[YJB]⋙ Download Gratis The Triumph of Caesar Steven Saylor 9781845295677 Books

The Triumph of Caesar Steven Saylor 9781845295677 Books

Download As PDF : The Triumph of Caesar Steven Saylor 9781845295677 Books

The Triumph of Caesar Steven Saylor 9781845295677 Books

I think I am only deducting one star because this is the last book and I feel like it doesn't quite get there, but if it wasn't I might not have been so hard on it. The story itself takes place over a short period of time and Caesar's wife is worried someone might be trying to kill him and wants help to stop it. This provides a nice reason to look in on some of the best families and see what they were up to when Caesar was having his triumphs. The Finder does seem a bit haggard and off his game by this point and I never did figure out what in the world happened at the end of the last novel in the Nile. Disappointed partly in the end of the series not quite ending.


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The Triumph of Caesar Steven Saylor 9781845295677 Books Reviews

I have enjoyed reading the Gordianus series since the very first book came out. I've given most of them four stars, and a few of them five stars, but this one, like The House of the Vestals, disappoints me, though for a different reason. What comes across in this book is either that Saylor is tired of writing this series (it happens!), or he is trying to drag out the time line so that Gordianus is alive into the reign of Octavius, or he has been planning all along to switch the series over to Diana, but can't quite get himself to do it. Whatever the reason, in this novel Gordianus seems most ineffectual, kind of like he's going through the steps of the plot. If he's a good detective, he should make conclusions about things he never makes conclusions about. Good to be with Gordianus, disappointing to see he's not at the top of his game.
Julius Caesar is about to stage his four Triumphs into Rome, celebrating his many military victories. Gordianus the Finder is hired (dragooned really) by Caesar's wife Calpurnia to investigate death threats against Caesar Dictator. This makes for an engaging story against the fabulous backdrop of Caesar's return to Rome as its absolute master.

This one moves along at a deliberate pace. The historical backdrop in this particular novel is stronger than the detective story; I did not see the conclusion of this whodunit coming and I suspect that most other readers will not either. In fact, in a sense, neither did Gordianus. You'll see what I mean when you read this one.

My favorite aspect of this Gordianus the Finder novel, in common with several others of the series, is Gordianus' interactions with historical figures such as Marcus Antonius (Mark Antony), Cleopatra, and of course Caesar himself. Saylor has a gift for writing about Republican Rome, and this one is a fine read. I hope that this novel does not conclude the Gordianus the Finder series. I would like to see Gordianus deal with Caesar's assassination and the rise of Octavius Caesar. Surely we Saylor fans can look forward to that.

Highly recommended. RJB.
Ideally a historical murder mystery will provide both a vivid portrayal of the target period and a compelling murder mystery within that setting. Unfortunately that is a hard combination to achieve and in Triumph of Caesar, Saylor is much stronger on the period setting than on the mystery.

Things start well, with Gordianus being recruited to solve a mysterious death which involves a potential threat to Caesar himself. This mission leads Gordianus into interviews with key period figures such as Marc Anthony, Vercingetorix, Cleopatra and Cicero. These interviews both advance the murder investigation and allow Saylor to portray the complex tensions in Rome as Caesar consolidates power after the civil war. But as the book progresses the murder mystery increasingly fades into the background, the emphasis shifts to period atmosphere, and Gordianus turns from an active investigator into a mostly passive observer. Saylor provides a fine description of Caesar's four spectacular Triumphs, but the plot feels rather adrift. (Saylor does gently hint that Gordianus may be losing some of his edge in his old age!)

Despite this weakness, I still enjoyed the overall work. Saylor provides a fine and sympathetic portrayal of the period, as Rome teeters between republic and empire, and in the end the murder mystery does get satisfactorily resolved. However, I would advise approaching this with the expectation that you will enjoy a thoughtful evocation of the late Roman Republic, and don't expect a tense focus on the murder mystery itself.
I certainly didn't dislike this novel, but I have to confess at the outset - the latest instalment in Saylor's series featuring Gordianus the Finder unfortunately lacks the spark that made the earlier novels so engaging. It's not a bad book, but not one of Saylor's best - and definitely don't start with it if you're new to the series.

Essentially, it's a series of Gordianus's interviews with a who's who of Rome in roughly 46 BC as he tries to track down the killer of a friend. There is no real sense of suspense or threat as he does so, nor is the reader given much of a reason to care about the outcome. The novel felt shorter and less complex than its predecessors, and the story's resolution seemed rather perfunctory. Gordianus - after several days of apparently going through the motions - finally figures out the mystery through a kind of deus ex machina moment, then we have our unspectacular showdown with the killer and ... that's about it. It's a shame, because this period of history is a gold mine for compelling stories.

The descriptions of life in late Republican Rome are vivid as always, and that's what saved the novel for me. It's nice to revisit well loved characters, but the overwhelming feeling I had while reading this is that the series - like Gordianus himself, who reluctantly comes out of "retirement" to investigate, at the request of Caesar's wife Calpurnia - is getting rather tired. What I did like was the depiction of his daughter Diana starting to show some resourcefulness and aptitude for detection, notwithstanding the societal restrictions upon a "young Roman matron" as her father disapprovingly puts it; I hope this is a set up for future novels where she will take on a more substantial role, perhaps along with Eco (who is only mentioned in passing in this novel). Maybe it is time for the kids to take over.
I think I am only deducting one star because this is the last book and I feel like it doesn't quite get there, but if it wasn't I might not have been so hard on it. The story itself takes place over a short period of time and Caesar's wife is worried someone might be trying to kill him and wants help to stop it. This provides a nice reason to look in on some of the best families and see what they were up to when Caesar was having his triumphs. The Finder does seem a bit haggard and off his game by this point and I never did figure out what in the world happened at the end of the last novel in the Nile. Disappointed partly in the end of the series not quite ending.