Dictator

 

Dictator – Robert Harris

The third installment of Robert Harris’s “Cicero” (for lack of a better word) trilogy, and by far the best.  Robert Harris seems to have a strong fascination with ancient Rome; I think he’s written 5 historical novels that take place about a century or so before Christ. I find these escapades breathtakingly original and incredibly educational. Although most would consider life anywhere on planet Earth two-thousand years ago to be “primitive”, ancient Rome was definitely the exception.  True, there was no electricity, motorized transportation, or telephones, but one gets the impression that his group of fortunate people with a unique set of privileges and had it pretty good.

The “Cicero” trilogies, though, mainly deal with politics. Alas, nothing has really changed all these years later. Marcus Tullios Cicero was one of the most famous lawyers, politicians, and orators of his time and this trilogy focuses on the many events where he was in the midst of during this time. The story is told through the eyes (and pen) of his slave/servant Tiro.  Tiro, to my knowledge, was also a real person, and had the gift of scribing in a personalized style of shorthand that allowed so many of the events to be accurately and meticulously described for future reflection.  How much of this story is true and how much is speculative is, I’m sure, notated by experts elsewhere. For my enjoyment, however, these particulars don’t necessarily matter.

What makes this novel the strongest of the three for my tastes is that this installment contains a lot more story which means it isn’t all politics. Oh sure there is plenty of  back-stabbing, temporary alliances, and conniving within the realms of power-play but this novel dealt much more with the major players and the events and details of many of their real-life predicaments.

Example: As the story begins Cicero (along with faithful slave Tiro) is living in exile. It’s highly interesting to see his forced exodus, how he copes, and the factors that lead to his eventual return.  There are other key events in this book (the assassination of Julius Caesar, for example) that add a much more enjoyable element rather than the persistent squabbling of the key-members of society who hold most of the cards.

Tiro, himself, is a bigger focus here as well.  True, he’s a “happy” slave, yet no one wants to live in such bondage and confinement for their entire life. We see how his situation progresses in a positive way, and get to read about may aspects of his life as opposed to simply being the story-teller for master Cicero.

To my knowledge, Tiro was fortunate to live a very long life; much longer than Cicero. His transcriptions are needed as we read this particular story.  One wonders if Tiro continued to scribe in some sort of fashion in his later years after Cicero died, and what, if he did, might be possible for a future novel or two.

Enemy of God

 

Enemy of God – Bernard Cornwell

The second book of author Bernard Cornwell’s “King Arthur” trilogy, and just as good – better probably – than the first. I stumbled on this author quite by accident, and his first two works have been pleasantly surprising. To be fair, the type of book along with the settings and characters aren’t exactly the genre that immediately appeals to me, so the fact that I actually enjoyed these books as much as I did says an awful lot about the author and his style of writing.

These books attempt to tell the story of the “King Arthur” legend.  Yes, his story is a legendary one, not a real one, yet this was a fact that was somewhat lost on me.  Oh sure, I’ve heard the tales of the Knights of the Round Table, and the quest for Holy Grail (-Ni!-) but I always thought there was some truth behind the tales.  Not so, and this is pretty obvious when one reads these stories.

These books remind me a lot of the ‘Game of Thrones’ books (and television show) yet are slightly more grounded in what many would call reality. There’s a lot of fantastic mythical elements though including wizards, magical cauldrons and spells, yet these tales are so well-told, that the fact that these are obviously fiction doesn’t take away from the enjoyment.

The story is told through the eyes of Derfel, who is a friend, servant, and advisor to King Arthur. There really isn’t one simply story here.  The book is a series of different tales, all somewhat related to each other, and all focused on the kingdoms, conquerors, friends, and foes of Arthur himself.  There are a lot of battles, a lot of evil kings and queens, a lot of wizards, yet all of the stories are enthralling and interesting.

Since there’s some level of “truth” in these 4^th century tales, there’s an awful lot of religious rivalry going on – mainly the dreaded Christians versus the reprehensible pagans.  It’s a bit much. Derfel is on the “pagan” side, yet the book (as did the first one) begins with him many years in the future looking back and dictating his tales.  In the future, he lives in a Christian monastery, so I’m sure book three will have a lot of explaining to do as to how Derfel ends up where he does since there seems to be so much animosity towards Christianity.  Anyway, my guess is this is where the title of the book comes from, since there is so much bitterness and distrust towards one religion and its partakers versus the other ones.

