Customer Reviews

The Course of Honour ( Unabridged)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an amazingly sweet book.

Two people, one a bad tempered angry slave and one the unimportant son of a provincial tax collector meet when the man and his brother get lost in the imperial palace in Rome. They come across a young slave girl cooking sausages and an attraction is formed for life between the young man and the slave.

Vespasian is not an important man in Rome when he meets Caenis. In fact, though he is later and senator and she is later a freewoman, there is a long span of time where her connections to the royal family make her important than he is. But they loved each other deeply their whole lives in spite of their long separation of twenty years when he married, and she even helped him raise his children. When Nero died and Vespasian took the purple in a military coup, he has his beloved move into the palace with him-defying all social conventions to be with her.

The absolute only thing I think could have made this book more sweetly romantic would be Vespasian overruling the law that members of the senate couldn't marry freedwoman. But hey, perhaps that was a more drastic step that it seems it would have been. Roman society confuses me, but in this book it is clear, wonderful, corrupt and a place where even social opposites can fall in love.

Five stars. I'm really looking forward to Lindsey Davis' new book, Rebels and Traitors which is about the second English civil war and comes out in January.

For more reading on Vespasian's younger son corrupt and disastrous rule of Rome check out The Light Bearer by Donna Gillespie.

341 pages to cover 70 years of a very interesting man and his times isnt nearly enough, and it shows. The book is narrated by and focusses on the ex-slave Caenis rather than Vespasian directly and as a result much of the history is given in brief doses of lecture rather than portrayed. Interesting stuff though!

What is not interesting is Caenis. A moody, angry, stubborn, unlikable girl who's defining characteristic seems to be avoiding living any type of life whatsoever, and lashing out constantly at Vespasian anytime he makes an appearance. I cant imagine why he is interested in her, or why the entire City of Rome seems to have the impression to be rude to her is unforgivable when she is nothing but rude to him, and avoids everyone else but her lively friend Veronica, like the plague.

This is most definately not a Falco novel, nor is she Helena Justina, more the pity. I love the Falco books and here the author does a good job again with Vespasian in his younger days but thats about it.

This is a fairly gripping non-Falco historical novel. The characters are gripping and the action moves along... It's interesting that it's described as a novel about the relation between Vespasian and a slave who's described as 'a bad-tempered slavey' and who eventually becomes the prosperous freedwoman Caenis [...]; although they spend fairly little time together there is a constant emotional connection.

THE COURSE OF HONOUR, while set in generally the same time period as her Marcus Didius Falco series, is not a Falco novel. The description for this is misleading. Although an enjoyable book in its own right covering Vespasian and his slave-mistress, it is not part of the Falco series.

Being a great fan of Lindsey Davis's "Marcus Didius Falco" historical mysteries, in which we get to meet the heroine of this book, I had expected great writing, a fast moving tale, and -- very likely -- first person, either told by Vespasian or Caenis, or perhaps a mutual acquaintance. I'd expected fictional devices like flashbacks and witty conversation on every page.

Instead I got rather worshipful, not too well-characterized third-person chronological narrative of a former slave who became an emperor's mistress. Long passages were without conversation (or very much human interest). My conclusion was that this book was derived from the author's Ancient History MA thesis or PhD dissertation, not the best source for exciting fiction.

The Falco novels are a thousand times better.

Another L. Davis Roman gumshoe adventure. It is entertaining and very similar to other books by the same author on the same subject. Good light reading.