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"Antony and Cleopatra" by Colleen McCullough?


G-Manicus

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This is the final book of the Masters of Rome series. Was released in December 2007. Anybody read it yet? I just finished The October Horse and was thinking about picking it up.

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This is the final book of the Masters of Rome series. Was released in December 2007. Anybody read it yet? I just finished The October Horse and was thinking about picking it up.

 

I thought October Horse was weak and the plot forced in comparison to her earlier novels, so I'm not rushing out for this one. I'm sure I'll read it eventually though, but it's interesting that there has been very little feedback on it.

 

To be perfectly fair, I loved "First Man and "Grass Crown" and would recommend them repeatedly and whole-heartedly to any Romanophile. The introduction of the super genius, man-god Caesar as opposed to the slightly more balanced take on Marius and Sulla was a bit difficult to take. I suppose a pro-Antony novel in contrast to Octavian might be interesting.

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I thought October Horse was weak and the plot forced in comparison to her earlier novels, so I'm not rushing out for this one. I'm sure I'll read it eventually though, but it's interesting that there has been very little feedback on it.

 

To be perfectly fair, I loved "First Man and "Grass Crown" and would recommend them repeatedly and whole-heartedly to any Romanophile. The introduction of the super genius, man-god Caesar as opposed to the slightly more balanced take on Marius and Sulla was a bit difficult to take. I suppose a pro-Antony novel in contrast to Octavian might be interesting.

Chris ... even though I'm in the Caesar camp, I have to agree. The Caesar can do no wrong angle was a bit tiresome. That having been said, as I'm not nearly as knowledgeable about the Republic as most of the folks here are, I found the overall series quite fascinating and informative as McCullough seemed to me to be fairly accurate from an historical perspective (or so the fine folks at Wikipedia tell me!)

 

I'm not sure whether the newest novel will be "pro-Antony" or not ... I don't think she painted a very flattering portrait of him in the other books (a drunken, bullying lout for the most part). Octavian only slightly more so in my opinion. You know who they each reminded me of in her books? Antony comes across as being Sonny Corleone and Octavian as Michael. Cold, ruthless Godfather II Michael though, not kind, conflicted Godfather I Michael. ;)

 

Given the way things unfolded in "The October Horse" I'm actually expecting this one to be predominantly "pro-Agrippa" I think.

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