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A review by beejai
Roman Blood by Steven Saylor
4.0
This was a pretty good blend of historical fiction and mystery. The protagonist is a guy named Gordianus who is a "finder" hired by some obscure Roman lawyer named Cicero. You might have heard of the guy but those in Rome at the time of this story, for the most part, have not. This mystery is the actual first real-life case by Cicero which put him on the map of who is who in the Roman political world.
We do get to meet some other major figures like Crassus (buying a burning house), Sulla (the dictator nearing his retirement), and Chrysogonus (who... OK, no spoilers). Just browsing through the titles, it is obvious that we will be meeting many other major players as they enter the scene as well. I definitely do plan on continuing on in the series.
While I think on a whole, Saylor did a good job of introducing a world and culture I would guess many of his readers are not incredibly familiar with, I do feel at times that some of the opinions and sensibilities of his characters were a bit anachronistic, especially with regard to the issue of slavery. This might have been intentional on his part so as to not alienate a wider audience, but for me it did detract slightly from the overall quality of his work.
We do get to meet some other major figures like Crassus (buying a burning house), Sulla (the dictator nearing his retirement), and Chrysogonus (who... OK, no spoilers). Just browsing through the titles, it is obvious that we will be meeting many other major players as they enter the scene as well. I definitely do plan on continuing on in the series.
While I think on a whole, Saylor did a good job of introducing a world and culture I would guess many of his readers are not incredibly familiar with, I do feel at times that some of the opinions and sensibilities of his characters were a bit anachronistic, especially with regard to the issue of slavery. This might have been intentional on his part so as to not alienate a wider audience, but for me it did detract slightly from the overall quality of his work.