John Maddox RobertsBesprekingen

Decius Caecilius Metellus the Younger is sent to Cyprus in 50 BC to look into rumours of a resurgent pirate problem. But who is backing the pirates? The governor? An exiled Roman general? Cleopatra, daughter of the King of Egypt?

The murder and the solution are rather cursorily dealt with, which doesn't really matter since the wheeling and dealing, discussions about piracy, the frankincense trade, etc. were far more interesting.

A mild amusement but certainly not as good as the Roma Sub Rosa series. Some interesting parts...and the second half is certainly more interesting than the first.

John Maddox Roberts spins a grand Space Opera which borrows quite heavily from the Crusades, the Fall of Rome, and the book of Exodus (his main protagonist standing in for a latter day Moses complete with a high tech rod). The writing is crisp, the pace is fast, and his use of descriptors sparse yet effective. But the story, at least for me, falters on a few points. First of all the idea of a virtually indestructible swashbuckling kick-ass ninja warrior priesthood sporting shields and surcoats borders on cartoonish...is there anything his fanatical hero, Father Miles, CAN'T do? Furthermore I found the idea of a highly advanced star-faring race still clinging to iron age mythologies---and all the blind faith and magical thinking which that entails---hard to swallow. There's also an assumption that a society cut off from the grand moral beacon of faith (LOL!) will eventually sink into decadent barbarism unless redeemed once more, or as one pious Franciscan monk put it upon landing on a pagan planet, "We've come to replace superstition with religion!" (LMAO!) Or is there a vein of satire running through all the pageantry and proselytizing? With names like "Malatesta", "Mangiapane", "Cato", and "Achillia" being thrown out you only need a rudimentary familiarity with Greco-Roman mythology and highschool Latin to appreciate the joke. At least there is a brief footnote suggesting that the universe may indeed be bigger than any one single belief can encompass and that point alone would be worthy of a sequel.

Tras su nombramiento como senador romano, empiezan a cometerse asesinatos alrededor de Decio Cecilio Metelo el Joven, por eso recurre a su amigo Milo.

Los asesinatos de un antiguo gladiador y un mercader extranjero pasan casi inadvertidos en una Roma infestada de violentas bandas e intrigas políticas. Sólo Decio Cecilio, comandante de la policía, parece interesarse por esos dos crímenes, en especial cuando destacadas figuras de la vida pública intentan alejarlo del caso por todos los medios. Contra viento y marea, Decio Cecilio seguirá adelante con la investigación, llegando al meollo mismo de una intrincada conjura en las más altas esferas del imperio.

En la nueva aventura de Decio Cecilio Metelo el Joven, al que encontramos esta vez encargado de la tesorería imperial, se suceden los asesinatos de personas a las que no unen la menor relación, salvo su condición de acreedores. Al mismo tiempo, Decio detecta en los círculos que frecuenta el inicio de una conspiración para acabar con la república y sustituirla por una dictadura. Todo indica que Catilina está detrás de la conspiración. Cicerón encarga a Decio que se infiltre en la organización y haga fracasar la conjura. Decio cultiva la amistad de Catilina y los favores de la hijastra de éste, Aurelia, y poco a poco descubre que los crímenes forman parte de la conspiración.

This is a good series. Our protagonist once again sets out to right some wrongs. In this case the rising Roman Empire could easily be toppled by hidden forces and not so hidden agendas.

245/27-Μου θύμισε πολύ Valtari. Αλλά έχει δυστυχώς όλα τα μειονεκτήματα ενός κακού ιστορικού μυθιστορήματος. Πάρα, πάρα πολλά ονόματα. Δεν ήξερα ποιος είναι ποιος. Το ότι ο καθένας έχει τρία ονόματα με ξεπερνά.

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Conan the Champion
Series: Conan the Barbarian
Authors: John Maddox Roberts
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 260
Words: 65K

Synopsis:

From the Publisher

Stranded in the furthest northern reaches of Brythunia, Conan the Cimmerian pledges himself as the haughty and beautiful Queen Alcuina . Soon the mighty barbarian is embroiled in a war with two kings who covet Acuina's lands and the evil wizard lilma ,who wants even more .From the blood -drenched snows of the Brythunian forests to the sorcerous Shifting Lands the battles rage .The dead rise to slay and victory can only come from CONAN THE CHAMPION .

My Thoughts:

The foray into the Shifting Lands was interesting but the rest was passe.

