The First Man in Rome by Colleen McCullough Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The First Man in Rome
Book Review: First in a towering series
Summary: 5 Stars
Colleen McCullough is a first-rate storyteller, and her historical novels are particularly good. "The First Man in Rome" is the first in a series of large, readable, well-researched and satisfying novels chronicling the downfall of the Roman Republic. This is fascinating period in history and one well covered by writers weaving stories round the larger-than-life protagonists and the events they drive and are driven by. Recent examples include the detective stories of Stephen Saylor and John Maddox Roberts, and Robert Harris's "Imperium": one of the joys for the reader interested in this time is to compare and contrast the way the historical figures and events are treated by the different authors. McCullough's books are larger and more detailed than those of the other writers noted here, of course, their size and scope reminiscent of the novels of the late and much-missed James Clavell. Like Clavell's they have one big risk attached to them - that if you start reading you will quickly be hooked and find that you have no choice but to devote a large chunk of your life to reading as many of them as you can lay your hands on! In the McCullough "Masters of Rome" series, of course, it is important to do this in the right sequence - you will also be impressed that an author can maintain such a high standard of writing and reader-involvement over quite so many thousands of pages.Book Review: addictive
Summary: 5 Stars
The whole series of the Masters of Rome is highly addictive, this is the first, the amazing thing is that these characters actually existed ! Marius WAS a famous general, as was Sulla. What Collen McCullough was not able to glean from the ancient writers Sutonious etc, she has fleshed out from her colosul imagination, The series of books are complulsive reading, it definatly is a job to put them down. There is a glossary at the back of the books, which will explain all the latin terms...brilliant.
I make the whole set my summer reading every 2 years...and never get tired of reading them. I highly reccomend them to anyone who loves history and a thoroughly good read.
Book Review: Ghastly amateurish rubbish
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought this after reading the same glowing reviews that you are now reading on Amazon. Warning bells sounded as soon as I saw the Art GCSE grade C level drawings of the main characters in the opening pages (why??). It is clumsily and unengagingly written, with countless childish references to sex and awkward, psuedo-poetic clich?s, it comes across as a Godawful potboiler written by a Rome-obsessed adolescent girl. To end on a positive note, if you want to read historical fiction about Rome, I can thoroughly recommend any book from the 'Eagle' series by Simon Scarrrow or if it's a factual account you're after, 'Ancient Rome: the rise and fall of an empire' by Simon Baker is utterly gripping.