Customer Reviews

The Scourge of God

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a well written book on Attila and Aetius and Rome. The writer creates the story from the perspective of an individual named Jonas who is sent to Attila as an ambassador and his experiences living with the Huns, and afterwards including the battle of Maurican plain. The writing style is quick, short sentences with numerous changes in plot resulting in continual excitement wondering what will happen next to Jonas. The images painted about the different protoganists are also very realistic:
- images of Attila, a brutal, violent individual who was somewhat neurotic;
- images of the Huns, who murdered and treated others with cruelty,
- images of the Romans, with the decadence of a declining, rotting empire with graft and corruption from officials and a military in significant decline;
- images of the Visigoths who reminded me of the Rohan knights from Lord of the Rings (in fact some believe that the Lord of the Rings was written from the apocayptic story of 451AD);
- images of Aetius, a Roman with integrity and honor trying to keep a dying empire together;
and other images providing a very realistic perspective on what happened in 451AD.
The realism of the story was shown in other ways also. The author painted a realistic picture of the look of a Roman soldier, the Visigoth knight, the Frankish soldier, the Hun and all the protoganists of that period. The author did not get into the numbers game on how many soldiers were involved in the battle (although he discusses his believes in an ending section), just saying that there seemed to be "hundreds of thousands", and the Visigoth army was made of 10,000 men. The story is so well written that it really doesn't have to harp about the numbers of men involved. Even the idea of storekeepers in the Roman army and runaway slaves in the Hun army swelling the numbers made sense.
Although the ending did not make much sense, but that time, I was drawn into the book and accepted it. This is a well-written and well researched book and well worth the purchase.

There is some similarity to the set-up of the author's excellent previous novel, "Hadrian's Wall." But "Scourge of God" has a broader sweep, convincingly contrasting life in Constantinople with Attila and the Huns before the main character goes on to the Western Roman Empire. The dilemmas faced by the Romans of the mid fifth century, both east and west, are very well brought out. But this book is far more than just an interesting, and well-researched, history lesson as it skillfully threads a gripping storyline around a series of pivotal historical events. I found it very hard to put down and, if anything I would rate it slightly above "Hadrian's Wall." I certainly hope the author will give us more from this era.

Generally speaking I have a policy about epic books and that is they have to be long. After all if you're telling a tale of an epic battle, or generations in a family life, or about two civilizations clashing together (or crumbling) shouldn't it be long? Shouldn't there be hundreds and hundreds of pages to mull over, to fit every detail into it and every perspective? Most of the time, it suits an epic to be long. But occasionally there comes around an author who manages to cram an epic into about 300 pages-and does it brilliantly with nothing lacking from the novel.

"The Scourge of God" by William Dietrich is one such novel. It is the story of the time leading up to and including the huge clash that was the battle of nations- the great battle where the Western Roman empire briefly united with the Visigoth's, Franks and many others in order to beat back Attila and his allies and keep them from conquering the West. Even though it's only 338 pages long it is an amazing novel of war, love and the beginning of the end from the Roman Empire. I loved it!

It's also an amazing education into the massive effect that Attila and his Huns had on the world. Considering that the same time they were ravaging the Eastern Roman Empire (which was functioning completely on its own) and the West was crumbling (Rome was essentially abandoned as the capital in favor of Venice) and all kinds of Barbarians were preparing to swoop down and end the empire for good-well people must have thought that Attila hailed the end of the world!

In fact they did. I believe that's how he got the title the scourge of god.

Unlike Dietrich's previous historical novel,Hadrian's Wall: A Novel "The Scourge of God" is told in first person by Jonas, a young man from the eastern Roman Empire whose life is forever changed when he becomes part of a failed embassy to the Hun encampment, with some scenes Jonas isn't involved in written in third person (but still, the whole story is being told by an older Jonas, so it's all first.) I liked Jonas quite a lot as a narrator-he's engaging, funny, and smart and doesn't mess around with his motives for doing things, but the fact that the novel was told exclusively in first person kind of led onto the fact that certain people must have survived in order to tell Jonas their part of the story, which cut down the suspense a little.

Still this was an amazing novel, about twice as good as "Hadrian's Wall" (which I still recommend) I loved and recommend it to everyone (though I should warn you-there is a lot of violence in this book) and I fully plan on reading Dietrich's other historical books. And anything else on Attila the Hun I can find.

But because of the little suspense downing problem mentioned above I have to dock a few points. Four point five stars.

This book brings to life important events surrounding what turned out to be the sunset of both the Roman and Hunnish empires. The campaigns of the Barbarians versus the Romans, have always fascinated me and this book makes it real. The book starts off slowly but,just as I was about to ditch it on about page 100, it came alive and became a page-turner. Dietrich tries hard to avoid Cecil B. DeMille cliches of plot and dialog, and for the most part succeeds. His portrayal of Atilla and other characters -- real or fictional -- seem credible. The author weaves in some ingenious plot turns which help keep the suspense and plot momentum going. This is the first Dietrich book I've read and I intend to read more.

