Bruce MacbainRezensionen

359

Though dealing with approximately the same period, this first entry is much drier than Lindsey Davis' Flavia Alba series.

This is the third and apparently final book in the Odd Tangle-Hair saga. I did not have the good fortune to read the first two books and as is usual with series I am sure it would have enhanced this book for me, I did not feel any loss for not having read them. Mr. MacBain does an excellent job of filling in backstory without making his readers feel like they are reading a dossier.

The book is essentially Odd’s telling of his story and this is his last chapter. He is on a mission to the Byzantine Empire but his true role is one he keeps close. He is going to kill his greatest enemy, Harald. Harald is one of the elite guards, the Varangians. What follows is a well researched and well written tale of a time not often presented in novels.

I must admit to a fascination with this period in history and this book is welcome addition to those I have read before. The combination of Constantinople and Vikings is so irresistible and I honestly had little knowledge of their coming together. Which is why I love reading historical fiction so very much. I read, I research and I learn. I pull what fiction there is and revel in a bit of history I didn’t know before.

Odd Tangle-Hair is a great character and the world Mr. MacBain builds for him is one grounded in what historical record is left. It is a world that comes alive for the reader so that you feel as if you are walking (fighting, living) right beside Odd as he makes his way through his mission. I’m almost sorry it had to come to an end and I would truly like to read the first two books in the series.½

Christianity has come to 11th century Iceland and old traditions are changing while dividing some families on the way. 16-year old Odd’s father is holding to old pagan believes which is driving a wedge between his family and neighbors. After revenge killing becomes a political problem, Odd is sent to exile. He steals a ship and decides to go viking.

It did take me some time to really get into the story. At times it concentrates to describe things too much and while there is plundering, murder and blood, I guess I just expected there to be more of that. I liked Odd but I never understood why men would follow him and call him captain. He wasn’t someone to inspire that kind of loyalty.

And yey there’s Finland and Kalevala but I wasn’t really into those chapters. Kalevala chapters just didn’t work for me and I have to say that I’ve never read it so I can’t comment on that. But for me Kalevala is this mythical thing and 11th century is just too close. I mean we’re close to the Norman conquest! Too much is known about the period to be mythical.

It wasn’t a bad book by any means but I guess I just expected more.

Historically, mildly interesting; novelistically, not so much. Pliny Secundus is appointed a special investigator into the murder of the dissolute and little loved imperial informer, Verpa. There are plenty of suspects, plenty of red herrings, and plenty of Latin vocabulary larding the pages.

Sadly there is little vividness in the writing which at time is overwhelmed by pedantry. Real historical characters other than Pliny walk through the book. One of them is Martial, the Roman epigrammist who seeks to make himself the protege of the wealthy and connected Pliny. The device doesn't really add to the heft of the novel; Martial seems to have been introduced as Pliny's possible sidekick but ends up feeling like a walk-on or a one man Greek chorus in the story.

This is a novel one wants to really like but the impression is that increased editing and pruning would have made that easier for readers. It might be worthwhile for readers enamored of novels set in ancient Roman to stick around and read more Pliny stories to see if Macbain's skills as a novelist grow and develop.½

In the last days of the reign of Domitian, one of his informers, Verpa, is found murdered in bed. Can Pliny find the murderer before all of the dead man's slaves are executed on suspicion for the crime?

Quite a gripping climax but otherwise not terribly interesting. If I hadn't been reading it for my online book club I probably wouldn't have persisted½

Second outing of Pliny the Younger in this particular series--years have passed since Pliny's first case and now Pliny is Governor of Bithynia. He is given the commission to clean up the corrupt finances of his predecessors. There's the murder of an unpleasant man, a time-served centurion named Balbus. Pliny sets about solving the crime. The Cult of Mithras is involved in this murder and in others occurring during the course of the story. This connection was why I picked up the book in the first place. Most of the characters didn't engage my interest except for Pliny himself and the epileptic youth, Aulus. The Calpurnia [Pliny's wife] subplot degenerated into pure trashy soap opera and her fate left room for a sequel. I won't rush out to read it. There was really nothing on Mithraism I didn't already know [and I'm surprised such an astute man as Pliny--or his centurion, Aquila--didn't connect it with the murder early on. Clues left in certain correspondence were pretty obvious.]

