Nero, Tyrant and Inferno
Taking nothing away from how Conn Iggulden writes, which is brilliant, but if you introduced a few dragons and a bit of magic into these books they could easily be in the same genre as books such as Game of Thrones.
For me this is a grown up version of the same type of stories found in those books.
Loosely based on history, and containing people who we know from Roman history, set immediately after the execution of Jesus, this series is a compelling read.
At the core of the series is a mother and her son. Agrippina is the granddaughter of a previous Emperor of Rome, Augustus. When we first meet her she has a young son, Nero who is no more than a toddler but already showing signs of his bullish future behaviour.
She is married to a man who was once a great Chariot racer but who is now a drunk living on his past fame.
Agrippina may have a bloodline to the past Emperor but it means nothing in the Rome of the early 1st Century.
Emperors are killed by those closest to them as power becomes the target of the people who hold important posts.
And although she holds no official post, there is nobody who has a craving for power more than Agrippina, and she will use whatever means she has to make sure she sits at the highest of tables.
She cannot become Emperor, so to get where she wants to be she either has to marry an Emperor, or ensure her son, no matter how tenuous his blood line, becomes Emperor.
Nothing will stop her and she turns to murder and incest in her relentless rise.
But will she succeed…………….it is no spoiler to say yes she does. History tells us Nero became a Roman Emperor, but she made enemies along the way, including her son.
Nero has seen her relentless push for power, he knows how dangerous she can be.
The way he deals with her is a big part of the plot of the second and third books and it is really interesting to see how Iggulden has weaved the plot around historical fact.
There are side stories throughout. Agrippina accompanies her Uncle/Husband Claudius on his invasion of Britain.
The size of the raiding army, and the logistics of its travel to, and ultimately invasion, of Britain is brilliant.
The in house politics of the Roman Empire, the nepotism of the leaders leading to ineptitude of duty is fascinating.
The underground rise of Christianity, with the one of the disciples, Paul, giving sermons and converting many to the new religion and away from following Roman Gods.
In the last book this really causes division as people start to look at the Emperor in a different way.
Nero doesn’t help himself with his erratic behaviour and stranger rulings.
His days are numbered but how will he ultimately meet his ending.
This is not my usual genre of book but I do occasionally dip into what I call proper historical fiction. Books by the likes of Ken Follett, CJ Swanson, and CS Forester.
These books always lead to a pleasant trip into the land of research and this series was no different.
The books are accompanied by forwards by Conn Iggulden where he notes that many of the characters are known to have existed, as did many of the events. But the way he has weaved the web of stories is extraordinary.
I would have blogged a review after the first book, but I just had to go straight to the second, and in the end did a back-to-back-to-back read of the trilogy over about a week.
Highly recommended.
nigeladamsbookworm 