★★★☆☆

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Conan the Valorous
Series: Conan the Barbarian
Authors: John Maddox Roberts
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 219
Words: 86K

Synopsis:

From Wikipedia.org

Hathor-Ka, a Stygian sorceress, tricks Conan into stealing certain relics from Ben Morgh, a sacred mountain in Cimmeria. His expedition takes him across Koth, Nemedia, and the Border Kingdoms where Conan is diverted by his rescue of a chieftainess. Meanwhile, Jaganath (a sorcerer from Vendhya) is also on a journey into the Cimmerian Wilderness. In Cimmeria, the various clans are uniting against the Vanir and their allies, a tribe of lizard folk. The two armies are traveling towards Ben Morgh and proceed with a final battle. As the conflict rages on, Conan and a wizard from Khitai wage a more crucial battle inside Crom's Cave beneath the mountain with the aid of Jaganath, Hathor-Ka, and her patron, Thoth-Amon. Ultimately, Cimmeria is delivered from outside sorcery and Conan joins a raiding party of Aesir in their journey towards Hyberborea.

My Thoughts:

Robert Howard wrote the original Conan the Barbarian stories. I reviewed a collection of them back in '18 and thoroughly enjoyed them. So much so that I have finally tracked down a collection of Conan the Barbarian stories by two other authors, notably John Maddox Roberts and Robert Jordan (of the Wheel of Time fame). Since I finished WoT last year, I wanted to give myself a break from Jordan and so chose Roberts to begin my Conan Pastiche journey with. I've got 6 Conan books by him to keep me occupied for a while.

I am not sure if these stories by Roberts are in any particular order or how they fit into the original canon by Howard. Honestly, I don't think it matters. I am treating each one as a standalone story. Howard also mainly wrote the Conan stories as short stories, so getting full length novels is going to be a different beast and we'll see how Conan the Character handles it.

This story is about Conan getting tricked by a sorceress and being involved in a once in a millennium confluence where great powers are bestowed on one sorcerer. Conan has to go back to his homeland of Cimmeria and you find out they're a bunch of goat herders who like to kill everyone else with their weapons. Conan isn't the sharpest sword in the barrel but compared to the rest of the Cimmerians he's a world traveling playboy of exquisite refinement.

There are monsters galore and the god of the Cimmerians plays a tiny part as does an Eldrich Horror. Roberts delves into the Cosmic Horror side of things with tentacled god monsters in the spaces between the planets but it is more of just a nod to the idea than any real work on the idea.

This was a decent sword & sorcery adventure tale but it didn't hold a candle to Howard's original stuff.

★★★☆☆

These books are such fun!

I just adore the Simon Vance audible versions of these books. Roberts' knows his Rome through and through and the characters come to life in the series. I'm sure I'll be listening to them all in time.

fall of insulla leads to investigation corruption while Tiber builds to flood stage

an arcane curse put all Rome at risk

Deicus in Gaul with Caesar learns that Germans are not simple barbarians

solving a poison case endangers Decius in late Republican Rome

Number 13 in this strong series finds our hero Senator Decius Caecilius charged with the unpopular of introducing the new calandar that Dictator Julius Ceasar (one of his better accomplishments, but it did not go down easily according to the plot of this book). Soon he has bigger problems, namely the murder of one of the foreigen astronomers that were recruited to create the calandar. Then a second one is killed. The mystery, although a good one, is not nearly as interesting as these events. We have followed Ceaser up the ladder, and, we will follow him down again and all the players that make that happen are supporting characters in this book. Mostly, I like that he writes these as an only man telling his life story and he is a true grumpy old man.

This book finds our hero judging cases in Southern Italy while deciding what to do about Ceasar and his showdown with the Senate. Fortunately he has the murder of a group of priests of Apollo to distract him.

Enjoyable mystery! However, Decius Caecilius Metellus, the new "kid on the block", is not as fascinating and witty as Falco or Gordianus.
I probably I will be reading more by this author, if I happen to stumble on the other books of the series.

When an insula collapses, killing more than 200 people, Decius Caecilius Metellus the Younger, who as an aedile is responsible for enforcing the building code, investigates. Was it purely shoddy workmanship and materials or was something more sinister going on?

Always a pleasure to watch Decius Caecilius and his household and friends at work.

one man's wyrd leads him to conquest and kingdom in a Viking, Muslim and Mongul N. America

A tribune calls down a curse on Crassus as he leaves on his expedition to conquer Parthia. Decius is tasked with finding out who put the tribune up to it and taught him the secret rituals he was not supposed to know.

Nice twisty investigation based on a real incident and very atmospheric with the creepy stuff. Shame about the death of a recurring character.

When Decius joins Caesar's army in Gaul, he soon makes himself unpopular. But he is the only person Caesar can ask to investigate the murder of a brutal centurion. Was he killed by his own men or by the one of the enemy forces preparing to fight against the Romans?

Exciting, atmospheric thriller/mystery.

Decius Caecilius Metellus is summoned back to Rome by his father to investigate the death of a relative, Celer. Was was he poisoned by his wife, the notorious Claudia, or by one of his many political enemies or did he die by natural causes?

Good world building of Rome. Creepy as Decius's investigation leads him into the world of witches.

It was good fun returning to the world of Hyperborea. The novel was pretty good.