A skillful, exciting blend of history, action, and drama set in the ancient world.
In ancient Rome, a playwright accused of plotting against the emperor finds refuge with a secret group of Christians in this adventure novel.
Domitian, emperor of Rome, was born under a bad sign: his death is foretold in the stars, down to the day and hour. Cruel and paranoid, Domitian names himself Lord and God, feeling especially threatened by Christians, who refuse to worship him. Now, six months before the emperor’s predicted death, a secret Christian organization called the Dominium Dei (Rule of God) has been working to bring about the prophecy, harassing Domitian with espionage, kidnapping, and assassination of his officials, such as his chief astrologer. The playwright Athanasius of Athens, meanwhile, just wants to earn acclaim for his work and the love of beautiful Helena, a model for sculptors. But his life overturns when he’s falsely accused of being Chiron, “the most dangerous man in the world,” mastermind of the Dei. Athanasius is condemned to die in the arena—but, with help from unexpected benefactors, he barely escapes. He’s given a mission that takes him from Rome to John of Patmos—the last apostle—and to Asia Minor and a hidden underground Christian refuge. Who are the Dei and who is Chiron? Can Athanasius stop a war between Rome and the Church? Greanias (The War Cloud, 2016, etc.) writes an intelligent, fast-moving historical novel with nonstop action, narrow escapes, and violent encounters, as well as much food for thought. The ancient world comes alive in well-chosen details, from the mundane to the arcana of spycraft, codes, and disguises. Greasias’ characterization is vivid even for minor figures and especially so for Athanasius. As a playwright, for example, he dislikes the Book of Revelations for its “deus ex machina return of Jesus at the end of history”; he goes through a believable personal struggle and transformation over the tale’s course. The author also smartly illuminates the religious, philosophical, historical, and even economic issues that underpin the story, while never letting the pace lag.
A skillful, exciting blend of history, action, and drama set in the ancient world.Pub Date: May 16, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9960040-4-6
Page Count: 386
Publisher: Atlantis Ink
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
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