Rating: 
Summary: Will open a whole new world...
Review: ...for those of you who, like me, didn't know too much about ancient Rome. After falling in love with this book, I discovered to my ultimate delight that there were more in the series! Eventually I read all six of them. I can't say enough about this novel. McCullough breathes life into historical characters dead for over 2 thousand years. Not only are they believable, but they're not romanticised in any way - which I prefer. She wants you to understand how they thought in ancient Rome, which is to say, very differently about family, humanity, government, and most things, therefore she doesn't try to make you think her characters are just contemporary people in togas. She really places you there. As a matter of fact, some of the novels in the series were pretty depressing because, let's face it, Roman times were not pretty times for most people. But this one, perhaps the best of all of them, will invite you into this new world and make you keep wanting more. I wish she would write a seventh, but she says she is stopping at six. Pity. Thank you Ms. McCullough 8 wonderful years of reading and re-reading your books and for teaching me about something I never thought I'd want to learn.
Rating: 
Summary: could not get into this book
Review: am I the only one that just couldn't get into this book? I can certainly see how people loved it, but not me. The names, places and people were just too much.....I was planning on reading the others in the series, but not now.
Rating: 
Summary: Like a challenging vacation.
Review: This novel leaves you with that feeling you have after 2 weeks in Europe, sad to leave, but ready to go home. It's a fascinating look into ancient Rome, its customs, politics, people, and battles. Ms. McCullough gives us quite a trip. She includes portraits, maps, even house plans, so that you feel that you're there. You get to know many people, both their good sides and their bad sides. It's the amount of information and the size of the book that give you the ready to go home feeling. After some 800+ pages, you're ready to move onto something a little less weighty (literally, since I read the hard back).I have 2 more of Ms. McCullough's novels waiting on my book shelf. Just like that European vacation, I'll wait a while before I return, but I will return.
Rating:
Summary: A Hard Look in History's Mirror
Review: We read historical fiction for many reasons: pleasant diversion, an opportunity to see how a favorite writer realizes a well-known period, or to improve our understanding of a long-gone culture with careful research. McCullough's six-book series, of which this is the first, succeeds on all of these levels. Her grasp of the details of everyday life is delightful, the more so since, for all our imagined familiarity with the period, through film and fiction, most of us have a very limited understanding of a genuinely alien civilization. Her research of the geography and lay-out of the ancient city seems profound and brings a real sense of immediacy to her writing. For me, however, a good part of the interest in reading the series arises from the way it brings home the reasons that the republic, which lasted solidly for four hundred years, collapsed utterly within the space of one long lifetime. Too many people have forced sloppy parallels between the Roman Empire and the American hegemony presently obtaining, but there are inevitable points in common. In fact, given the importance which the writers of the Constitution accorded the Roman Republic (one of the very few models for a relatively democratic society in antiquity) to avoid its fate, one of the pleasures of reading the series is seeing just where some of its provisions may have arisen. It would be wholly unfair to say that McCullough does this overtly; the novels are never guilty of making pointed lessons or hitting the reader over the head with modern examples. It is inevitable, however, for one reading this to see with rising concern the way the past relates to our present: the criminalization of politics, the willingly destructive partisanship of the parties (not new, of course, but the worst since Reconstruction)and the utterly unenlightened class conflict evident in the recent tax changes. All this being said, however, you stay with the series for the sheer fun of the characterizations, the wonderful scope of the story and the author's delight in bringing it all to life.
Rating:
Summary: Gaius Marius - the roots of Imperial Rome
Review: Long before the Caesars there was Gaius Marius. All of us have read books and seen movies about the glory of Ancient Rome. Yet few of those books and movies deal with just how Rome transitioned from a republic to an empire. This one does, with great prose, astounding battles, and characters which are fleshed out far beyond the usual born, died, significant dates style of most dry biographies. It's key to remember that Gaius Marius was not a "Roman" in quite the same way Julius Caesar was a Roman. Marius was an outsider, a Latin, a "new man" who nevertheless succeeded militarily where many of Rome's leaders from the "famous families" did not. And did they hate him for it! You would think that a brilliant general who saved his country from hordes of invading Germans would have earned himself praise and respect from everyone in Rome, both high and low. But that wasn't the case at all. Many of the leaders of the time actively plotted at Marius' downfall, just as Marius in his own way (Saturnius) plotted at theirs. The result of all this plotting is a highly complex novel, thankfully written in modern English in such a way to make the main characters appear more "real" than the speech-quoting stone statues of your typical Roman History class. They curse (often obscenely), they back-bite, they joke, they argue, they cut deals and break deals, they scratch, belch, get drunk, and act like...well, like men. Envy, greed and jealousy are right there next to noble intent and sacrifice. McCullough does an excellent job showing us *why* Marius did what he did. She also does a very good job of showing us how Marius' actions began to erode the foundation of Republican Rome. Of course, she presents a very pro-Marian line, casting much of the blame on Noble Rome's military incompetence. The cast of characters is brilliant and not at all hard to follow. Sure, there are a lot of names, but McCullough doesn't go overboard describing minor characters. She keeps the focus on the main players: Marius, Sulla, Scaurus, Aurelia, etc. When a new character is introduced, she gives us enough background to place him within the Roman spectrum, and makes sure that such characters are only introduced when they have direct impact on the storyline; which is roughly Marius' rise from Successful General to "First Man in Rome." Marius' reforms would lead eventually to civil wars fought between generals leading professional armies recruited from Rome's lower classes, an aspect McCullough hints at, and then fully develops in The Grass Crown. Yet the book is mercifully free of the ponderous moralizing and dry analysis so typical of books on this period (and even of Roman writers themselves).
