The Immortal tracks the long life of Luca Bastardo, who is born in Florence during the Renaissance with the gift (and the curse) of immortality. Over the course of two centuries, Luca experiences first-hand the major events of the Renaissance and interacts with many historical figures. Imagine the Forest Gump of the Florentine Renaissance, and you’ll have a fairly accurate idea of this book.

Clearly, Slatton has done her research, but, unfortunately, she insists on including all of it in the book. Slatton saddles her characters with improbable dialogue and burdens the narrative with lengthy scholarly debates about religion, art, and other topics of the day. Luca’s unnaturally long lifespan feels like a construct to enable Slatton to cover a lengthy historical time period from the point of view of a single character rather than a credible premise for a novel. As a result, The Immortal reads more like a creative history than a novel, but at least the history is interesting.

This review also appears on my literary blog Literary License. ( )

Immortal is a novel that sweeps through 150 years of Florentine history from Giotto to Leonardo da Vinci through the eyes of Luca Bastardo, whose first memories are of living in the street seemingly as an orphan. What makes Luca different is that he does not perceptively age. His long life did not start out pleasantly. While living on the streets, he made a couple of friends. His best friend ultimately sold him to a brothel owner who specialized in pedaling the flesh of young children. The only way he survived over twenty years of sexual abuse was by traveling to the gorgeous churches around Florence and through his friendship with Gioto. When Luca won his freedom from prostitution created a generations long family long vendetta against him. The discovery of alchemy, his talent for medicine and the search for his true love are what give him purpose as he keeps one step ahead of the those who want to destroy him.

This is not an easy novel to read. The scenes at the brothel and with Luca dealing with the plague were grueling. For me, the hardest parts weren’t the most emotionally difficult, but were those dealing heavily with alchemy and with Leonardo da Vinci. Alchemy most definitely had its place in this novel. Without it, Luca would never have foreseen and chose love over immortality. Luca’s dream of creating gold, however, felt hollow to me. I liked the way that played out, but that didn’t change my opinion that his interest in it was half-hearted. I also found Leonardo a difficult character to enjoy. He was much more than a precociuos child. I found his questions much too pointed and advanced for his age, even if he was a genious. Because of this, his character felt like a tool needed to move Luca along.

I finished this book over two weeks ago, but I’m still not sure how I feel about it. It was a book that felt as long as its 528 pages. The ending was amazing. It was a tremendous payoff. This wouldn’t have been dampened at all had the novel been pared down. At the same time, I was left wanting more information about the time Luca spent exiled from Florence. Despite my own ambivilence, this novel would be interesting to those who enjoy reading about Florence, art, and the Medici family. Luca’s view of the city as it changed so drastically over his lifetime and certainly provides a unique view of the city.

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Immortal is a historical fiction novel that is rich in language and detail. It takes place in Florence during the Italian Renaissance. Throughout the novel we encounter actual historical people like Leonardo da Vinci, the Medicis and so on. In addition we are taken through historical events such as The Inquisition and The Black Death.

This isn't an easy book to read-it is quite dark really. In the beginning we are introduced to the main character, Luca Bastardo, who had been abandoned as a young boy. He survives on the street, scrounging up food, begging and sleeping under bridges. One fateful day he is kidnapped by Silvano and introduced to a life as a child prostitute in a brothel. This was a very hard part of the novel for me to read-just the thought of the horrors Luca suffered there was enough to almost make me turn away from the book. I moved quickly through this part and a few shorter ones like it. Finally Luca escapes the brothel and ends up meeting a wonderful Jewish man who takes him in and teaches him to be a physico-a doctor. He also feels his first taste of what love and a normal sexual relationship can be with Rachel, the physico's daughter. At this time also Luca is introduced to alchemy and healing and seeing into his future.

This novel is full of supernatural elements and of course immortality. Luca's life spans over 180 years. From the beginning we know that Luca will come to a bad end but the book itself is his journey through all of these years. He is looking for the meaning to his life-why was he abandoned, who his parents were or are and why does he possess an ageless beauty. While the world and people around him are aging, Luca is staying the same. He is also looking for his one true love; the one promised him in a vision when he chose this one true love over an endless life. Finally through all the darknesss Luca finally meets Maddelena, his true love and he has several years of happiness. However, as seems to happen in Luca's life, this comes to a bad end too.

I liked Luca's character, I was drawn to him from the beginning and through all of his hardships in life. I enjoyed meeting all the people he met, famous or not. Hearing about the art and the history of Florence was enjoyable and I loved the supernatural elements. The sections on alchemy dragged on and I wasn't too keen on those. I think the book wrapped up in the end in a way that left us satisfied.

Travelling this journey with Luca was an interesting adventure. I did like the book except for the brothel part which I could have done without. I think the book was longer than it needed to be but for the most part a good book. There is talk of a sequel to Immortal and I would be curious to read it.

You can visit the author's website here and thanks to The Literate Housewife Review and her new online reading group for this read.

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This book is perhaps better classified as historical fantasy, rather than historical fiction, with Luca’s near immortality - in addition to simply having an extraordinarily long life-span, he is also impervious to disease and heals amazingly quickly - his alchemical workings, and his ability to heal others. Given that, it was still an amazingly rich and, as far as I could tell, largely historically accurate look at life in Florence between the 13th and 15th centuries. I was completely caught up in Slatton’s story and willing to suspend disbelief for the more fantasy/magic aspects of the plot due to the realism of her Florence.

This was a great read and something I definitely recommend. ( )

I went into Immortal thinking it was going to be pretty straight-forward historical fiction. It is so much more than that (which should have been obvious from the title.) There is a mystical, supernatural element to Traci Slatton's debut novel and it flirts with time travel, too. While both require a certain suspension of belief on the part of the reader, I enjoyed the extra dimension they added to the story.

Luca, the 'immortal' main character was extremely well-developed. He was forgiveably flawed and easy to relate to. Slatton gives the reader other memorable, sympatheic characters. As Luca moves through is supernaturally long life, he gathers friends and enemies, and I loved the friends as much as I despised the enemies.

Immortal provides a vivid glimpse of Florence at a turbulent stage in its history. Several significant events are interwoven into the plot: the Black Death, the Inquisition, the rise of the powerful de Medici family, and the cultural revolution we know today as The Renaissance.

At certain places, I felt a little bogged down by the author's writing style, usually during the discussions of art and alchemy. Both subjects had their place in the novel, but the way they were handled interupted the flow of the plot and the book could just have been tighter and more succint in these areas.

From the beginning, Slatton used foreshadowing to suggest that things would turn out badly for Luca. However, the ending still managed to surprise and evoke emotion as she brought together various elements, including the mysteries of Luca's parentage and his immortal nature, in a masterful and powerful way. ( )