Attila the Hun was the final and most powerful king of the Huns. He reigned over what was then Europe's largest empire, from 434 until his death. This is his story even though told from the perspective of the fictional Jonas Alabanda, a Roman diplomat from Constantinople. The tale follows historical happenings, mingled with adventures and intrigue supplied by the author. Jonas (the unlikely hero) is called on a mission of diplomacy to the great Attila, where deception and betrayal awaits. The dialogue is rich, the movements fast-paced, and the story is well-thought-out. The main events stay true to reality and the climax involves one of the greatest conflicts in human history, the Battle of Chalons, in 451 A.D. The key to enjoying this book is taking it for what it is: a novel. As I was reading it I actually thought it would make a better movie. Due to the violence and sexual content it would definitely merit an R rating.

This isn't the type of historical fiction I usually pick up. I'm always fine with reading about fictional characters in a historical setting, but when the two are reversed (historical characters in a fictional setting) I don't usually get as much out of it. I don't like getting impressions about real characters unless it's honest speculation. William Dietrich does a really good job at staying honest, even though there are only three fictitious characters in the cast. This is made easy by the fact that there isn't really much information regarding the subject matter. His commentary at the end is particularly delightful where he distinguishes between fact and fiction.

I have read Dietrich before, and without knowing it. I read "Ice Reich" many years ago, and when I read "Scourge of God," I kept thinking "this book reminds me a lot of "Ice Reich!" I was not surprised when I realized both books were written by the same author. His writing style is recognizable, even after so many years in between these two books. Nice prose, excellent story line, but same ordinary characters. Jonas and Ilana are the archetypal couple who overcome unsurmountable difficulties.

Attila the Hun is a demanding topic. There's no doubt in my mind about Mr Dietrich's considerable research on this particular subject. He's right when he says that no country wants the honor to become the birthplace of these mysterious people, and to be honest, I enjoyed the "Epilogue" more than the story itself.

This was also a story of "coming of age." A young man, educated but not too brilliant, rich but not too prosperous and finally, smart but not too clever, meets a girl under tragic circumstances, and in rescuing her he learns to be a man.

Not a bad book for youngsters, there's a lot of action to keep them entertained, but for an alternative reading on Attila I recommend "Attila's Treasure" (fiction) by Stephan Grundy.

If you read Hadrian's Wall, then you read this book with different characters. I have read all Dietrich's books and lately he writes about a main character who is in love with an unattainable person and as a result, gets into all kinds of trouble before it comes out all right in the end.

Here, a young Roman diplomat joins an embassy to Attila the Hun and ends up as his captive. Naturally there are all kinds of fights and the boy comes of age as a result. The time period is interesting, as are some of the figures in the book, but the story is too much about the trials a tribulations of Jonas, the young insignificant Roman, than of the events occuring around him.

I was disappointed and bored with this novel. I think a major part of the problem was the writing, which I found clumsy and awkward. It could also have been the female protagonist, Ilana, whom I wanted to kick very soon after finding out more about her. However, even more than these, the problem was Dietrich's portrayal of the Huns, and the Huns here are important: we're dealing with the clash of two civilizations in decline, and Huns are one of these two civilizations. If you mess up The Scourge, there goes half the novel, and you've got a problem on your hands.

The Huns are too contradictory to be effective villains or heroes. One minute they are truly the demonic, inhuman horsemen of the Apocalypse, destroying everything and killing everyone in their path. Next minute they are jovial, good natured, sensual creatures who worship the earth mother and enjoy long drunken orgies. One chapter they are killing every unarmed civilian in a city; another chapter they prevent a fellow Hun from killing an unarmed civilian (who happens to be our male protagonist, of course) since killing unarmed civilians is, in this case, so very conveniently dishonorable. Though the Huns rape every enemy woman in their path, somehow they allow Ilana her unassailable virginity after keeping her captive for months at a time, and when her Mongol admirer finally gives in to his urges during a time of orgy, then his fellow Huns are shocked at his actions. I realize all this is convenient for the novelist who wants to keep his protagonists intact after all, but does any of this make any sense for the reader looking for sense in the novel she paid good money for?

As far as the clunkiness of the writing: the siege at the end of the novel was a pale, PALE echo of the two great sieges in The Lord of the Rings--I'd almost be tempted to say that this was plagiarism pure and simple, but sadly, it was not effective enough to be called that, and I don't want to insult Tolkien.

I would say, frankly, that if you are into adventure and battles, then go and read LOTR, or try the siege of Byzantium in John Julius Norwich's Short History of Byzantium, which is infinitely more moving than this.

So this book was recommended to me by a little old lady in a small independent book store. I bought it because she was really nice and the store needed the business. So the book starts off really slow. It took about 154 pages until something interesting happened. Granted the author needed to set up the storyline, but it would have been nice to have some action happen during the set up. After the story got going it did get better and I enjoyed it. If you can get past the first 150 pages then I think you'll enjoy this book, especially if you like history. If you follow Roman history then you'll really love this book.

I enjoy reading a good historical novel. This book had a richness of detail and history, with an in-depth depiction of the characters. This is definately a book to keep in your library to be enjoyed in the years.