Rating: 
Summary: awww rats!..the series is OVER already?!
Review: Ever since reading the first book, I've eagerly awaited all the rest - even to the point of ordering the UK edition of The October Horse, because it was available before the US version. I was not disappointed. The characterizations are still well done, the historical detail is incredible, and she does a very nice job of wrapping up most of the loose ends.Reader beware of two things! You need to have read the previous books in the series FIRST. Also, Ms McCullough DOES NOT rehash the plot line or characterizations in Shakespeare's play!
Rating:
Summary: Invitation to a Travel into the Past.
Review: I am interested in the reflection of the end of Roman Republic in fiction from classics to the popular novels.I give a high rating to the "October Horse" because this book urges us to think,to doubt and to re-read ancient primary sources.We know from history that there were many outstanding persons among the contemporaries of Julius Caesar.His friend Marc Antony was a gifted and brave soldier,his enemies the most respected men in Rome,his young beloved although not a perfect beauty but still a very charming and educated woman.We have no authentic portraits of her but we know the impression she made.The symbolic and very diverse images of the queen are no likenesses in our perception.We may read about it in the excellent book by Mary Hamer "Signs of Cleopatra " and in the articles by Susan Walker.But Colleen McCullough goes her own way.She wants to show us the loneliness of the great man.Marc Antony is so treacherous towards his friend and benefactor,the Egyptian queen is a nonentity physically and spiritually.But were they really such as depicted in the novel?I know that some young readers began to read historical books and even the Lives of Plutarch to find out it.And we are very greatful to the author of the "October horse" for this invitation to explore the Ancient world.
Rating: 
Summary: A great book about a great subject
Review: I completely agree with the reviewer(s) who said there should be one more book, taking us through the victory of Octavian over Antony and Cleopatra. This is when the Roman Republic truly ends. One more book would tie up all of the loose ends like the falling out of Octavian and Antony, the battle at Actium, the battle of alexandria and, finally, what happened to the children of Caesar/Cleopatra and Antony/Cleopatra. I doubt many people know.
Rating:
Summary: The Rewards of Patience
Review: I forget how many years it has been since I picked up "The First Man in Rome" and found myself immersed into a romantic, classical world. Rome had always been a very tedious place, full of dry-as-dust old people, all with odd names, and all more or less running into each other. Cicero and Caesar, Cato and Pompey, Brutus and Cassius, all just names to me. Colleen McCullough brought them all alive again, made Rome into a living, breathing, bustling, smelly city, where real people lived, had real concerns, real conflicts and real desires. I couldn't get enough and as each year brought another big thick square volume in the series I brought myself up to date and found the story engrossing, utterly engrossing. The first books merely cleared the way for Caesar, laying the foundations for him, introducing the people and places that would shape his character, but soon enough he was there - a baby, a boy, a young man, a leader, a general, a politician. It has been a wonderful journey, but the final years remained untold. I watched as Colleen wrote other books on other subjects and I worried that the grand series might remain forever unfinished. But, O! the joy last week when I saw The October Horse, fresh and new and just begging to be picked up. I snatched it up and hugged it with glee. It has been well worth the wait. We join Caesar in Alexandria, where he conquers Cleopatra, and it is a fascinating tale of politics, strategy, war, and love. Colourful doesn't begin to describe this episode. It is Julius Caesar at the height of his powers and making the most of it in a romantic setting. Forget Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. This is the real deal, and the first meeting of the two is nothing like the movie. Caesar is all too soon gone, to quell revolts, to settle Rome, and to crush the final Republicans. McCullough's Mark Antony is nothing like Shakespeare's, and the conspirators are torn in their motivations and ambitions. All too soon the tragic end is upon us and the story closes. And you know what? I can't wait to start again and read the whole saga through, one after the other, this time without those intervening gaps of years.
Rating: 
Summary: Hoping for so much more
Review: I have loved this series passionately, however this send off was extremely disappointing for me. The detail of nuance, variance view of the world was superficial in comparison to all the previous works and it felt as though all she could think about was ending the series one way or another. This book if written as she had the previous ones would have been a book and a half and allowed her to actually show the end of the Republic. I can understand her exhaustion I suppose, but this final book was not up to the standard of the rest of the series and left the series feeling incomplete and tarnished for this fan.
Rating:
Summary: Very Good, But...
