Customer Reviews

Empire Rising

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I loved Dawn of Empire. This book is better by any measure. The writing style and dialogue is more flowing. Mr. Barone chooses to write the action in a non-linear fashion, switching scenes and rewinding the time line to catch-up to the action. At first disarming, I grew to see the value particularly in the final battle scenes with its divided action. He develops the Lani character into someone we grow to understand and believe in. Similar to his treatment of Trella, Sam Barone understands the value of a strong female persona. Even the minor characters are sufficiently developed to generate empathy (or hate).
While the ultimate results of the siege were predictable, there were enough little surprises along the way (boats, a heroic cat,....) to captivate this reader.
This book stands alone. By all means read DOE if you haven't, but the author has cleverly interwoven the necessary background into this novel without boring those that have. Very nice job.
More please!!

Simply put... I loved this book! Finding out what happens to Eskkar and Trella, and the city of Akkad makes for one AMAZING story! There really is no need for me to say more because I would be just repeating what others have said. This is a wonderful story with everything that a wonderful story needs. Period!

This is one of the rare books were the sequel is better than the original. Speaking as a historian, there are nit picking faults; Coins did not come into being for over 3,000 years, horses were too small to ride then, but the exciting story over rules any faults.
I expecially liked how the author did not make the mistake of writting his characters like they were modern. Trella and Eskar are early bronze age characters but their life and times show that nothing has changed in millinia. A well written book about a rich cast of characters. I hope more are on the way.

I enjoyed most of the first 100 pages, except for the ultra-politically correct sex scenes written for 21st Century sensitivities. The book lost its focus and unravelled as it went on. The author could have placed his story in almost any time and place. Rather than a deeply felt and researched novel of Mesopotamia, it was a soap opera approach (albiet well done for the most part). Unfortunately, like most historical fiction written recently, the author cashes in on our fascination with the past without doing the difficult and time-consuming research required to bring the realities of that era into contemporary focus.

Dawn of Empire, was an impressive debut for Sam Barone. I thoroughly loved that book and was keenly awaiting his follow up to see if he could build on that effort. Once again Sam has produced a winner with Empire Rising.

Barone returns to the cradle of civilization in this, his sequel to Dawn of Empire. Lord Eskkar, a former barbarian who earlier saved the city of Akkad from almost-certain defeat, and Lady Trella, an erstwhile slave and his wife, now rule the "biggest city on the Tigris." Hoping to crush the bandits marauding in the countryside and extend Akkadian rule, Eskkar dispatches one band of soldiers south from Akkad and leads another north. In Eskkar's absence, true to form a menace appears on the horizon in the form of Korthac, a newly arrived Egyptian warrior posing as a trader. Infiltrating the city with his followers he aims to seize power while arranging for assassins to take out Eskkar, while his other allies in the form of bandits are sent south to ambush the returning Akkadian soldiers. Inside the city, his followers attack the soldiers left behind to keep order and take a pregnant Lady Trella prisoner. Of course its never that simple and thats what draws the reader onwards in this page turner of a book.

Weaknesses in terms of the story? The outcome of the non stop action might be predictable, but thats about all one can fault since like Dawn of Empire the end result is not something that one doubts for long. Rather its a combination of other things such as the rich manner in which the author renders his Middle Eastern settings in all their historical detail and makes the reader feel they are present as well as the sharp and absorbing way he pens his characters be it heroes or villains and breathes life into them. The sense of adventure and promise of peril that lay ahead are nicely penned so the story doesnt have flat spots which have you skipping pages.

Fans of ancient historical fiction will enjoy this instructive journey to the dawn of civilization. Barone knows his stuff and writes fluently of the everday life of our ancient forbears and the quality of his research is very sound.

All up Empire Rising is a winner from the first page to the last. Highly recommended.

I thought this was a well written book but i just had trouble caring about the characters. Most of the novel was historically accurate and it was pretty action packed if not a little generic. I would call it a good book but not a great one.

This book is one of the best reads I have had this year. It starts with the beginning of civilisation and combines fiction and history rather cleverly. If you look, this book has been highly recommended by the amazing writer Conn Iggulden.

