Customer Reviews

Attila: The Gathering of the Storm

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I've read the first Attila book and loved every minute of it. There were moments where the writing was on par with the likes of Bernard Cornwell, Conn Iggulden and Simon Scarrow. It was gritty, it was real, you felt the decadence of the times, the tension between Christian piety and pagan customs. There were hints of magic, with the druids and Roman prophecies, but they were subtext in the novel, and you got the feeling that there was more to this world, but, and this is key, that no one knew the whole picture. On the first book, you were in the story, you lived during those times.

This book manages to throw most of it out the window, to the point that this book feels like someone else wrote it.

When writing, one should always show, and not tell, a story. Napier can write, but instead of sticking with the style that made the first book special, he changed it all to a broader, historian's perspective. Remember when in the first book, the historical narrator was an exception, a glimpse into a broader picture. You followed the main storyline, with interludes reminding you that an epic tale will take place, and these characters will take a great part in it. In the first book, when you followed Attila, you knew his thoughts, his contempt for Roman society, his hatred for the princess, all the things that made him human. When the perspective was on Atilla, the paragraphs, the style followed his personality, it defended his actions, it told his side of the story. The same thing happened when the action followed Lucius (I'm hesitating with names here because I read the first book in Portuguese, and as always the translation extended to the names). In this book, the narration follows a more impartial perspective, and it rips you away from the story. You no longer know when characters are in pain or in misery, you know his feelings. Attila is a stranger in this book, you're never inside his mindset. He's full of misteries, seems wiser than most, for reasons you rarely understand.

And when the narrative skips to Aetius, one of my main gripes with the first book, as I wanted at least a slight focus on Aetius, everything goes downhill. Since we skip thirty years from the beggining of the book, to follow the return of Attila from exile, one has to briefly skip over Aetius's rise to the rank of General, which would have been interesting to follow and is only broadly covered with the same impartial tone. Yet his surroundings, well these are described with much detail, too much on things not important (two chapters on the sex life of Valentinian's sister, one chapter on the Vandal invasion of Africa), never once showing you anything but telling a lot. You know on full detail how the Eastern Emperor fell in love with his Empress, and you know that Aetius and the Empress fell in love at first side, and were condemned to spend time away from the person they loved. You never see this, you're told it happened. You never feel what they feel, you can appreciate the writing and the poetic tone to it, but on historical fiction, even more so following such a realistic title as the first Attila, you don't go and start writting about the majestic nature of the Eastern court or the rumors of incest that permeated the court of Honorius and Galla, careful always to put yourself neutrally, claiming to be the position of a historian.

And that's the thing: You're not reading Suetonius's 'The Twelve Caesars'. I really don't care if the author takes the politically correct neutral historian's tone, but in the end of the day, you're writing historical fiction, not a history book. You're narrating a story, don't tell me historians aren't uniform on what happened with Galla. You're writing fiction, show me what happened. You smack too much of magic and mysticism and you're moving even further away from the genre. The book is filled with prophecies, and it is more concerned with showing us that there is a greater design to what happened than to show us the details of what hapened.

To any fan of actual, gritty historical fiction, this book is a major disappointment. To any one that, like me, absolutely loved the first book, it's more than disappointing, it's frustrating.

I was curious to see if the second book of the Attila the Hun series would be as interesting to read as the first, and it was. I normally don't like stories told by a third person (in this book it was by a scribe), and sure enough, I ended up skipping some pages which I hate to do! I just don't think this type of writing helps most stories. I do wish I knew before I bought the series, that the story would be written in this manner and I probably wouldn't have felt as guilty about skipping pages. Mr. Napier is a good author, but Conn Iggulden did a much better job with his Genghis Khan series. I would recommend (and have already) the Attila the Hun series and have enjoyed them myself.

This is the second book in this series and it is a well-written story. After 30 years of banishment, Attila returns to the Huns to claim his rightful place. He spends most of the book getting the Huns ready to attack and destroy Rome. The author effectively illustrates how Attila uses his cunning and ruthlessness to join all of the Hun tribes for his planned juggernaut against the weak and corrupt west. Attila develops an effective spy network, drills his rusty home tribe into fighting shape and outfoxes his fellow Hun tribal leaders. There is very little about his Roman nemesis Aetius in this book as the focus is on Attila. However, this is a great read. I had a hard time putting it down. I can't wait for the next installment.

a gripping story that really gave the feeling of the time, place and people involved. This was the middle of the three books in this Atilla trilogy. The other two were even better.

"Attila: The Gathering of the Storm, A Novel," by William Napier, is an adequate sequel to the first volume in this series. The book was interesting, but not nearly as interesting as the first novel. The second entry in this series was filled with too much "stuff" which detracted from the story of Attila. Although, I enjoyed reading this book, I hope the thrid volume in the series is as good as the first volume was!

After reading the first in this series, this installment was entertaining. Like many series of books, the first covered so much in character development as to slow down the pace. This book had good pace and depictions, however, some of the "speeches" made by Attila grew a bit lengthy and I found myself wanting to skip lines. Overall, I enjoyed this installment and look forward to reading the third...

I ordered the 2nd and 3rd books in this trilogy together, after I had finished the first. I seldom read two of an author's books in a row, preferring to switch between genres and authors. After I finished this book, a bit after midnight, I had to start the 3rd! I was so engrossed in the narrative, I really did not want to put off finishing the trilogy.

I suggest this whole trilogy for anyone intersted in this time period. Excellent!

I just finished this second book in the Attila trilogy and I am totally hooked. William Napier is a great

story teller and this book is very well written. I am now on the third book in this series. There are real characters

and events, mixed in with fiction. These books give you new respect and insight into what shaped Attila, his motivations,

and his excellent war strategy skills. This book tells how he gathered the skattered Hun tribes together to form the world fiercest army.

I really loved these books and would recommend these to anyone who likes historical fiction!

It is gratifying to find an author who can write one good historical novel and extend it into a good series. This is such an author. Two books are out, and the third to come. Buy, read, and pass around to a similarly interested friend. Pay it forward.

Was looking for a historical novel for the Roman empire that was as educational and insightful and enjoyable as Steven Pressfield in his greek era novels... This ain't it. I found the writing style juvenille and rather boring. I struggled to finish, and was underwhelmed by the historical information I learned. Don't bother...