Review: I have now read all six of Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome Series, which concludes with "The October Horse", and I must say that I'm thoroughly impressed, with one (huge) exception. First, the good stuff. This series must have entailed a massive amount of research, but it has paid off. The atmosphere of ancient Rome really feels real, both in the common streets and alleyways, and in the Senate of Rome. It is genuinely exciting to read the furious verbal exchanges between senators, tribunes, and consuls, because you can almost imagine that it is real and you are eavesdropping on true history. Most of the characters in this novel, and the entire series in general, are excellent and feel real. Gaius Marius, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, Pompey the Great, Quintus Sertorius, Marcus Porcius Cato, the famous Brutus and Cassius; all these famous names in Roman history come alive as living, breathing human beings, and the result is wonderful. I wasn't so ecstatic with the authors portrayal of Mark Antony, Cicero, and Spartacus, but I'll call that the authors creative freedom and leave it alone. The one, glaring problem that I have with this novel, and the series, is with the characterization of the pivotal, infamous Gaius Julius Caesar. Caesar has remained an enigma to scholars and historians for centuries, and I am always anxious when an author accepts the challenge of fleshing out a character like Caesar; I am always hoping that it will ring true with me. Unfortunately, Ms. McCulllough failed in this regard. We already know that Caesar was handsome, ruthlessly ambitious, and possessed an almost genius-level intelligence. Instead of giving Caesar some human flaws, quirks, passions, Ms. McCullough instead decides to worship Caesar as the perfect human being, never making a mistake. The result is that Caesar never feels like a real person, and reduces the reader's interest in him. It's a shame that Caesar didn't work in the books, because other than that this series is great, and well worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: A disapointment
Review: I have read the masters of Rome series 3 times. This was by far the weakest of the series. I think ms McCullough was afflicted by the same thing that afflicted Ian Fleming and Arthur Conan Doyle-she got tired of her series. There was evidence of this in an end note in her book "Morgans Run" She commented she owed us two more Masters of Rome books but that at this point she needed not so much a Roman Holiday as she needed a Holiday form Rome. It appears that she combined her final two books into one-"the october Horse." Throughout the book she seems in hurry to get it over with-events that would have taken chapters to cover in her earlier books are covered in a paragraph or two in this book. She is also guilty of some hero worship-always evident with her affinity for Caesar but most evident in her excuses for Augustus cowardice at Phillipi-Augustus is absent from the battle and Ms McCullough has him fleeing to swamps to counter an asthma attack-problem being that there is no record of augustus having asthma. It was an OK read but I wish she had just terminated the series after "Caesar" rather than serve up this half hearted effort.
Rating:
Summary: Not What she planned...
Review: I just spent the past 6 months reading this entire series for the first time.
I am very sad that this wonderful series is over. Ms. McCullough brought The Republic of Rome alive! I have never read anything as detailed and wonderful as these books. I have nothing but more desire to learn about Rome and the events chronicled in her books.
With that said, I was very disappointed with "The October Horse." Like others here have mentioned, this book feels like it was two books smashed into one. God bless her heart Ms. McCullough just ran out of juice to finish this series.
She mentioned that she owed us 2 more volumes of the Masters of Rome series but that she needed a vacation from Rome. Then came this last book which I feel was not what she originally intended to end this series with.
Sadly, I have heard that Ms. McCullough's health has declined and that she is now blind in one eye. I cannot help but feel that her health and desire to give us an end to the series just in case she was unable to do so in the coming years was the main reason for the compression of this book and the rushed feel it has.
I sat in disbelief after finishing the book that we never got to see much of Cleopatra and the war between Octavian and Antony. I had been waiting to see how she handled the events after Caesar's death and I was just completely heart broken that she built the end of the novel up to a point where it just abruptly ends with the reader left hanging. There is no sense of finality for me with this book. I feel like there is another volume in the series coming and I will hold out hope that maybe she will decide to add another one to this overall amazing series.
Rating:
Summary: A perfect finale...
Review: I'd heard that the final volume in the Masters of Rome series was not due out until 2005. When I saw it in the bookstore recently I was thrilled. This is by far the best book I've ever read. Her grasp of the human condition creates a masterful account of human ambition and trajedy. Caesat's death makes you feel as if you've lost someone very close. Part of me was hoping that she'd bypass history and somehow he'd live...but that would be going way to far.
Rating:
Summary: One more book, please?
Review: I'm a huge fan of McCullough's Rome series. I've been entranced since "The First Man in Rome", which was quite a while ago. I honestly wish this wasn't the end.
Having said that, I found this one a little hard to get through. The dozen principle characters are well drawn and three dimensional, but the 752 other people who populate every corner of the novel kinda muddy the waters. Many seem superfluous, although those with a better classical education than I will no doubt enjoy their presence. There are passages which read so fast, I was left breathless. But there are also several passages where I literally had to back up, get some momentum, re-read a few pages, and hammer my way through.
Caesar, Cato, Octavian, Brutus, Cicero...these portrayals are so vivid they will affect every non-fiction account about this time period I'll ever read.
The worst thing I can say about this book is that now I have the urge to go back to Book One and start over. I hope she'll change her mind and take us through Octavian's life...I've got to go get some history books so I can find out what happens with him, Antony, Cleopatra, Caesarion...
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