Paulclem
04-20-2011, 04:23 PM
Lustrum is the story of Cicero’s term as Consul in Rome and his decline from power. It’s full of Roman politics, the exercise of power, alliances, betrayal and death. When I picked up Harris’ first novel in this series I wondered whether I would actually like it, but I needn’t have worried: it was very compelling.
One of the strengths of the book is the characterisation of real historical personages. Julius Caesar, Crassus and Pompey The Great all figure strongly. Yet Harris doesn’t rely on the reader’s knowledge of these towering historical personages. He develops them into believable, and completely plausible, characters which don’t conflict, but enhance, what we know of them.
I enjoy reading historical fiction on the basis that you get two for the price of one: in this case a political thriller of the superior kind with lots of period detail to enjoy. The settings are well drawn and plausible, in an unobtrusive way, and the familiar Senate and Field of Mars provide a the colourful settings for the drama to play out.
Harris is able to maintain the tension and spring plot surprises throughout the Senate debates and the legal wranglings that punctuate the book. What appear as dry Roman legalities become legislations that determine the course of Roman politics, and who wins and who loses, in the cut and thrust of Rome, lives or dies.
I enjoyed the book very much, as it lives up to the usual standard I’ve come to expect from the likes of Pompeii and Ghost.
One of the strengths of the book is the characterisation of real historical personages. Julius Caesar, Crassus and Pompey The Great all figure strongly. Yet Harris doesn’t rely on the reader’s knowledge of these towering historical personages. He develops them into believable, and completely plausible, characters which don’t conflict, but enhance, what we know of them.
I enjoy reading historical fiction on the basis that you get two for the price of one: in this case a political thriller of the superior kind with lots of period detail to enjoy. The settings are well drawn and plausible, in an unobtrusive way, and the familiar Senate and Field of Mars provide a the colourful settings for the drama to play out.
Harris is able to maintain the tension and spring plot surprises throughout the Senate debates and the legal wranglings that punctuate the book. What appear as dry Roman legalities become legislations that determine the course of Roman politics, and who wins and who loses, in the cut and thrust of Rome, lives or dies.
I enjoyed the book very much, as it lives up to the usual standard I’ve come to expect from the likes of Pompeii and Ghost.