The book is fairly breezy considering the gravity of the subject matter. At 900 pages, that's a blessing. Fun, informative, a great read, and sets the stage for the rest of the novels, which chart the disintegration of the Republic and the rise of what would become Imperial Rome.
Rating:
Summary: Ancient Rome brought to life
Review: I picked this book up in a thrift store, never having heard of it. I have a casual interest in ancient Rome and am currently living in Naples, so I thought it would be fun to read. I was astounded by how complete and real Colleen McCullough has made ancient Rome. This book is incredibly well-researched. Every detail adds to the richness of this world. The reader really becomes subsumed into ancient Rome and the characters are exceptionally substantive. The glossary alone is worth reading. The only drawback was the writing was a bit stilted in places, but I would still highly recommend this book. In fact, I have been recommending it to everyone. I cannot wait to read the rest of the series.
Rating:
Summary: First and Best in the Series
Review: Every book in Colleen McCullough's Rome series is worth reading by any fan of Ancient Rome, but this first is easily the best. McCullough takes us back to a time in the late Republic not often visited by fiction writers, to the dawn of Marius' and Sulla's careers, two powerful men who fought the first of the many civil wars that were to plague Rome for centuries to come. McCullough's characterizations are memorable, her grasp of detail impressive, and her conceit that Marius and Sulla were brothers-in-law is astounding. As McCullough herself admits, there is no evidence to support her idea (beyond one reference to Sulla's first wife being a "Julia"), but once the seed has been planted it's impossible to think it could have been otherwise. The cast of characters is huge, and it is often difficult to keep track of the dozens of secondary characters that come and go. Because of that, this is a book that benefits from multiple readings. One can hold out hope, however, that future editions will come with a character guide. It would be nice to know in advance, for example, that the son of the Lucullus who goes to Sicily is *that* Lucullus who fought Mithridates in the 70s, and that Pompeius Strabo is the father of Pompey the Great. A character guide would also help keep the endless arrays Lucii, Caesari, Metelli, and Cotti straight. McCullough is a master of intricate plots, but does suffer from failings. While McCullough's major characters (such as Marius with his eyebrows and Scaurus with his bald head) are memorable, none of the characters in the series seem *real*, except for Cicero in later books. McCullough's prose is often obtuse, lacking rhythym and occasionally jarring the reader out of the story. Steven Saylor, writing about a slightly later period, is a better writer. However, there is still so much to enjoy and treasure here that one will easily forget that the prose ain't pretty.
Rating:
Summary: The start of a wonderful series
Review: I started this series in the middle, by picking up "Caesar" at the airport one day. After I was done, I read the back cover which told me it was the fifth novel in the series! I immediately bought the preceding ones and proceeded to read (and reread) those four until the sixth book came out. While all six of the books in the series are interesting, painting the characters as humans rather than the Roman Icons we all learned about in history class, I find "The First Man in Rome" to be the best. This is possibly because it contained information that I knew VERY little about (one of the main characters in this book is the grandfather of Julius Caesar, so it's well before the typical stuff you learn in school). However, we get to read gorgeous monologues inside Gaius Marius' head - and he's such a character that you have GOT to love reading his mental commentary on his puny colleages. The books in this series are: The First Man in Rome
The Grass Crown
Fortune's Favorites
Caesar's Women
Caesar
The October Horse If you like historical fiction you'll love these. They are big and engrossing and full of maps and sketches of what the author imagines the characters to have looked like. My only regret: she stopped after six books! Enjoy them.
Rating: 
Summary: Decent, but highly overrated
Review: What a disappointment. After all the great things I heard about this book and this series, First Man in Rome is a real letdown. The positive: McCullogh has a flare for character. Her Marius, Scaurus and Sulla leap to life as fully formed and fleshed out characters. Their competing motivations and personal doubts are ever in our minds and their actions follow logically from the established personalities. The descriptions are detailed and the book - curious as its politics are - is certainly well-researched. The negatives: The ludicrous "populares" bias and cartoonish portrayal of every conservative but Scaurus will leave some readers to believe that Rome was little but a confederacy of dunces until an Italian hayseed showed them the error of their ways. Nonsense. Mix this with overly turgid prose, a cumbersome method of mixing explanation with exposition in dialogue and the constant repetition of phrases over and over and over again (the Italian hayseed comment for one) and you have a book that only occasionally springs to life.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring and overly-hyped
Review: I was very excited to read this book after reading many of the glowing reviews on this site. I enjoy nothing better than a big, long historical fiction with lots of detail about the time period. Boy, was I disappointed! I will give just about any book a real chance to get going by reading at least half but this book was so boring that I was unable to read even a quarter. It actually put me to sleep! This never happens to me. First problem was the Roman names. Way too many of them are introduced early on and are too similar. Very confusing. I also didn't care for the author's writing style which included long passages of the character's thoughts that would give background and/or show their character or motivation. A good idea when it works but I think it was being overused. Live action and dialogue is generally more captivating to the reader and should be the main device to further the character's development. I could give further examples of the problems with this book, but the main one is the only one that really matters so I will repeat, it is simply BORING.
|
