Ancient & Medieval Historical Fiction discussion

Our Ancient poll winner is The Gates of Rome

From the author of the bestselling "The Dangerous Book for Boys"
"Sweeping us into a realm of tyrants and slaves, of dark intrigues and seething passions, Conn Iggulden brings us a magnificent novel of ancient Rome--and of the early years of a man who would become the most powerful ruler on earth. "
In a city of grandeur and decadence, beauty and bloodshed, two boys, best friends, dream of glory in service of the mightiest empire the world has ever known. One is the son of a senator. The other is a bastard child. As young Gaius and Marcus grow to manhood, they are trained in the art of combat--under the tutelage of one of Rome's most fearsome gladiators. For Marcus, a bloody campaign in Greece will become a young soldier's proving ground. For Gaius, the equally deadly infighting of the Roman Senate will be the battlefield where he hones his courage and skill. And for both, the love of an extraordinary slave girl will be an honor each will covet but only one will win. But as Rome is thrust into the grip of bitter conflict, as every Roman prepares to take sides in the coming battle, Gaius and Marcus's friendship will be put to the ultimate test....

More Rome, yay!

I'll read this one in August. I have owned it for ages. About time I read the darn thing.

begun this one already, it is going fast. I am not enjoying it as much as when I first read it (that being said, I am still enjoying it). I will have to pick up book 2 form the library soon.

Why aren't you enjoying it as much Daniel??

I am not sure. I think I might be craving some complexity and depth at this time, while this book is a historical action/adventure and fast paced.

I think I have read better historical fiction (I enjoy BC more) since reading this one the first time, so it has dropped in ranking

Looking at a 3.5 star rating right now.

I've found that with Iggulden. He writes a fast and easy story but I don't get a whole lot of depth from him. If I reread this one I think it might not even make a 3 star.

he also plays fast and loose with history in this one.

Yes, I wasn't as annoyed by that in this book but the next one did bother me and I quit reading the series.

The month of August is almost upon us, I hope everyone is prepared to start reading.

I am hoping for some good discussion of Roman history. I know the author messed around with some of it in this series and I am curious to see how it affects everyone's enjoyment!!

I got it from my library so I'm just waiting to finishing up my July's before sinking into this one.

I have the second one on my desk, but I am conflicted about reading it. I was not really impressed with number one, and I have other things on my TBR list (that ever growing monstrosity). I will probably give it a go...but there it is.

I won't be joining in this one. Neither the period, subject matter, nor the author interest me. heh

Darcy wrote: "I won't be joining in this one. Neither the period, subject matter, nor the author interest me. heh"

Me neither; that period of Roman history has been done to death. I did read it awhile back, thought not much of it. I don't think it's worth rereading.

It really has been done to death hasn't it? I've been reading quite a bit of Roman Empire fiction lately and it all seems to include something from the era surrounding Crassus to Augustus.

Dawn wrote: "It really has been done to death hasn't it? I've been reading quite a bit of Roman Empire fiction lately and it all seems to include something from the era surrounding Crassus to Augustus."

That's why I prefer the post-Julio-Claudians [post Nero] if possible.

Do you ever go with pre-Emperor Rome??

There must be some stuff in that era, I suppose I mean pre Sulla and Marius actually.

Yes, I've gone with that: my second choice: pre-Julius Caesar. He's been overdone too.
However, I did enjoy the Fronto series Marius' Mules: The Invasion of Gaul and its sequels by S.J.A. Turney, I guess mostly for the characters' irreverent attitude towards Caesar. :)

The Coin of Carthage by Bryher I did enjoy but not as much as others of hers I've read. Hannibal was only peripheral in this one.

Dawn wrote: "Do you ever go with pre-Emperor Rome??

There must be some stuff in that era, I suppose I mean pre Sulla and Marius actually."

Alfred Duggan has some interesting Roman fiction. aka is about the founding of Rome, quite believable.

He has a couple post-Nero books as well -
and .

Even his Caesar-era fiction is focused on secondary characters -
and .

What I like about his stuff is that there isn't necessarily a "happy ending" but the characters muddle on anyway.

Thanks, I had forgotten about him. Family Favourites I liked the best.

There are not a lot of Duggan's books around my library systems. I'll add one to my ILL list and give him a try though.

This is another I enjoyed, The Roman by Mika Waltari, spans Claudius' reign to Diocletian.

I think I'm trying one of Waltari's other books, I have The Egyptian on my next ILL request list.

Dawn wrote: "I think I'm trying one of Waltari's other books, I have The Egyptian on my next ILL request list."

Not Diocletian, I meant Domitian. Apparently it's part of a trilogy: The Egyptian, The Etruscan and
The Roman. The Egyptian is the most famous.

