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Hardly historical -- hardly fiction,
By
This review is from: Roma (Hardcover)
I too have enjoyed this author's Roman Sub Rosa series with Gordianus--surely one of the most likeable heroes in detective fiction. So I approached this book with great anticipation, but like a number of others I enjoyed it --but wasn't really bowled over. It is the old problem of 'didactic' fiction --using fictional form to teach history. It is very difficult to do well, and I think Saylor has not done all that well. Parts are grippping, and pull the reader in, other parts get tangled up with the real history. However, it did give me a strong impression of how just how awful the Romans were--cruel, licentious, bullies, merciless,treacherous, the list goes on. I think Saylor, who is a really distinguished Roman scholar, give him his due, set out to write "the ultimate novel about Rome". He failed, but I give him a rosette for trying.
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