January 1, 2017
The first in a pair of novels devoted to Roman Emperor Nero--the one blamed for fiddling while Rome burned--offers a new take on an age-old reputation.Insane, cruel, a sex fiend? That's not the Nero who narrates George's (Elizabeth I, 2011, etc.) latest historical epic. This lonely child, attracted to music, poetry, and sports and propelled to the forefront of history when his scruple-free mother, Agrippina, returns from exile, scarcely has clean hands, but neither is he mad, bad, and dangerous to know. It's Agrippina who sets her son on the path to power, employing Locusta, a poisoner, to help clear the way to the imperial throne. Having disposed of her husband, Agrippina positions herself to marry her uncle, Emperor Claudius. Then, once Nero has reached age 16, old enough to take power, it's Claudius' turn for the poisoned platter. Indeed, it's the women around Nero who seem to introduce much of the danger, passion, and excitement to this version of events. Admittedly, Nero uses Locusta too, to rid himself of a threat, and is eventually driven to arrange the murder of overbearing Agrippina, yet he's muted rather than megalomaniacal and haunted by the matricide. Other notable female figures include Octavia, his first wife, ignored, then divorced; Acte, the freed slave Nero wants to marry but who spurns him; Boudicca, the British queen who leads an uprising that nearly defeats the Roman army; and Poppaea, already married to a friend of Nero's but who will become the emperor's wife in due course. On its whistle-stop tour through the years, George's revisionist novel makes hefty use of its research, yet the emperor himself, shorn of his bad-boy reputation, emerges as oddly pallid, neither charismatic nor catastrophic. By reconfiguring one of history's most notorious villains as "a man of integrity, ingenuity, and generosity," this workmanlike saga redeems Nero while simultaneously rendering him rather less fascinating.
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November 15, 2016
Best-selling historical novelist George moves from British kings and queens (Elizabeth I; The Autobiography of Henry VIII) to ancient Rome in this fictionalized biography of one of its most notorious emperors. Adopted by the emperor Claudius and related to Marc Antony, Augustus, and Caligula, Nero was crowned emperor at the age of 16. Nero is remembered, most infamously, for the excesses and ruthlessness of his reign. In her novel, George details a more balanced view of his life: a love of music and poetry, romantic attachments, grief over the loss of a child, and his sense of duty. However, drama still rules in the ancient world. The psychological warfare of elite Roman families, constant political scheming, and assassination plots move the story line rapidly forward from the first chapter in which Caligula attempts to drown young Nero to the final one in which Nero and his beloved second wife watch Rome burn. Highly acclaimed for the detail and personality she gives to epic subjects, George's heavily researched novel flows dynamically among multiple points of view. VERDICT Historical fiction devotees and anyone who enjoys the entertainment of a grandly dysfunctional family will quickly devour this first volume of a duology and eagerly await its sequel.--Catherine Lantz, Univ. of Illinois at Chicago Lib.
Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
February 1, 2017
Does he fiddle while Rome burns? No, although he loves performing music. What about the extravagances, dissipation, and political murders? Let's just say there are extenuating circumstances. Once again demonstrating mastery of the epic fictional autobiography, George (Elizabeth I, 2011) chronicles the rise of Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, Emperor Caligula's nephew, from sensitive boy to imperial heir to, finally, near-omnipotent ruler as Emperor Nero. It's a coming-of-age story like no other, and George's Nero details, not without many twinges of guilt along the way, the rapid shifts in circumstance that transform his character. He fears becoming like his mother, the ambitious, amoral Agrippina, but must play her game to survive. An athlete and admirer of Greek culture, Nero is a consummate showman, and his entertaining narrative exemplifies this. With conviction and flair, George looks past two millennia of bad press about Nero to reveal an intelligent man of justice and religious tolerance who takes refuge in artistic expression. This is the first of two novels charting his dangerous, outrageous life in first-century Rome; the second will be eagerly awaited.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)