Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Each to their own; I enjoyed "Roma" very much indeed!
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Me too;
I rarely like multi generational sagas, especially spanning 1000 years or so, but this book hooked me at about the third story or so and was excellent from then on. It starts slow but true, but if you persevere to Romulus, Coriolanus, the Gallic invasion and so on it's really rewarding.
There is another mystery series set in late Republican Rome, SPQR #n (got to 11 or 12), by J. Maddox Roberts, but for some reason I never liked it. I liked more his alternate history where Hannibal defeats Rome and exiles the romans to Germany (there are 2 volumes as of now) but I am not sure if it will brought to some conclusion since the second book tanked in the market as far as I know, though I hope I am wrong.
Regarding other famous historical novels:
- I liked some though not all of M. Renault novels -
The Last of the Wine is however one of my all time favorites, I reread 10 times easily
- Mika Waltari (
Roman, Etruscan, Egyptian, Adventurer, Wanderer, Dark Angel, Secret of the Kingdom, Jean Le Peregrin - this one available only in French) is probably my favorite 20th century historical novelist (with Dumas of course my favorite of all time)
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The Accursed Kings series by M. Druon is excellent too though unfortunately all English translations I saw were mediocre at best
- I read all 7 volumes in D. Dunnett
Nicolo series (though not the other series) and I liked them but they are not in my top historical novels; too many things happening in too short a time to few characters that I never fully warmed up to.