The Death of Kings

Good points:

This is a fast-paced adventure yarn from the first-century BC, starring Julius Caesar and Marcus Brutus.

The battle scenes are vivid and believable.

Despite the high number of characters, they are all well-portrayed. The young Octavian is particularly likable.

Bad points:

While most reviewers have criticised – or condemned – the author for his lack of historical accuracy, I can forgive this owing to him making it plain in an afterward that his “errors” are intentional.

My issue is his use – or rather, abuse – of English style. Like most historical novelists, Mr Iggulden doesn’t appear to have studied the art of fiction or elements of style. He never uses free-indirect speech, for example. The number of occasions show more that we’re informed that “Julius knew” or “he knew” or “she knew” is annoying.

Worse still, his overuse of adverbs is astonishing. How is it possible that a modern-day writer doesn’t know that “the road to hell is paved with adverbs”? I lost count of the amount of times that someone was “waiting patiently”. Adverbs “tell”. A good author should “show”.

Conclusion:

The bad points are irritating, but the story and characters are strong enough to endure this, making “The Death of Kings” worth reading – unless you’re really frustrated by the historical inaccuracies. show less

The Death of Kings is the second in Conn Iggulden’s Emperor series telling a (highly) fictionalized version of the life of Julius Caesar.

This one begins a few months after The Gates of Rome. Julius is part of a naval party preparing to storm a captured fortress and rescue a governor. Marcus (now Brutus) is a proud centurion on a quest to meet the mother who abandoned him.

As with the first, historical fact takes a back seat to exciting, fast-paced story-telling as Caesar battles pirates, a renegade Greek king and ultimately takes on Spartacus and his slave army to round out the volume. Back biting, gamesmanship and politics take much more precedence in this book as we follow the rise and fall of Sulla as the Dictator of Rome and show more its’ bloody aftermath.

One thing I’ve noticed more in this book than the last is that the secondary characters wind up being more fleshed out and equally as interesting as Julius himself. Alexandria builds a nice life for herself in Rome and brings Octavian into the story as a young child living a touch life on the streets of Rome. Tibruk accomplishes a mighty task and becomes one of the most admirable characters in the story and senators Pompey, Crassus and Cato are all given their moments to shine. Julius isn’t forgotten though. We see him homesick when he’s captured by pirates to be held for ransom. We see his tremendous self assurance throughout the novel as well as some fear and doubt as a result of a problematic head wound.

Mr. Iggulden’s writing is as full-blooded and exciting this time out as it was before. Scenes of the storming of Mytilene, battles with pirates and the raids on Mithradates enormous army leap off the page. It’s not just battles that are gripping though. Caesar’s trial reclaim his fallen uncle’s house (and good name) and struggles in the Senate regarding just what to do about Spartacus are just was exciting as the battles that bookend them.

Also in here he shows very well written and atmospheric scenes of life in Rome, both good and bad. Vivid depictions of creeping through the filthy back alleys of Rome to meet an assassin and bits of opulence in a brothel and Octavian’s troubles with murderous bullies bring the city to life. Even heroic characters are shown to be brutal by today’s standards. Pompey’s revenge chilled me as much as what he was getting revenge for.

I did notice that Mr. Iggulden seems to set Julius slightly apart from the other characters. While Pompey is shown to take pleasure in his violent and bloody revenge, Caesar comes off as more sensitive. I’m not really sure if this was fair to the character, though it is understandable that he is trying to humanize a guy that could easily become a superhero.

I’ve been thinking a lot about whether the (sometimes huge) departures from history really harm this series. Many people seem to slam these books for their changes. But really, do these same sorts of changes make Brian De Palma’s Untouchables, Frank Miller’s 300 or Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus any less works of art?

As with the first book, The Death of Kings is a rousing and well-written adventure story that happens to be about Julius Caesar. It isn’t historically accurate, but at the very least may spark a layman’s interest in ancient history. I plan to continue reading this series and whatever other novels Mr. Iggulden has waiting in the wings. show less

Immensely frustrating. Conn Iggulden is a really talented writer, who can bring the characters and feel of the late Roman republic to life; but he is so cavalier with the historical record that it's hard to give his work unqualified approval. The historical novelist will always need to tweak events to give a satisfying narrative, but Iggulden pushes this latitude so far it can only irritate readers who have even a superficial knowledge of the period. I'm no classical scholar, but the distortion of the lives of Marius and Sulla, the two greatest figures of the pre-Caesar years, removes them so far from what we know of their lives as to significantly devalue the work.

Iggulden's books are an undoubted pleasure. Their willingness to play show more fast and loose with history must make them a guilty one. show less

It is a secret vote and they take it seriously, yet time and again the same men are elected, the same families, with few changes. It seems fair, but the voters would not know an outsider. Only the Senate have fame enough and wealth enough to have their names in the mouths of the lowliest freemen of the city. It is all an illusion, but an elegant one. What is astonishing is that a few of the Senate do try to be just, earnestly improving the city and the welfare of her citizens.

I enjoyed this second of Iggulden's Emperor series even more than the first. Caesar has grown up, and with him the story. The Death of Kings picks up right where The Gates of Rome left off, without even a short break in the action. We catch up with Caesar and the show more naval vessel he crews just as they arrive to clean out a rebelling port city. From then on, the action never stops the whole way through the novel.

What makes this book more enjoyable than the first, I think, is that Caesar is finally old enough to be interacting with the political games going on in Rome. There is a more mature aspect to the writing which fairly reflects the growing maturity of the major players and their entrance into the Roman political scene. We begin to see more of the characters and aspects of Roman history that readers are familiar with, and although Iggulden takes liberty with the sequence of events and who is where, the final product justifies those liberties. Much like the first novel, Death of Kings is non-stop action with little intellectual demand. A great read for a weekend afternoon.

(Like its predecessor, this book has a great deal of graphic violence. Parents beware.) show less

The second volume in this series focuses on betrayal, greed, rebellion and coming of age in a world of violence. The battle scenes with the slave rebellion of Spartacus are well done. You can feel the fatigue and desperation on both sides. However, a little more of that could have been added to the book. It seems that this book is considerably more fictionalized than others. This does not detract from the story. Well written and a good read.

Book 2 in The Empire Series, starring Julius Caesar, and I am as excited with this one as I was the first. I have put aside my harsh punishment for author's who are not historically accurate. Iggulden engages me, and keeps me turning the pages late into the night.

A lot of great battle scenes where Iggulden's writing sweeps you right onto the field. His dialogue is realistic, his characters fully matured. I loved it all!

So glad this author has a resume of series on the board, I look forward to them all.

This was solid. The character development was good, and the story progressed well from the first book. I was left a bit curious about the level of factual accuracy - I wish the author had written another epilogue to talk through that like in the first book. The only negative is that the development of Caesar’s character itself was increasingly not detailed over the course of the book.