The main reason why I have written this review is more to promote the author rather than it to be totally about the book. Plenty have written enough about this.

I have written to the author reviewing his books and he has informed me that we may not see the third book in this series unless the sales go up. I for one would like this book to be published immensly.

If you enjoyed this book, please either recommend it or buy it for someone else.

Barone's second book is equal to his first book "Dawn of Empire" - which should be read first although it's not strictly necessary it does add background to "Empire Rising's" background. Eskkar and Trella, new rulers of the small Mesopotamian city of Akkad, are struggling to bring order, prosperity and security to both their people and their rule. Eskkar leaves Akkad to pacify and make secure the countryside while Trella attempts to make safe her and Eskkars' rule in the city. Unfortunately, another ruthless enemy makes his appearance and all that they've struggled for is in danger.

Barone's very good at action and pacing. He describes both a battle and political intrigue with equal skill, both are plausible and vivid. He does an excellent job at making us understand the task Eskkar faces and plausibly outlines how Trella would organize a network of informants to function as an early warning system for threats to Eskkar and her. The action, both inside the city and outside, during the buildup of to the action and the description once everyone's plans start to unfold, is dramatic and intense. It's a page-turner in the best sense.

If there's anything major to fault the author for it's more for the values, attitudes, and beliefs of Eskkar and Trella - as well as for the odd decision to have Eskkar disappear for 20% of the book. The major characters many times did not feel like ancient people belonging to an alien culture far different from our own.

Just the opposite in fact: Trella is practically a modern woman, capable of managing a major corporation. She's a shrewd student of psychology and politics, capable of insightful suggestions regarding diplomacy with jealous nobles and practical assessments of personalities and motives. Teenaged, former slave Trella can motivate the populace to act in their own well-being without their being aware of her manipulation. She can organize a spy network, foresee the need for a new political system, and deal with ruthless usurping tyrants. Frankly, in Trella, we see virtually no attention to custom, gods, and tradition: all the things we sort of expect from cultures that didn't seem to change much in hundreds of years. I'm surprised Trella didn't write the Akkadians a new constitution with a separation of powers and a Supreme Court system.

Eskkar is smart enough to do what Trella tells him. He even obligingly disappears for 20% of the book at one point. Aside from reappearing to battle the evil Korthac, Eskkar isn't much of a ruler in this book: his battle plan for capturing the city once again isn't as brilliant as Barone would like us to think. Although the author does recognize that splitting one's forces in the face of the enemy is not a good idea, he still has Eskkar divide his depleted band (it's hardly an army at that point) while he practically heads for Trella with (I forget) less than a dozen men, even though killing the enemy leader is sure to scatter the majority of the invaders.

Barone does a magnificent job with the pivotal battle and its very vivid and exciting. I do with he didn't banish Eskkar from the last two dozen or so pages of the book in favor of Trella's meeting with Eskkar's lady friend, but what can you do? In reading Barone's "thank you list", it seems to me very likely his writing group and editors (mainly female) influenced him to be more sensitive to the real heroes of the story: Trella and her loyal ladies of Akkad.

The open-ended nature of the book implies a third book. I'll read it but I doubt I'll buy it -it's strictly library time from now on. I can see the writing on the wall already.

I liked this book but not nearly as much as his first (Dawn Of Empire).

The theme of "Man meets battered woman. Man is nice. Woman learns to trust. Woman is smart and helps man. Love ensues." is repeated over and over (3 times that I can think of). It's a nice morality play but it gets redundant and predictable. It also strains credibility.

But overall, the book was engaging, entertaining and informative.

Mr. Barone travels into the thought process behind a vast array of characters in both Empire Rising and Dawn of an Empire. His ability to pinpoint the physical and emotional conflicts under-towing each character's thoughts enables the reader to understand the time frame encompassed. Situations evolve around a unique set of circumstances which detail potential actions from the male and female perspective. Without the high tech gadgets and biblical finds encompassing more popular books of today, I found his strategy refreshing and thoroughly entertaining in spite of reading the first book after the second.