Customer Reviews

Empire of Dragons

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

 

 

Undoubtedly the author is familiar with Roman and Persian history, but not Chinese. My reading pace was always interrupted when I found the differences between the history mentioned in the book and Chinese history in my mind.

"Da Qin" is how ancient Chinese called Rome. It mean "great Qin", implied that Rome was strong and civilized like the Qin Dynasty of China(221BC-207BC). The story said Prince Dan Qin explained "Da Qin" means "The West", this is not correct. There is another name for Rome "Hai Xi", which means "the west of the sea".

The story mentioned that China was in the three-kingdom period. If so, Han dynasty was already destroyed, there is no more prince of Han. One of the three kingdoms was "Shu", the emperor of Shu was a distant relative of Han's emperors, but not the heir of Han's royal family.

The Romans of the story were brought to Luo Yang - Capital of Han Dynasty, and the capital of the Kingdom of Wei, one of the kingdoms in the three-kingdom period. The emperior of Wei is not the same blood of Han, and the life or death of Wei's emperor has no relation with Dan Qin (The story mentioned Dan Qin's father died and the man named "Wei" kept the secret, implied that his father died in the city of Luo Yang).

[...]

I think this story somehow represents how an Italian views China - full of secrete societies and Ninja-like people playing Kungfu (although Ninjas are from Japan), and women are like Zhan Zi-Yi in Croching Tigers and Hidden Dragon.

As a professional archaeologist, Manfredi must be aware of the growing body of evidence that many ancient civilizations had contacts with each other - notably the Celtic adventurers who traveled the Silk Road and settled in western China in pre-Roman times. But why populate a story about possible Roman/Chinese contacts with rigidly ethical and honorable Roman Imperial legionaires and near-superhuman martial arts secret societies, as well as a Han dynasty princess who throws away her privileged status for a newfound infatuation with a scruffy legion commander? The plot is reasonably well developed, considering protagonists with little credibility, including the supposed martial arts training for the princess and her brother. This promising speculation really deserved better execution than this somewhat juvenile effort.

Few authors can be better equipped to write about the history of ancient Greece and Rome than Valerio Massimo Manfredi. Professor of archaeology at the university of Milan, he has carried out many excavations and expeditions in the Mediterranean region. He has produced many factual books on historical matters, mainly military and has still found the time to write several novels and this is one of the best yet.

This book has a storyline that must surely be unique. It begins with the personal bodyguard of the Roman Emperor Publius Licinius Valerianus and their commander caught in a trap after Valerianus had agreed to meet his adversary, to negotiate peace and save the city of Edessa. However Marcus Metellus Aquila, legate of the Second Augusta Legion and his men manage to break free and find shelter at an oasis, where they meet a mysterious exiled prince. With nothing left for them the Romans agree to become the prince's private militia and volunteer to guide him back to his homeland., China.

While they are there they see things that no other European has ever seen. They see cruelty, violence, but on the other side they see men of great intelligence and tolerance and beautiful women, unlike any of the women in Rome. But everything is at stake, even the very survival of the world's two greatest empires . . .

I bought this at Gatwick thinking I would have something to help while away the flight back to the US if needed. Once started, I could not put it down. The previous review does a decent job of generally summarizing the book, so I will just say that I was mesmerized by the detail, both grit and charm, that flowed... no, quite forcefully fought it's way from the pages of the the book, into my imagination. Mettalus, a written character in a paper book, took on a personality and life that I cannot adequately describe.

As you probably have gathered by now, I cannot recommend it highly enough, and am actually on Amazon to begin purchasing the rest of Mr. Manfredi's books (and thought I'd write a quick review)... This one has hooked me but good.

When Manfredi writes fiction about the ancient Greeks and Romans, the result can be entertaining and even quite powerful, as in THE LAST LEGION, TYRANT, and THE TALISMAN OF TROY. When he attempts to write modern-dress thrillers, the result is so awful as to be unreadable (THE ORACLE, THE TOWER). This novel starts well, with the dramatic capture of the Roman emperor Valerius by the Persians, and as long as Manfredi stays grounded in Roman history the story hums along. But when he takes our hero to China, the story completely bogs down. Manfredi's images and ideas about ancient China seem to come straight out of martial arts movies, and his tendency to melodrama runs wild. Here's a sentence to stop you cold: "Baj Renji could very easily imagine the monsters that were crouching in the apparently immobile swamp of the eunuch's soul." Crouching tiger, hidden gonads? I admire Manfredi's ambition to tell such a far-flung story, but with this yarn he bit off more than he could chew.

Not the best the book I have read of Manfredi, but entertaining. Under the veil of fiction it reviews a hypothetical incursion of a few Romans in the Chinese Empire. For better books of Manfredi read Alexander.

Nice historical novel. Small comparison of Imperian Roman Empire and China under Han dynasty can be easily found in this book. When the action of this novel takes place in China it is clearly seen that Manfredi likes fantasy-like motifs, which he gently introduced to his book. The idea for this novel was really ambitious, but not all of its elements work properly. This book shows that you cannot be a master in every subject. Nice read.

I think that if you take it as a novel it's great.

As far as entertainment is concerned I liked it.

I did have a good time reading it.

I am interested in the Far East as well as ancient Europe so I had hopes that the book would be as good as the author's Alexander historical fiction. Not!! I forgive the preposterous plot, but not the constant tipping of the hand to the final outcome of the story. And the coy allusions ("..he found the offered infusion of leaves strangely enjoyable...") that's Chinese tea, of all things. Not recommended.