The Last King

I read this book more for facts than fun. I haven't gotten to whatever Roman historians who covered Mithradates, but did remember a biography by Alfred Duggan fondly. Plutarch deals with him tangentially, I believe. There's a lot of research in this book, but no spark, and thus little desire to reread.

Although replete with salient and cogent arguments on trust, loyalty and friendships in addition to omnipresent action, “The Last King” by Michael Curtis Ford falls flat in many places. Every so often Mr. Ford picks up the pace and events seem to conspire to create a stupendous scene but then suddenly events in the novel become stilted and my interest wavered. This does not mean that I disliked the novel, on the contrary I gave it 3 ½ stars. However as a reader of historical fiction and purveyor of action novels I sometimes found the storyline wooden and artificial.

An excellent read! Ford does a spectacular job in taking historical fact and creating an epic tale of Mithridates the Great. It will leave you with a yearning to learn more about this often shadowy historical figure. To qoute the book "The victors shall write history". Although Mithridates lost his war(s) against Rome and was removed from mainstream history by the victors, this book takes Mithridates loss and creates a wonderful tale and a most remarkeable character.

Ford as always, brings these historical events and characters to life in a manner which makes for quite an enjoyable read. The bringing back the story of Mithridates was a nice slice of history of one of the little known great figures of the past.

I read this on the strength of having purchased a different book of the author already that I haven't read. I think I will read it when I unpack it. It was an ok read, I can't say that I was gripped by the saga of the King of Pontus, I'll probably like the Roman stuff better. But despite it being not really an area of interest for me, I felt like it was a good story. It wasn't told real well, in that most of the characters are pretty shallow, but it was informative about Mithridates, whom I had known nothing about.

Mithridate, the ancient king of Pont, was a man whose whole life was marked by two things – his hate against the Rome and his thirst for power. Ford’s book tries to portray this man who defied Romans until his death.

Interesting book. If you are into history novels you’ll like this one.

Siglo I a. C. Tras la muerte de su padre y siendo todavía un niño, Mitrídates hereda el pequeño reino del Ponto, en Asia Menor, bajo la regencia de su madre, una mujer ambiciosa y manipuladora. De formación helénica e inspirado por el recuerdo de Alejandro Magno, en cuanto ocupa el trono Mitrídates se lanza a hacer realidad su sueño: la unificación del mundo griego que, inevitablemente, le llevará a enfrentarse con la potencia emergente de la región, Roma. Mitrídates, un ser complejo, tan brillante como cruel, mantuvo en jaque a la República romana durante más de un cuarto de siglo, un tiempo turbulento, heroico y poco conocido de la historia clásica.