Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Cast Not The Day, 14 April 2009
This is the second novel by Paul Waters and if you've read his first novel 'Of Merchants And Heroes,' then you will enjoy this.
The story is set in 4th century AD, and follows Drusus a young British nobleman of Roman birth. Drusus learns of the betrayal of his father by enemies at court of Constantine. Drusus is subsequently sent to his uncle in London and what follows is a coming a age story.
This story is set against the backdrop of civil war and the decline of the Roman gods against the new world order of the Christian Religion. In this setting Drusus must learn who to trust and who not to trust, who to care for and understand the meaning of losing all he knows.
Ultimately this book is about love and freedom and the struggle of a young man to find who he is in this brutal world.
I love this authors work, the story is very well written, I came to care about Drusus and what happened to him as the story unfolded, the author is a classicist and this comes across so much in his work...but not so that it puts you off...it just goes to compliment the story and enhance the richness.
I for one will be waiting in anticipation for the authors next book.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding, 14 Feb 2009
This is the second novel by this author. I thoroughly enjoyed the first and so bought this within a couple of days of publication. I was not disappointed. I thoroughly recommend it to all those who enjoy historical fiction that is well grounded in history - in England as Constantine dies and civil war breaks out - and want to get some sense of what it might actually have been to live at that time. Contains a truly scary portrait of a torturer.
My only complaint is with the publisher who has chose to produce both books in an odd narrow format with a short line length which makes the books frustrating to read - for me anyway - but this is a quibble given the quality of the stories.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Misses the mark, 28 Sep 2009
Paul Waters has chosen another neglected historical period for the follow-up to his début novel, Of Merchants & Heroes, which so impressed me last year. The setting is Britain, mid-fourth century, a generation before it is abandoned by the Roman Empire. The death of Emperor Constantine I has led to conflict between his three sons. Troops are pulled out of Britain to support the imperial claim of Constans, based in Gaul, against his brother Constantius in the East, and Saxon raiders are taking advantage of the unrest.
This is a novel about a conflict of philosophies and ways of life as rabid Christianity, now the official Imperial religion, fights to subdue a still active paganism at a time of civil war and disarray. This conflict is seen through the eyes of Drusus, whom we follow from childhood to manhood. At the cusp of adolescence his life is torn apart when his father, a loyal administrator for Constantine, falls foul of his successor, Constans. Drusus is sent to stay with his mother's family in London, where for the first time he comes into contact with the Christian community. There's no doubt about who the villains are here. The Christians are portrayed as the destroyers of all that is good, beautiful, tolerant and rational, and seen in caricature, from Drusus' carping, joyless and jealous aunt, to the odious and ironically named Bishop Pulcher of London, a gross, cowardly and venal opportunist.
Drusus has been brought up to behave correctly, fairly and with dignity, in accordance with the ideals of the classical philosophers, but he and like-minded others are fighting a rear-guard action. At one stage Drusus debates with the Bishop:
"Why did God give man reason, if not to discover the truth and own it for himself?"
The Bishop replies, "Words! The time for such questioning is past. The people have no care for your reason and complicated truths. They want certainty--simple, easy certainty--and I give it to them. That is why I shall triumph in the end".
Waters paints a vivid picture of life in London and its rural surroundings at the time, his knowledge is impressive and his writing stylish, so why did this story leave me feeling curiously dissatisfied?
Firstly, Drusus, our "eyes" through this tale, is strangely elusive as a character, and so fails to carry the reader with him. His role as a vehicle for the exploration of moral issues renders him a less than genuine, engaging personality, and his affair with his friend Marcellus seems oddly passionless. I appreciate that Waters prefers a discreet touch when it comes to homosexual relationships and agree that less can be more when it comes to sex scenes, but here a little more physicality would have added conviction to the affair. Finally, the ending was a shocking case of going out with a whimper rather than a bang. I know that Drusus is acting in a way consistent with rational thought, a triumph of will as opposed to the unthinking violence displayed by the Christian faction, but to me this story demanded more drama as a finale, with retribution involving sacrificial blood-letting. Given that Drusus is a soldier, his PC response seems downright feeble. The rather inconclusive finish leaves me wondering if this book might be the first in a series.
Character development and dynamic tension appear to have been sacrificed for polemic. A debate about moral and philosophical issues is not a problem in itself, but the book is described as a historical adventure. Waters clearly throws his hat into the "pagan" ring, and when he's on the attack his tone comes across as rather shrill at times. I definitely rolled my eyes when I came upon the story of Hypatia of Alexandria transported to 4th century London.
Sophomore novels are always difficult, and I certainly wouldn't be put off reading any other books written by Paul Waters, but hope that future stories have just a little more fire in the belly.
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