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Summary: Corporate Super-mom Cleopatra
Review: Read this book if you would like to see what Cleopatra would have been like if she had've been a modern corporate super-mom. While the story reads well and fluidly, Cleopatra is incongriously well informed for an ancient ruler and has a utopian court of dedicated people around her who all love her dearly. Ancient rulers would have been extremely jealous! She also has the benefit of historical hindsight as she is able to predict with certainty most future events that the likes of Antony are unable to. If all she wanted for her children was a stable Egypt and she was the only one to predict Octavian's treachery - why did she demand the additional lands from Antony when she would have certainly known that this would give him the ammunition he needed to destroy Antony in the eyes of the mob? Cleopatra was a canny poltican of her day, and at least equally as conniving as any of them. This book exonerates her completely and does so with some narrative clumsiness.
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Summary: History brought to life!
Review: My husband had this book on his Amazon.com wishlist and his sister decided to purchase it for him at Christmas. Due to his own workload (a budding writer is always under a heavy workload), I picked it up to take a peak. What can I say.. I was rivetted. This is NOT my normal selection of book, in fact Mary Queen of Scots has been sitting dormant on our shelves for months, having purchased it from a throw out library sale for 50cents. But Margaret George managed to bring her characters - historys characters - and the Roman empire to life for me. A perfect blend of historical information and interesting interpretations which had me seeking every available opportunity to read. I ended up reading the book within a week - which isn't easy with a 2 and 1 year old. So enthused was I that I purchased two other books pertaining to Caeser, just to know more, by Colleen McCullough. Her books I find to be left seriously wanting after the brilliance of Margaret George, but unless Ms George plans on writing a book dedicated to Caeser (Marcus Antonius would be great too..) it's all I have at hand. In closing, one of the best books I've ever read. It opened my eyes to a part of history that before had no interest to me.
Rating: 
Summary: A novel should have emotions, not just facts.
Review: I love novels set in ancient times, ones that are well-researched and tell a good story. This novel does none of that. A lot of people make the mistake of thinking that just because something is based on a true story that that automatically makes it good reading or a good movie. No, it doesn't work that way. You still must tell a compelling story. This novel fails to do so, and in fact, gets several facts about Cleopatra absolutely wrong. The story is told in first-person, which normally I would think was a good choice, but the voice of Cleopatra is like someone giving a deposition. Just the facts, ma'am, just the facts. The author would have us believe that Cleopatra never suffered, never felt fear, never doubted herself, always had the answer. There's absolutely no character arc, no fatal flaw. After portraying a character absolutely ruled by ambition, pragmaticsm and logic, she meets Ceasar and gives over all her power to him. She says she loves him more than life itself, but this is really difficult to believe by that point. It would have been so much more believeable if the author had justified their relationship due to Cleopatra's wanting to secure her rulership and using Rome to her advantage. When the unemotional, dispassionate Cleopatra finally commits suicide it makes absolutely no sense. The sea battle of Alexandria is one of the most famous and harrowing of historical battles, but we hardly get a glimpse of it. The author doesn't mention the billowing clouds of smoke or soldiers screaming. There's a painting that clearly depicts the devastation that was 100 ships burning. In the novel, it warrants maybe one page of action both leading up to it, describing it, and resolving it. Weird. It's as if the author can't handle anything really emotional and so just glosses over it. Why then did she choose to write this as fiction? The author also claims that Cleopatra is a great beauty, when in fact Cleopatra was never considered a great beauty. Cleopatra was known to have an incredible, hypnotic, seductive voice. Both the History channel and Discovery channel's informative documentaries made this point from correspondence written by Roman senators and others after they met Cleopatra in person. Paintings of Cleopatra depict a rather plain woman with a broad forehead, large nose and Grecian hairstyle. She didn't look at all like Elizabeth Taylor! The author does not know how to build tension or vary dynamics by having failure followed by success. There are very few details about attire, a lot about food, hardly any about life in Egypt in general. The utter lack of lyricism, emotion, sensory details, make this novel more boring than any history book I've ever read.
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Summary: The Queen rules!
