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Title: The King's Gambit (SPQR, Book 1) by John Maddox Roberts ISBN: 0-312-27705-9 Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur Pub. Date: August, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.6 (5 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Flimsy stuff
Comment: This series is pretty lightweight. You don't feel that you've visited ancient Rome -- the city doesn't come alive, the people do not behave as we expect, e.g. Milo, Cicero, Cato, to behave. The scenary feels like cardboard, and it is hard to care about any of the people, including the 'hero' Decius.
Historical detective fiction has been done a whole lot better than this. Lindsay Davies' 'Falco' novels are far better written, and much more fun to read.
The funny thing is that Roberts can write a good tale when he wants to. But he seems to know nothing about ancient Rome, and it shows. I was disappointed, anyway.
Rating: 4
Summary: lightweight-ish historical fiction, yet entertaining...
Comment: The King's Gambit, the first of SPQR series by John Maddox Roberts, is a quirky mess than generally works. Compared to the Colleen McCullough's Roman historical fiction series The King's Gambit is almost shambolic on the historical bits. Compared to Steven Saylor's Gordianus Roman historical detective series, the characterizations are weak. And worse, John Maddox Roberts simply fails to produce prose to the standards of anything resembling better-than-average literature. Yet I liked The King's Gambit. Why?
Like the Gordianus novels, The King's Gambit introduces us to a sleuth unravelling a rather complex series of murders and mishaps. Naturally the corrupt and very wealthy politicians of the day are behind all this. While much of the story seems to lack inventiveness, John Maddox Roberts does manage to twist matters around in a most interesting fashion (..no spoilers here). And thankfully, the ending is rather good.
Bottom line: a good story somewhat poorly told. However the end justifies the means, and so even fans of more finer ancient Roman historical novels will enjoy The King's Gambit.
Rating: 4
Summary: Great forerunner of this new sub genre
Comment: The ancient Rome murder mystery is a relatively new genre - and JMR could be held as its primary mover, so to compare it to Saylor, Davis or Todd is perhaps a little unfair. However it does stand up well. Having read this one I've promptly ordered the other five.
Well characterised, well plotted the opening mystery for the senator's son, Decius Caecilius Metellus the Younger, skips neatly through the period around 70BC with some aplomb. His choice of a somewhat 'modern' (in his attitudes) young Roman of patrician nobility with various seedier supporting characters and faithful slaves has been echoed in later authors' attempts at the subgenre. It clearly works.
Given knowledge of the actual events around this time, my review is biased towards reviewing the author's depiction of Rome and actual historical characters and it falls down slightly on this point.
Two things lead fairly quickly to who dunnit:
1)If you have a good knowledge of the period then it is fairly clear what's going on as JMR follows historical fact - admirably
2)A lack of suspects points to the culprit.
JMR's depiction of both Clodia/Claudia and Clodius is OK, again, given knowledge of the reality of what both will become you leave feeling their depiction isn't perhaps quite true. Both Crassus and Pompey exhibit imperial traits; again, doesn't quite fit in with Republican Rome and a view of a younger Caesar and Cicero is really setting us up for later novels - given the titles of those later novels.
All in all, well worth reading. I think that those who know the history of the period in some detail will view (and review) this offering in a different light to those who have not. But this is a highly recommended Roman murder mystery. I suspect it will get better and better with each installment.
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Title: The Catiline Conspiracy by John Maddox Roberts ISBN: 0312277067 Publisher: Griffin Trade Paperback Pub. Date: August, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The Sacrilege (Spqr, 3) by John Maddox Roberts ISBN: 0312246978 Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur Pub. Date: October, 1999 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The Temple of the Muses (SPQR #4) by John Maddox Roberts ISBN: 0312246986 Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur Pub. Date: October, 1999 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Spqr V: Saturnalia (Spqr Series, Volume 5) by John Maddox Roberts ISBN: 0312205821 Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur Pub. Date: October, 1999 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: The Tribune's Curse: SPQR VII by John Maddox Roberts ISBN: 0312304889 Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur Pub. Date: April, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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