A 10 minute video titled From Marius to Caesar is now available to view, to get us all interested in the out Ancient Group read: https://www.goodreads.com/videos/6902...

Due to my flu set back I am wildly behind in my reading. I may still try and get to this one by the end of August, otherwise I will try to get to it in September.

I own this book, and I read it about five years ago. Can't remember a thing about it, so I might give it a try after I'm done the book I'm reading now (which is over a thousand pages so we'll see).

It's not a good sign that you've forgotten everything about it. :)

All I remembered was the history was really messed up and Brutus was Caesar's son. This unfortunate reading put me off Iggulden completely; I thought this novel was so poor.

I five stars it when I read it a while back, but I think rereading will only give it two stars the most.

After reading the second book of the series, The Death of Kings, the series will be better be categoriezed as Alternate History in my humble opinion.

I am in no rush to continue reading the next book in the series.

After the 2nd book I also came to the conclusion that it should have been termed an Alternate History.

I got through the first book and thought it was okay but after the second, the historical inaccuracies were just too much.
I rather think the series would have been better if he'd just gone full on with the alternate rather than having it passed off as historical fiction.

It's just such a well known historical era and well documented, it's hard not to be critical. Make up the childhood certainly but the rest....

Lia wrote: "I five stars it when I read it a while back, but I think rereading will only give it two stars the most.

After reading the second book of the series, The Death of Kings, the series ..."

Sounds reasonable. Quality of writing was poor, as I remember.

Jane wrote: "Lia wrote: "I five stars it when I read it a while back, but I think rereading will only give it two stars the most.

After reading the second book of the series, The Death of Kings,..."

The only book by Conn Iggulden I've read was one about Genghis Khan. I don't know much about the great Khan, and I'm not sure there is that much reliable history about him, so his story was ok. But I often felt as though there was more of it that was fantasy than fact. I prefer books that take actual history and explain why things happened the way they did.

Dawn wrote: "It's not a good sign that you've forgotten everything about it. :)"

I know! My memory isn't that bad..I think.

This was an awesome book! Started off a bit slow, but really ended up sucking me in. Seeing some of the comments about the second book, though, and I'm worried about the rest of the series!

I will go assess the general group attitude toward the series and post some rating stats for you. :)

Here are the stats as they stand now for each book in the series based on this groups membership:

The Gates of Rome

1★-2
2★-5
3★-8
4★-17
5★-13

The Death of Kings

1★-0
2★-1
3★-3
4★-19
5★-9

The Field of Swords

1★-1
2★-1
3★-4
4★-12
5★-9

The Gods of War

1★-1
2★-1
3★-6
4★-10
5★-8

Jane wrote: "All I remembered was the history was really messed up and Brutus was Caesar's son. This unfortunate reading put me off Iggulden completely; I thought this novel was so poor."

Say what? Well that Brutus thing is ridiculous. Why mess with that kind of thing. The real history is colourful enough.

Wow. Nice work, Dawn! You really are a dab hand with stat collecting.

Can't help myself. :)

Haha. :D

Terri wrote: "Jane wrote: "All I remembered was the history was really messed up and Brutus was Caesar's son. This unfortunate reading put me off Iggulden completely; I thought this novel was so poor."

Say wha..."

I know, question was rhetorical.:) History is overdone in this period, but I agree, It is colorful!
@Dawn, those stats were impressive!

Well I just started reading this one... slow start but I'll reserve my opinion until the end. Pretty violent from the start.

I decided to be ambitious and try both group reads this month. Ancient Rome isn't really my go to time period. I know the basics but that's about it so I won't have a lot to critique in terms of accuracy. I will just take the words of others ;) So far I am enjoying the book. It definitely seems to move along much quicker than the Cornwell novel.

Gretchen wrote: "I decided to be ambitious and try both group reads this month. Ancient Rome isn't really my go to time period. I know the basics but that's about it so I won't have a lot to critique in terms of ac..."

Same for me. I know there are inaccuracies because others say there are but it makes no difference to my ignorant self of this time period. But I understand the sentiment, I get pissed off about inaccuracies in ancient Greek fiction.

I'm enjoying the fast pace as well.

Have just finished this one. Like Gretchen and Alicja I enjoyed the pace. It was good fun.

My review here https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

So I just read the scene where (view spoiler)[ Reninus has his arm removed. I made the mistake of reading it while I was finishing breakfast. Not one of my more brilliant ideas. (hide spoiler)]

For starters I would just like to shout a big "Yay me!" I finished both group reads this month! I've never done that before. It's kind of exciting. On a related note, I might need a different hobby. You know what wasn't exciting? Neither of these books. Like the Cornwell read, I felt this book was alright. I didn't think it was anything special.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Congrats!

And I agree, I'm not a fan of either book.