A maximally engaging tale of ancient Rome.
Political intrigue and erotic charge fuel this novel set in the waning years of the Roman Empire.
“Stories get better and better after four hundred years,” according to this tale about Gen. Magnus Maximus, commander of the Roman forces in Britain in the twilight years of the fourth century. But if a 400-year-old story is great, a 1,600-year-old yarn must be even better. Such is the logic of Evans’ (Menace, 2017, etc.) engrossing work of historical fiction, which puts flesh on the biography of Maximus, one of Rome’s more intriguing figures. Maximus is a military leader—and a fine one at that—but the grumblings of his troops against the local emperor, Gratianus, have given the general dreams of the throne. Could he turn his military power into an empire? The temptation is real. Yet Maximus has other dreams too; these nighttime visions are of a woman of surpassing grace named Elen, who the author is at great pains to remind readers is the “most beautiful woman” that just about anyone has ever seen. Driven by his ambitions—both political and romantic—Maximus puts two plans in motion, one to become emperor and the other to win the literal woman of his dreams. All good historical fiction must start with superb history, and Evans has picked an excellent source. The general is complicated in all the right ways: Ambitious and talented, proud and provocative, Maximus is a protagonist pulled directly from central casting. And while the author is supported by the historical record, he is not confined by it, and he tweaks and bends the story adeptly to fit his own narrative needs. Perhaps the only small defect lies in the prose itself: Evans is an academic by training, and sometimes his book reads less like a novel on ancient Rome than a scholarly essay about it. But his writing is never too purple, and readers will be happy to trudge through the occasional linguistic thicket to find out what happens next.
A maximally engaging tale of ancient Rome.Pub Date: March 28, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-78465-533-4
Page Count: 398
Publisher: Vanguard Press
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
At the outset, this might seem like minor Morrison (A Mercy, 2008, etc.), not only because its length is borderline novella,...
A deceptively rich and cumulatively powerful novel.
At the outset, this might seem like minor Morrison (A Mercy, 2008, etc.), not only because its length is borderline novella, but because the setup seems generic. A black soldier returns from the Korean War, where he faces a rocky re-entry, succumbing to alcoholism and suffering from what would subsequently be termed PTSD. Yet perhaps, as someone tells him, his major problem is the culture to which he returns: “An integrated army is integrated misery. You all go fight, come back, they treat you like dogs. Change that. They treat dogs better.” Ultimately, the latest from the Nobel Prize–winning novelist has something more subtle and shattering to offer than such social polemics. As the novel progresses, it becomes less specifically about the troubled soldier and as much about the sister he left behind in Georgia, who was married and deserted young, and who has fallen into the employ of a doctor whose mysterious experiments threaten her life. And, even more crucially, it’s about the relationship between the brother and his younger sister, which changes significantly after his return home, as both of them undergo significant transformations. “She was a shadow for most of my life, a presence marking its own absence, or maybe mine,” thinks the soldier. He discovers that “while his devotion shielded her, it did not strengthen her.” As his sister is becoming a woman who can stand on her own, her brother ultimately comes to terms with dark truths and deep pain that he had attempted to numb with alcohol. Before they achieve an epiphany that is mutually redemptive, even the earlier reference to “dogs” reveals itself as more than gratuitous.Pub Date: May 8, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-307-59416-7
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: March 4, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
This is historical adventure on a grand scale, right up there with the works of Conn Iggulden and Minette Walters.
Plenty of gore from days of yore fills the 12th entry in Cornwell’s The Last Kingdom series (War of the Wolf, 2018, etc.).
The pagan warlord Uhtred of Bebbanburg narrates his 10th-century adventures, during which he hacks people apart so that kingdoms might be stitched together. He is known to some as the Godless or the Wicked, a reputation he enjoys. Edward, King of Wessex, Mercia, and East Anglia is gravely ill, and Uhtred pledges an oath to likely heir Æthelstan to kill two rivals, Æthelhelm and “his rotten nephew,” Ælfweard, when the king dies. Uhtred’s wife, Eadith, wants him to break that oath, but he cannot live with the dishonor of being an oathbreaker. The tale seems to begin in the middle, as though the reader had just turned the last page in the 11th book—and yet it stands alone quite well. Uhtred travels the coast and the river Temes in the good ship Spearhafoc, powered by 40 rowers struggling against tides and currents. He and his men fight furious battles, and he lustily impales foes with his favorite sword, Serpent-Breath. “I don’t kill the helpless,” though, which is one of his few limits. So, early in the story, when a man calling himself “God’s chosen one” declares “We were sent to kill you,” readers may chuckle and say yeah, right. But Uhtred faces true challenges such as Waormund, “lord Æthelhelm’s beast.” Immense bloodletting aside, Cornwell paints vivid images of the filth in the Temes and in cities like Lundene. This is mainly manly fare, of course. Few women are active characters. The queen needs rescuing, and “when queens call for help, warriors go to war.” The action is believable if often gruesome and loathsome, and it never lets up for long.
This is historical adventure on a grand scale, right up there with the works of Conn Iggulden and Minette Walters.Pub Date: Nov. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-256321-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
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