A skillful, exciting blend of history, action, and drama set in the ancient world.
In ancient Rome, a playwright accused of plotting against the emperor finds refuge with a secret group of Christians in this adventure novel.
Domitian, emperor of Rome, was born under a bad sign: his death is foretold in the stars, down to the day and hour. Cruel and paranoid, Domitian names himself Lord and God, feeling especially threatened by Christians, who refuse to worship him. Now, six months before the emperor’s predicted death, a secret Christian organization called the Dominium Dei (Rule of God) has been working to bring about the prophecy, harassing Domitian with espionage, kidnapping, and assassination of his officials, such as his chief astrologer. The playwright Athanasius of Athens, meanwhile, just wants to earn acclaim for his work and the love of beautiful Helena, a model for sculptors. But his life overturns when he’s falsely accused of being Chiron, “the most dangerous man in the world,” mastermind of the Dei. Athanasius is condemned to die in the arena—but, with help from unexpected benefactors, he barely escapes. He’s given a mission that takes him from Rome to John of Patmos—the last apostle—and to Asia Minor and a hidden underground Christian refuge. Who are the Dei and who is Chiron? Can Athanasius stop a war between Rome and the Church? Greanias (The War Cloud, 2016, etc.) writes an intelligent, fast-moving historical novel with nonstop action, narrow escapes, and violent encounters, as well as much food for thought. The ancient world comes alive in well-chosen details, from the mundane to the arcana of spycraft, codes, and disguises. Greasias’ characterization is vivid even for minor figures and especially so for Athanasius. As a playwright, for example, he dislikes the Book of Revelations for its “deus ex machina return of Jesus at the end of history”; he goes through a believable personal struggle and transformation over the tale’s course. The author also smartly illuminates the religious, philosophical, historical, and even economic issues that underpin the story, while never letting the pace lag.
A skillful, exciting blend of history, action, and drama set in the ancient world.Pub Date: May 16, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9960040-4-6
Page Count: 386
Publisher: Atlantis Ink
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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