I believe that these books have been made into some sort of tv series, and this wouldn’t be surprising.  The fact that each book is packed with so many different stories lends itself to such a platform.  I loved this book, and am eager to not only finish the trilogy, but to explore other offerings (and there are apparently many!) by this author.

Founding Partisans

 

Founding Partisans – H.W. Brands

It’s always a bit of a letdown and mild shock when you come across one of your favorite authors and you end up not enjoying the book. Such was the case here. H.W. Brands has written a boatload of American History – I’m guessing I’ve read maybe 10 of his works. I’ve never been disappointed until this one. Was it the subject matter? The fact that the well had run a bit dry? The fact that I didn’t learn much that I already knew? Was I feeling grumpy?  Probably a bit of all of this.

The subject matter is the first 25 years or so after America’s independence. The focus is the fact that the leaders of the country, like today, really didn’t get along based on their particular politics and ideologies, and so there was a lot of squabbling back and forth.  The main players are John Adams and Alexander Hamilton on one side (the Federalists) and Thomas Jefferson and James Madison on the other (The Democrat-Republicans).

There was actually an awful lot of history to cover during this timeframe, and the author tries to cover it all in somewhat brief snippets.  The main focus, though, is the politics, and it simply didn’t make very interesting reading.  In many ways I felt like I was reading 25 years worth of newspaper articles. What made this reading a bit tougher was the fact that Brands includes a lot verbatim records of what each of these players actually said during whatever  the hot topic of the day was.  This could be a bit of a slog since public figures used a lot more heavy verbiage 250 years ago.  It probably would have been enough to simply summarize what these individuals thought, and maybe include a literal passage here and there, but it’s simply too much.

The saving grace of this book is that it does tell us that partisan politics isn’t anything new. In our fractured political climate of the 2020s, we tend to romanticize the past and think that things were somewhat harmonious in the days of yesteryear, but this simply isn’t the case. This book probes it. However, it must be said that the way this book was written simply didn’t add any feeling or specific insight that was necessary. There have been much better books written about this time period, and the author himself has had masses of success with his other books.

Check this author out. Hie’s great. Just don’t start with this one.

The Ghost

 

The Ghost – Robert Harris

This was a bit of a strange one. Not strange in terms of content, but strange in terms of not really what I was expecting from this author. Robert Harris, I can now honestly say, is one of my favorite authors in the mystery/history department. I guess you can call him “historical fiction” but his works seem a bit different than those that I’ve read who fit into that particular genre. Harris tends to write about well known historical events, and fill them with a fictitious tale of mystery and intrigue. From my perspective he always succeeds. This one is a bit different – at least on the surface.

The “Ghost” is a ghostwriter. We never learn of his name as the story is told in first person. ‘Ghost’ has been challenged to ghost write an autobiography of a former controversial British Prime Minister (Adam Lang) who, according to the tabloids at least, took a bit of liberty with the law while in office and managed to due some illegal killing where alleged terrorists may or may not have been involved. Some have argued that this story is a thin-veiled attempt to really tell the story of the Tony Blair administration.  Perhaps, but such similarities were not completely necessary.

As the story begins, the original ghost writer who is assigned to ‘write’ the autobiography dies mysteriously off the coast of Martha’s Vinyard which is where Lang now resides. ‘Ghost’ soon arrives and picks up the task while trying to uncover several strange occurrences. Did the first ghost writer really die of a suicide?  Was Lang really involved in illegal activities? What other strange things may or may not be involved?

What makes this story a bit unique (and a bit better) is that author Robert Harris introduces to the world of ghost writing. Oh sure, the story by itself is a good one, and it can probably stand on its own, but it’s a fun learning experience to learn about such an occupation.  Example: Adam Lang has already ‘written’ his autobiography, but ‘Ghost’ has to make it interesting enough to where it will actually sell some books.  It’s humorous when ‘Ghost’ begins to flip through the manuscript and feels a churn in his stomach while reading just how dull and lifeless this account is.  Sometimes readers (me and you) need to be reminded just how difficult it is to write well.

So the story is adequate and the reader learns more about the intriguing world of ghost writing.  To be honest, I was hoping and expecting more from Robert Harris, but this was a good read and the pages turned rather nicely in the ‘quickness’ department.  It’s definitely one of Harris’ least consequential works, but it was overall enjoyable just the same.