Review: When the broad lines of a story are so well-known by almost everyone, and the fact that it ends tragically is equally well-known, it is truly a challenge to take that story and tell it so well that a reader is compelled to keep turning page after page nevertheless. Especially when there are 964 of those pages. With this novel, Margaret George shows she is definitely up to the challenge, and meets it with stunning success. She brings the age of the much-maligned last queen of Egypt to vivid life, sweeping us away to ancient Egypt, Rome, and parts beyond. We live through those years with Cleopatra, following her as she falls in love with the inscrutable Caesar and later the boisterous, sensual Antony, and as she worships her goddess Isis and adores her four children. All of the characters, from the very sympathetic Cleo, Caesar, and Antony, to the chilling Octavian, to lesser-known personages like the feminist Kandake of Meroe and Cleo's loving handmaidens, are made real to us, not just figures in a dusty history textbook. We are transported to their world, drawn with loads of descriptive detail and sensuality, and even a smattering of humor where we least expect it. "Do you go into heat every time a Roman comes over the horizon?" teases one of Cleopatra's close friends. Also adding drama is an abundance of mythological metaphor; these people were seen as gods in their own time, and the stories of the ancient deities play themselves out in the lives of the human characters again and again. In the end, of course, this is a tragedy. By the time the fall comes, the characters are old friends, and the reader is truly saddened by what happens to them. I was left with the fervent hope that there really is an afterlife somewhere, where Cleo, Caesar, and Antony are feasting together for all eternity. This is one of my favorite novels ever; it takes a little while to read it, but it is VERY worth the time and effort.
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Summary: one of my top 10 books of all time
Review: Fascinating story. I couldn't put it down. I look forward to reading some of her other fictionalized historical accounts.
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Summary: Thoughtful and Intelligent (and FUN!)
Review: I'm a sucker for Cleopatra stories and have read many fictional accounts as well as biographies, of the last Pharoh of Egypt. Margaret George does an unsusally good job of portraying Cleopatra believably. Her style is both entertaining and sympathetic. George does a wonderful job of making Cleoptra's life exciting without giving in to the unfortunate tendecy among writers to make her lurid and licentious. Give it a read. You'll enjoy every page and probably won't notice until you are finished the formidable length of the text.
Rating:
Summary: Very Good
Review: I am a 14 year old, and I find this book to be one of the most wonderfully written books I have ever read. It is one of my personal favorites.
It tells about the life of Queen Cleopatra VII. It tells about her victories and defeats, about the trouble she faced, all she went throught to become what she was. If you like reading about Cleopatra, this is one you have to read.
Rating: 
Summary: Very disappointing....
Review: Usually I am not led astray by reviews - if the reviews are good, the book usually is too. Unfortunately, that isn't the case here. I always finish my books but I am only half-way through this one, and I've already read many others rather than finish. The writing is immature. The speech is sometimes fake and forced. But, worst of all, the book is unbearably boring. It might be becuase of the way Geaorge writes, or it may be becuase she fails to make me care one bit for the characters. I don't know. All I can say is, if you like the long historical books, try Aztec (Jennings) or Pillars of the World.
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Summary: Captivating for any age
Review: I'm only a teenager, yet have read this book three times this summer. I just can't get tired of it. The book seems to be very based on a lot of historical facts and helps bring her story to life. The settings and dialogue help you to really experience her world and the mystical Egypt through her eyes. I originally picked this book up just to see what my mother was reading, and couldn't put it down. It can really get your emotions running, from fear to joy to sadness, and back again. Experience the earliest memories of her childhood until her death. Forget about the nine hundred or more pages, this book is totally worth it!
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Summary: Margaret George does it again.....
Review: This is a breathtaking novel about the mysterious Cleopatra. It follows Cleopatra's life from beginning to tragic end. The story is believable, the characters come to life on the pages of this beautifully written book.
Not only do you get a close look at Cleopatra's surrounding Egypt, but you also get to know Julius Ceasar and Mark Anthony, as well as the Roman Empire very intimidly. The descriptions of the characters and locations are vivid and memorable. Ms. George does an excellent job of making you feel like you are truly in Egypt and the Roman Empire, with Cleopatra whispering her life story in your ear.
This book left me thirsting for more novels about Cleopatra, but I have never found one to be as well written and intruiging as this one.
Don't let the size intimidate you. In the end, you'll be glad it lasted as long as it did.
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