by Colleen McCullough
There is something terribly reassuring about being in politics to enrich oneself. It's normal. It's human. It's forgivable. It's understandable. The ones to watch are the ones who are in politics to change the world. They do real damage, the power-men and the altruists. I've always been hesitant ab...
Series: Masters of Rome #1 Well that was a badass senatorial decree (Senatus Consultum de republica defendenda). More seriously, this book is hard to describe. It mostly follows Gaius Marius’s career and the start of Lucius Cornelius Sulla’s. It’s ambitious, entertaining, and gives a good sense ...
S.P.Q.R. is Mary Beard's look at, not how Rome fell, which many others have taken a stab at, but at how it rose. She covers Rome's "first millenium," ending in 212 AD, when the Emperor Caracalla extended Roman citizenship to all free inhabitants of the empire. The title takes its name from the La...
This is the first book in the seven book Masters of Rome series dealing with the last century of the Roman Republic, from 110 to 30 BC. At the start of The First Man in Rome we meet Gaius Julius Caesar--the grandfather of his namesake the famous general. This family patriarch marries one daughter to...
Whew! 2 months later I can finally put this book to rest. It was quite the endeavor. Rome is alive in McCullough’s novel. She is an amazing writer and researcher. I’m incredibly impressed with the amount of detail she put into this book. There is a true sense of reality because she didn’t skim over ...
Epic. Bought the hardback version 2nd hand because I wanted nice big versions of the maps on the endpapers, and also realised I'd be spending much of my time flicking to the extensive glossary at the back and the character list at the front. Having suffered from a modern education this was my first ...
It took me many years to finally read this book and then when I did it felt like it took me just as long to finish it! While the historical detail in this book is commendable, I think there is overall just entirely too much detail. The book gets bogged down in political detail when the real draw of ...
One of my favourite HF novels. Introduction to the end of the Roman republic, two fascinating characters -- Gaius Marius and Lucius Cornelius Sulla (one of my favourite baddies who so great he's good!), and the Julius family, among others. A great read, lots of details, and helped to go a long way f...
Well... ghosh I've finished and what a book! I'm not sure if I have the energy to write this review but I better write one before my brain falls backwards in its skull and goes into hibernation. I'm feeling a little dizzy at the moment. I have just been living in the Roman times with togas and centu...
This book is just...a collosal achievement. The Thornbirds is just "eh" for me, her take on P&P made me really appreciate her as a skilled author and storyteller...but THIS book makes me revere and idolize her as one of the best authors in existance.This is an almost 1000 page book about the ancient...
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