I generally give high marks to the particular Roman fiction I read, but this one was a disappointment. The Albert A. Bell Jr. Pliny mystery series is far superior.

I started the year in ancient Rome, care of Netgalley (thank you). Well, no, not Rome itself, but the Empire in general and what is now part of Turkey specifically – Bithynia. Plinius Secundus, called Pliny by those around him (or Gaius by those closest to him, just to mess with your head) and Pliny the Younger by history, has been sent to this barbaric outpost to investigate and clean up the corruption that is rampant there among the Greeks – or, as the Romans patronizingly refer to them, Greeklings. The previous governor played fast and loose with lots and lots of money, and when he left – not quite in disgrace – he took a lot of the moveables with him, so now Pliny, his beloved wife Calpurnia, and his household – including the freed slaves he and his wife find indispensable, Ione and Zosimus – not only has to cope with insolent and indolent slaves, a disgruntled and resentful populace, and a corrupt and snobbish Roman community, but also a residence that has been left uncomfortable and ill-kept. It's a challenge. But Pliny has the confidence of the emperor.

A new roadblock is thrown in his way when suddenly a Roman official is murdered. He was an unpleasant man, and corrupt, but his death is highly inconvenient – and given that less than a hundred years ago there was a rebellion and slaughter of Romans right there in Bithynia, Pliny is anxious to keep things as calm and steady as possible. Did the murder have something to do with this cult of Mithras that keeps creeping in around the edges? Was it because of money, and if so was it business or family? Was it political? Could it have been jealousy? (Nah.) Before Pliny can answer any of this, he is called to another scene of death …

For a good percentage of this book, I had a five-star rating dancing before my eyes. The writing was very fine, and the characters were well-rounded, dialogue felt "period" without being patronizing or archaic. The setting was vibrant in all its sordidness and felt alive and current, both alien and familiar. It was when part of the plot began to devolve into soap opera and a character I had really liked suddenly became Too Stupid To Live, and when it was – in one gut-wrenching scene – revealed that absolutely no one was faithful or trustworthy: that was when my opinion of the book started to slide. Wait. I take it back. One person was faithful and trustworthy. He didn't last long.

So help me, I can't imagine why writers still insist on putting boar hunts into their books. The minute someone says there will be a boar hunt I know there is, literally, no exaggeration, at least a 90% probability that someone's gonna die. It's ridiculous. It has become a cliché. Someday I'm going to go back through all the historical (and fantasy, for that matter) novels I've ever read and put together a compendium of Deadly Boar Hunts. People: STOP IT.

None of this makes it a bad book (hence the fact that it retained four (three and a half, really) of those five stars). But it was depressing. And it took the plot in a direction almost directly opposite from where I either wanted or expected it to go. The synopsis on Goodreads states that the finale is tragic. I don't think so. "Tragic" would have had me in tears, surely, or feeling something; this … this just had me thinking "wait – you mean – aw, come on, isn't killing that person off a little convenient, and kind of mean? And what about – oh, you're kidding.

One smallish thing that did bug me was the contrived cleverness of Pliny's man Zosimus. He would for the most part remain silent, as befitted a freed slave in the company they were keeping, but when he spoke up it was always pithy, always clever – and often coined those words and phrases used today. Clew = clue, for example. It was a little too cute.

I really enjoyed Pliny, and he's a great choice to center a series around – he knew everybody. Suetonius was a fun character, and I'd love to read any of his works that have survived. I was looking forward to a first century detective series with these two, with a solid scholarly grounding and a sense of humor… Now I don't know if I'll keep going with it. A disappointment.

(However: the audiobook of the first in the series was narrated by Bronson Pinchot. Hm.)½