Imperium

Robert Harris neemt je mee naar de machtsspelletjes en corruptie van het Romeinse Rijk. Verteld vanuit het gezichtspunt van Cicero's slaaf Tiro, geeft dit verhaal je echt het gevoel dat je daar middenin bent beland. Het verhaal draait vooral om de machthebbers en hun politieke intriges, maar af en toe laat Harris je een stukje van de sfeer van Rome en haar inwoners meekrijgen. Dit eerste boek verhaalt over de opkomst van Cicero in de Romeinse politiek. Het lijkt simpel te beginnen, wanneer Cicero als onbekende advocaat besluit Verres aan te klagen, maar al snel wordt hij meegesleurd en raakt hij meer en meer verstrikt in alle machtspelletjes die in Rome gespeeld worden. Geweldig boek!

Executive Summary: I really enjoyed the first 50% and the last 15% or so, but the third in between got kind of slow. 3.5 stars rounded rounded down for the lull.

Audio book: Simon Jones does an excellent job with the narration, and seems like a great fit.

Full Review
I used to love history. I used to watch the history channel for hours. I'm not sure why I never really got into historical fiction, or even nonfiction for that matter.

I don't remember much about Rome however. I looked up Cicero and Tiro after the fact, and they were both real people, who did some of the things described in this book. Along with many of the supporting characters. Of course their personalities and dialogue is all fiction or at least embellished/inferences on the author's part.

It's probably better I don't know the real history. It would probably just annoy me in some places where he takes too much artistic license.

The way this book started, I thought I was really going to love this book. But it slowed down somewhere around the 50% mark and didn't pick back up until the end. The writing was good, and for the most part the pacing was good. He also did a good job bringing long dead people to life. I just found things way too detailed at times. He kept talking about details of Roman politics I just don't care about.

The best parts of this book were when Cicero was outmaneuvering his rivals either with clever planning, or clever speeches. I like a good political story from time to time, and Roman politics seem to have been pretty brutal.

I will probably continue on with this series, but most likely wait until he finally puts the third book out, as this one ends in a stopping good place and I have no idea if the second one does the same.