Miglior acque is currently on holidays. He is reading the following books in case anyone wants to comment: Sebastian Barry,
A Long Long Way (Faber, 2005); Colm Toibin,
The Master (Picador, 2005); Iain Pears,
The Last Judgment (Berkeley Prime Crime, 2002) - for fun!
4 comments:
You read Tom Holland's Rubicon, right? Well, you ought to add his new book Persian Fire to your list! It's about the origins of the Persian empire, Marathon, Salamis, Plataea, etc. Holland's a genius historian, and he really does bring the great events of the past to life as well as showing us why we are who we are in the widest sense - history as true human science.
darragh: to put the question backwards : is Rubicon as good as Persian Fire? I've only read the latter (got it as a grad present from my history teacher), and am quite eager to get Rubicon. It seems I'll have to wait with it till October :)
I really enjoyed Rubicon, but I think Holland's improved as a writer for Persian Fire. As to whether you prefer one over the other when you've read the two, I think that'll be down to which subject you found the most interesting. I like both, so I can't decide!
So I managed to track down what is possibly the only public copy of Rubicon in the whole country, and finished it yesterday. Gripped me, but not as much as Persian Fire. He's more of a history lecturer in Rubicon, which makes it at times dull. Persian Fire, however, is pure genius.
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