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Conn Iggulden Books


marcus brutus

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just wondering if anyone read the conn igulden books u know the emperor books like gates of rome,death of kings, and feild of swords.i love those books :P

 

I tried reading the first one, but gave up about half way through. His style is fast paced and entertaining, and should he write about a different time period or cast of characters I might sample him again. But for those books, in my opinion, he butchered the very well known history of one of the worlds most famous people and chain of events. I know its being 'stodgy' but I'm afraid I just couldn't get through it.

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Well as Pilus i got about half way through the first one and jsut gave up. i started reading the second book (death of the kings) its extremely exciting and fast paced at the begininning of the book which was entertaining but i soon also gave it up about half way through.. i dont know it jsut got a bit boring for me...hmmm maybe im a bit fussy :D

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  • 2 weeks later...
just wondering if anyone read the conn igulden books u know the emperor books like gates of rome,death of kings, and feild of swords.i love those books :rolleyes:

 

 

No doubt he's a good writer, but I just can't stand it when people change historical facts as much as he does in these books. <_<

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  • 2 months later...
:) i really loved all three of these books and im currently re reading book 2 and desperately waiting for the next book in the new year. i have handed them around my family and they are very well thumbed now, my 70 yr old grandad enjoyed them too!
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  • 2 years later...
just wondering if anyone read the conn igulden books u know the emperor books like gates of rome,death of kings, and feild of swords.i love those books ;)

 

I tried reading the first one, but gave up about half way through. His style is fast paced and entertaining, and should he write about a different time period or cast of characters I might sample him again. But for those books, in my opinion, he butchered the very well known history of one of the worlds most famous people and chain of events. I know its being 'stodgy' but I'm afraid I just couldn't get through it.

 

Amen, and that is all I am going to say about that!

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  • 1 month later...

Same to that. I had a friend give them to me to read, and out of friendship to him I managed to suffer through most of the first two books. His style is decent but it quickly got to the point where he was no longer writing about thee C. Iulius Caesar but some guy with the same name. I have my flexibility with historical fiction, but Iggulden did not even try to get anything accurate and that ruined the books so thoroughly that I was ranting to anyone who would listen (aka my poor roommates) for 10 minutes for every 3 pages. Not worth the effort. The one thing I have to give Iggulden's books, however, is that they have cool covers. But I doubt the author had much say in that.

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I have avoided most of his books, mainly on account of the criticisms already stated. I do however, have a GEM of a book written by him and his brother - :rolleyes: But I will continue: The 'Dangerous Book for Boys' is an excellent book for parents who, like me, feel exasperated by a generation of children who do not appear to know how to entertain themselves in any way, and who seem wrapped up in cotton wool by a society which has become afraid to take any risks whatsoever whilst simultaneously stunting the healthy development of its children. This book has it all: How to light a fire, how to hunt and prepare game for food, how to make things, latin phrases everyone should know, descriptions of ancient and not so ancient battles. Hats off to him in this respect.

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Same to that. I had a friend give them to me to read, and out of friendship to him I managed to suffer through most of the first two books. His style is decent but it quickly got to the point where he was no longer writing about thee C. Iulius Caesar but some guy with the same name. I have my flexibility with historical fiction, but Iggulden did not even try to get anything accurate and that ruined the books so thoroughly that I was ranting to anyone who would listen (aka my poor roommates) for 10 minutes for every 3 pages. Not worth the effort. The one thing I have to give Iggulden's books, however, is that they have cool covers. But I doubt the author had much say in that.

 

But these are historical fantasy novels. Like Lion of Macedon by David Gemmell for instance.

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But these are historical fantasy novels. Like Lion of Macedon by David Gemmell for instance.

 

I'll grant you that... the problem is that I didn't realize it until after I read it. Had I known before hand and my expectation been different, my reaction might have been as well. (at least slightly). :thumbsup:

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Same to that. I had a friend give them to me to read, and out of friendship to him I managed to suffer through most of the first two books. His style is decent but it quickly got to the point where he was no longer writing about thee C. Iulius Caesar but some guy with the same name. I have my flexibility with historical fiction, but Iggulden did not even try to get anything accurate and that ruined the books so thoroughly that I was ranting to anyone who would listen (aka my poor roommates) for 10 minutes for every 3 pages. Not worth the effort. The one thing I have to give Iggulden's books, however, is that they have cool covers. But I doubt the author had much say in that.

 

But these are historical fantasy novels. Like Lion of Macedon by David Gemmell for instance.

 

Historical fantasy is a genre I have not encountered before- I have made my review out of ignorance then.

 

Nevertheless, I am not "getting" the point of re-writing Caesar's entire life, relationships, timeline, the events in history that made Caesar, Caesar. Creativity is one thing, but to market a series of books that chronicles a fantasy version of Caesar's life is quite misleading for casual readers, is it not? Perhaps creating stories for the gaps in Caesar's already fun-filled adventuring life would be more productive in furthering reality? Don't worry, I'm not expecting full answers or explanations from anyone, I'm just scratching my head.

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Nevertheless, I am not "getting" the point of re-writing Caesar's entire life, relationships, timeline, the events in history that made Caesar, Caesar. Creativity is one thing, but to market a series of books that chronicles a fantasy version of Caesar's life is quite misleading for casual readers, is it not? Perhaps creating stories for the gaps in Caesar's already fun-filled adventuring life would be more productive in furthering reality? Don't worry, I'm not expecting full answers or explanations from anyone, I'm just scratching my head.

 

Well, the author is a huge David Gemmell fan, maybe "Lion of Macedon" inspired him. After all, LoM was hugely successful, but it's not really factual portrayal of Parmenion, Phillip or Alexander, and it's not supposed be. I think that the Cabera (sp) character in the Emperor books gives them away as historical fantasy rather than historical fiction.

 

I guess great thing about writing a book is that you can write whatever you like: I'm not sure that Conn Iggulden was out there to further reality, I think he wanted to tell an exciting adventure story in the Gemmell style. Productive? Well, that's down to opinion. I enjoyed the books, Iggulden's making a fortune and they've given a lot of people a lot of pleasure, so I believe that that the endeavour was worthwhile.

 

But you can't please all of the people all of the time, which is the perogative that you must accept if you're going to seek publication.

 

Cheers

 

Russ

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Nevertheless, I am not "getting" the point of re-writing Caesar's entire life, relationships, timeline, the events in history that made Caesar,

 

 

Nor do I. I have no intention of reading any of these books based on this discussion. Unless it is set in an alternate universe where history differs from ours, any defense of it seems pure sophistry.

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