Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Debut novel - covering a different slice of history, June 22, 2007
If you love fiction set in Ancient times but are tiring of books abounding in the glories of Rome, Greece, and Ancient Egypt then this novel is a breathe of fresh air. Its setting takes in the great Phoenician sea trading city of Tyre, before moving on to Sidon, Cyprus, Sicily and the founding of Carthage in Libya circa 800BC.
Its plot follows the premature death of the King and succession of his sadistic teenage son Pumayyaton. 10 year old daughter Elisha must use all her guile and cunning to survive the cruel new rulers attempts to rid himself of all perceived rivals through death or exile. Marriage of convieniance to her elderly uncle the Holy Lord of the cities God Melquart - the only institution with power to rival the king gives her the chance to undermine her brother by using the religions wealth to initiate a coup. When it fails she is seizes a slim opportunity to escape with her life,a slice of the royal treasury and a ship full of exiles.
Eventually to become Queen Dido the founder of Carthage, Elisha (who is never beyond a teenager in this book) is the glue that binds the motley crew of exiles (sailors and traders) together.
The story is rich in the customs, traditions, religious rituals and trading culture of the Phoenician people of the day and the authors fine research really blends these elements with his excellent characterisation (the characters are many but each is truly memorable), and flare for story telling to flesh out a fascinating and believable adventure following the struggles of this woman and her people to overcome adversity and succeed against the odds. The dialogue in the story is very entertaining too and it has to be as there is a lot of it. Its composed nicely making for flowing interplay between the characters that drives the plot. The unspoken thoughts also are well crafted in that they truly flesh out the characters from within. Very nicely done as it brings the richness of the characters whether good, bad or indifferent to the plot to the fore. Overall its a book with a fluent writing style, well researched and will entertain and educate in an enjoyable way most lovers of historical fiction to this interesting but seldom described period in history.
My only gripe would be that one should avoid the prologue at the beginning which is a spoiler for knowing how the story ends. To me it was unneccessary and added little to the joy of the story but left me knowing what Elisha/Queen Dido's fate was just as i was starting the book. Skip it. Dont even glance at it. Then there were the annoying little "Phoenician" words sprinkled around the book..."Yr" = penis, Lys = lie for example. To me these were superfluous to the flow of the story as they were initially followed by English translation and later no translation so you find yourself forgetting what some mean and skipping them as you forget what a "mw'd" is. But that is minor.
Overall I read 483 pages in 5 days [...] and loved it - couldnt wait to get back to it each day. Can't wait till Mr Raymonds next book and I am so glad he took up historical fiction as opposed to more medicine books (his first was aimed at the health care profession).
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Finally a different place in history, February 10, 2008
I was so excited when I found this book because it offered us historical fiction fans a new place in time and in history. Carthage and Tyre have not been overly written about and I had begun to get tired of the same old Rome, Venice, England novels with the same old Cleopatra, King Henry VIII and Caesar stories being written to death. Finally a new character and place. I found the first half of the book very very engaging and exciting, I loved the character of Elisha and thought to myself this was going to be a sort of Helen of Troy woman. The writing style is not overly accomplished but for a first book the author does well enough. Perhaps with future novels he can become a bit more polished. Unfortunately I struggled with finishing the second half, and found I had to push myself to get to the end to see how Elisha/Dido' story ends. Half way through, after Elisha and her exhiles leave the tyranny of her brother behind in Tyre, they sail off and stop midway on their journey to a Greek Island in order to obtain provisions and hopeful future citizens to take with them to help found their new city of Carthage further west. There is way too much time spent on this section where a whole lot of not much happening is going on. Once they do leave and land in Libya to build their city, my feelings are that it got profoundly uneventful and boring, the characters become flat and lifeless, and I felt I didnt care about them. The start of this novel showed much promise for an engaging read with good characters but those ingredients just dont flow through to the end in my opinion. I do agree with two of the other reviewers that the author's usage of Phoenician language got tiresome pretty quickly, and more importantly the amount of spelling errors sprinkled throughout the book was deplorable. The author needs either a good editor or a spellchecker on his word processor. Because I found both good aspects and bad, I would certainly give the author another try if he decides to write another novel. I would have been much more generous in my praise if there had just been a little more action or drama to make the story exciting.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Plesantly surprised, July 27, 2006
I saw this book as I was browsing through Borders and it caught my eye. I put it on my book list and ordered it about 6 months later. This book was very, very good! I had no idea who Dido was and this book wet my appetite for more information. This book was brutal, passionate, and action packed.
Historical fiction is tricky to write because of the fine line between real and fake. Robert does this well and I also love how he puts the "last" chapter at the front of the book! I was a little wary about the story of Dido in his book and how she got where she got and did what she did. A little unbelieveable and Elisha/Dido get on my nerves with her attitude and actions, but I guess you have to be that way to start a new city that would eventually make Rome shake!
This a book that you must get!
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