Customer Reviews

Funeral Games (Tyrant 3)

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

 

 

This was the best Tyrant novel yet. Kineas' children find their world turned upside down and are thrown into a desperate struggle for survival. The novel was the most action-packed of the three Tyrant novels, including a huge phalanx-eye view of a battle. As usual, Cameron's writing fully involves the reader in the historical era. He has definitely become my favorite historical fiction author.

What can I say, this book has everything, Love, Lies, sex, blood... everything you would want in a historical fictional novel. Cant wait to read the fourth Tyrant book. Would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys reading about honor, formation of a brotherhood, a story with an adventure that is surreal.

The author is American, but his books are published in England. I ran into a copy in Santorini. Now I order them from England for ridiculously low prices. The transportation is more. And they come in New condition!

Tyrant: Funeral Games purports to be the third volume in a five-part series. The first two (Tyrant, and Tyrant: Storm of Arrows) told the story of Kineas of Athens -- His exile to the Euxine, and his partnership with a Sakje (Scythian) princess that carved out a small kingdom that Kineas' heirs would rule following his death at the end of the second novel.

Tyrant: Funeral Games resumes the story into the next generation with his twin daughter and son now young teenagers. But the politics following the death of Alexander the Great intrudes itself into their lives, killing their mother and forcing them into exile with their loyal tutor, the Spartan warrior-philosopher, Philokles. (I must note that the subtitle of this volume appears to be a homage to Mary Renault's wonderful novel of the wars following Alexander's death.) Ultimately, the fleeing party ends up in Ptolemy's Egypt.

The novel began a little predictably, and early the internal concerns of the young man about his courage (or lack thereof) seemed a little whiny. However, as the action picked up so did the maturation process, and about halfway through the book, you realized the whining was gone, and it now dealt with a young man in control of himself and his destiny. Some characters from the first two books appear along the way in this one, but at least the loyal Sakje scout was off stage dealing with his own rebellion, and the author did not try to bring him to Egypt.

I was a little annoyed that the same set of assassins (trying to kill the twins) was always present throughout the book, but the battle scenes were swiftly and deftly narrated. Ptolemy of Egypt is a character you wish the author had developed a little more fully. The few glimpses of him we have are very enjoyable.

All in all, this is an enjoyable sequel, although not as strong as the first two books. The author almost abandoned the mysticism which featured prominently in the first two, but perhaps that is because of the youth of the characters. He does hint at a later development along that line.

I have enjoyed all three books, and look forward with anticipation to the next two volumes.