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A Book Review SIte from Jan McClintock
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Archive for roman empire

Fires of Alexandria cover

Review: Fires of Alexandria

By Jan
 on February 12, 2014

Fires of Alexandria: Book One of the Alexandrian Saga by Thomas K. Carpenter

Fires of Alexandria coverThis is historical fiction based on some facts but with an extremely implausible story. I usually enjoy ancient history and gave it a good try.

The famous Heron, genius and inventor, lived in Alexandria, Egypt during the first century, A.D. The Roman Empire had taken control of the city and tensions were high. In this story, the twin sister of Heron posed as the great man after his death, and was under pressure to find the real cause of the fire—from 100 years earlier—that burned a large part of the Library of Alexandria. She was also creating steampunk-like war machines to fight the Romans.

The prose is not very skilled; it lacks editing, which took away from the interesting story. Don’t even get me started on editing—it’s what I do for a living. If the errors had been made during ebook conversion, it would have been somewhat more forgivable.

There was a lot of repetition and the story dragged for me. The plot involved several elements that were too disparate to reconcile, and the “mystery” couldn’t really be solved. However, the characters were well-drawn and interesting, which made up for a lot. Still, I won’t be rushing out to continue this series.

In categories Book Review, Historical Novel Tagged with e-book, roman empire

Review: Caveat Emptor

By Jan
 on June 8, 2012

Caveat Emptor: A Novel of the Roman Empire by Ruth Downie;

Caveat Emptor coverBloomsbury USA (2010), Hardcover, 352 pages;

This fourth volume in the series finds Ruso back in Britain and reluctantly as usual on the case of a missing tax collector. I say as usual because he seldom has his way with anything, it seems, and for a Roman citizen with a trade is rarely pleased with the way his life is going. His discontent is wearing off on me as a reader, and I slogged through this book like a legionnaire does mud.

Downie makes the atmosphere feel real, and her descriptions are usually right on. The cast of co-stars is rather large, something I don’t enjoy, but most of the major players were well-identified. I don’t like the fact that Ruso is left in the dark for so long while he bumbles about looking like a amateur. Tilla is constantly causing more trouble, which I realize is fuel for the fire.

I would like something more positive from this series in order to continue. Ruso as the inept detective may have been fun at the beginning, but has now worn off as a plot device.

[I received this book gratis as part of the Early Reviewers program from LibraryThing.]

© Jan McClintock of We Need More Shelves

In categories Book Review, Historical Mystery Tagged with LibraryThing, roman empire
Buried Too Deep cover

Review: Buried Too Deep

By Jan
 on April 11, 2012

Buried Too Deep by Jane Finnis;

Buried Too Deep coverMy rating: 3 of 5 stars;

An Aurelia Marcella Roman Mystery set in early Britain.

Aurelia is such a strong character that it’s easy to like her. With her brother Lucius at her back and her friends and relatives beside her, she rides into her third mystery, this time on a wagon. In fact, she (and Lucius) does a lot of traveling in this story to appear in time for the rather complex plot to move on.

There were quite a few characters to keep track of, but they were all interesting and some quite fun. I don’t like to know the solution to the mystery early, and I wasn’t disappointed in this book. Looking forward to the next in the series by Jane Finnis.

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© Jan McClintock of We Need More Shelves

In categories Book Review, Historical Mystery Tagged with roman empire