Emporer

I first discovered Conn Iggulden, the author, when I read the second book in his series on the Khan Dynasties. I immediately read the other two that were available at the time and was hooked. A friend mentioned that if I like the Genghis series, I would love the Emperor series. I loaded all four of these historical novels onto my Kindle at Christmas and I finished the last of them on the plane home from Mexico late in January.

If you are looking for absolute historical accuracy, these books will not fit the bill, but rather the stories are in the historical context of the day and the details are filled in with character development and plot that is absolutely riveting.

We all have a sketchy knowledge of Julius Caesar but these books follow his life from a young boy to his assassination. The author admits that there is so much written by and about Julius that he could easily fill many more volumes, and yet the times that these stories do cover give a sense that this was a truly great man in terms of courage, leadership. intelligence, ambition, and accomplishment. Rome thrived and grew to greatness under his military guidance and due to his political prowess.

Reading these books gives one a keen sense of what it was like to live in those times, especially as a Roman Legionnaire. There is more than enough intrigue, action, romance, plotting, friendship, jealousy, gladiatorial fighting, and politics to keep anyone entertained for many days. I finished one and immediately started the next and was only satisfied to be done when Julius was dead, on the last pages of the last volume. (If that was a spoiler for you, you do not know history or Shakespeare)  

Something that the books did for me was to prompt me to do some research after I was done reading. For hours I studied about the life of Julius to see just how much of it lined up with actual historical record. I did indeed discover that there were events and accomplishment in his life that were not even mentioned in the four volume series.

Certainly my knowledge and perspective of that era have been enhanced and enlightened. I can easily overlook the liberties that the author took with sequencing and character enhancements. To learn history while being thoroughly entertained is wonderful. I recommend these books.