- Hardcover: 384 pages
- Publisher: Little, Brown & Company (2 Jan 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0316861138
- ISBN-13: 978-0316861137
- Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 13.8 x 4.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,200,456 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
A Song for Nero
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Thomas Holt provides us, in A Song for Nero, with one of the more ingeniously unlikely what-ifs of the modern historical novel: what if the body rebel troops found and dishonoured was not that of the deposed emperor Nero, but that of his official double, Callistus? A decade later, he and Callistus's mouthy younger brother Galen are still wandering the provinces of the empire, living hand to mouth and scam to scam--in some ways, a more inventive punishment for a tyrant than any court could imagine.
Holt's Nero is a fascinating set of contradictions, a fairly likable man in recovery from the total corruption of absolute power and keen to deny his worst crimes, or at least play them down. The petty crook Galen is the ideal foil for him, someone who cannot quite believe that his companion once did those things. And then their problems start. Not everybody thinks Nero is really dead, and there are all sorts of people with a use for him.
Like Holt's other historical novels, this one combines some of the inventive wit of his fantasies with real knowledge of the Classical period and a dark sense of irony; its principal weakness--some very routine thriller plotting--does not diminish the effectiveness of this distinctive tone of voice. --Roz Kaveney
Review
Holt's comic-historical novel begins with an irresistible premise: that Nero, ex-Emperor of the Romans, is now traipsing round the ancient world with a 'tickler' of bath houses (where clothes are stolen via a long pole and a hook), a down-at-heel con man. Add a large supporting cast and the search for some lost treasure and the result is very entertaining - even if the main plot takes a while to get going. Holt's conversational style, arguably sometimes distracting in its knowing manner, has great immediacy and charm, carrying the reader swiftly through a series of events, comic and fantastic. Characteristically, the author wears his period research lightly throughout. Nero and his travelling companion Galen are an excellent fictional duo, making this a highly recommendable book.
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First Sentence
So there we were in the condemned cell in Damascus - which is in Syria, and believe me, you don't want to go there, it's scalpingly hot and the people are not friendly - waiting for the soldiers to come back and take us off to be crucified. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
So there we were in the condemned cell in Damascus - which is in Syria, and believe me, you don't want to go there, it's scalpingly hot and the people are not friendly - waiting for the soldiers to come back and take us off to be crucified. Read the first page
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An improbable but funny historical romp,
By snowqueen01 (UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Song for Nero (Hardcover)
This book is the story of the Emperor Nero, his double Callistus, Callistus' brother Galen, and what might have happened if the Emperor Nero hadn't died in a ditch outside Rome. Despite some historical innacuracy, the book manages to evoke a dusty, raucous, long-ago time with great warmth and feeling. Told from the first-person perspective of Galen, I found the style to be a little grating initially, as the guy basically never shuts up. However, as the book progresses, the story really starts to flow; the humour and wit is everything you would expect from a Tom Holt novel, but the characterisation goes somewhat deeper, to great effect. The plot lurches from one outrageous scam to another, with the "heroes" dogged by their own sheer stupidity, until you wonder how they can possibly blag their way out of yet another certain death situation. I spent most of the book wanting to give Nero a good sharp kick, and there were several scenes which caused me to laugh out loud (to the consternation of fellow train passengers). I thought the ending was very clever, it tied up enough loose ends to be neatish, without being an audience pleaser.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Funny and Brilliant,
By Iphidaimos ""The History Man"" (Birmingham, England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Song For Nero (Paperback)
The story of Galen, a ferret-faced middle-aged Greek with no friends except for the most hated man on the planet - Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, known to history as the Emperor Nero, who perhaps didn't commit suicide in AD69 after all.
A cross between I Claudius, The Odyssey and Catch-22, this is one of the funniest books I've read for years. I won't spoil it by outlining the plot, but it's well worth the read. This is not the story of a lantern-jawed hero - in fact it's a book without heroes - but Galen proves to be more heroic and more loyal than even he would admit. Even Nero, despite the admission that as Emperor he was almost as bad as people generally believe, comes across as a human being with some redeeming characteristics. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I think anyone with a sense of humour will do too.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Possibly Holt's best,
By
This review is from: A Song For Nero (Paperback)
I've been a big fan of Tom Holt for years now, and Olympiad (the historical novel released before this one) is one of my favourite books of all time. A Song For Nero continues to demonstrate Holt's strong flair for telling incredibly funny stories in a convincingly authentic-feeling ancient Greece. The book's lead character and narrator, Galen, is a typical Holt 'hero' - self-deprecating and sarcastic - and tells the story with a sustained dry wit that rarely lets up and managed to keep a big smile plastered on my face throughout. During the course of the book, Galen and Lucius Domitius - the former emperor Nero who is trying to conceal his identity following the death of his lookalike lover - get into a seemingly endless string of scams and near-death situations which are observed through Galen's eyes with Holt's trademark dry wit. The dialogue is snappy and funny, the characters all wonderfully believable and at times the book is extremely touching. A Song For Nero is a fantastic book about how two people who can't live with or without each other, and I absolutely loved it.
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