When We Were Gods

When We Were Gods tells the story of the queen of the Nile and her life. Chosen to rule by her father, Cleopatra watches and learns. When she ascends to the throne, she heeds her father's advice about the nest of vipers she rules. She navigates the pitfalls of family and Rome to secure her rule. Cleopatra dreams of creating an even bigger empire and forms a political and romantic alliance with Julius Caesar. Convinced he is her Orisis, she urges him to declare himself king of Rome and marry her. Her dreams are killed at the hands of Caesar's assassins. A new god soon comes calling on the Egyptian Isis. Marc Antony as the new Dionysus makes Cleopatra his divine consort. But the new Dionysus is no Julius Caesar. Cleopatra casts her die show more with the unpredictable and charming Antony. But their destiny lies with fate herself.
This wonderful novel begins with Cleopatra's rule and follows her story to the end. Falconer shows the queen for the cunning intelligent woman she was. But her intelligence was no match for her heart and passion. Even as a powerful woman, she was still at the mercy of the whims of unfaithful Roman men. Falconer's Caesar showed more humanity while Antony was simply a mess. The end of the queen of the Nile was simply heartbreaking.
If you like Margaret George's Memoirs of Cleopatra, you will love this book. After all, one can never get tired of Cleopatra. show less

Author, Colin Falconer did a super job in describing the times, and giving us a glimpse of Ancient Egypt and Rome. Ruthless, that would be the word I would describe what was going on in Cleopatra's time. When We Were Gods takes us into Cleopatra's reign of Egypt, how ambitious she was, and cunning. What a grand women in history. She did things all the way, or not at all. The author takes us through all the major history plots in her life from her time with Julius Casaer, to her ending. I loved getting to know Cleopatra as a mother. I really felt that her ambition came from wanting to give her kids the world in their hands. So much of what she did was for them.

Some parts in the book were racy, and sexual but we are reading about show more Cleopatra, and she sure knew how to use what she had to get men to do her bidding. In no way did the scenes leave a bad taste in my mouth. When We Were Gods is a well-researched book that will enthrall you, and leave you wanting more of Ancient Egypt. show less

Okay, so you've got Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, and Marc Antony. Rich material, right? Should be an awesome story, right? Wrong. Way wrong. At least in this book, it's wrong.

None of the characters ever felt remotely real. It felt like the author had a Barbie doll in one hand and a Ken doll in the other hand, and he just moved them around and told a somewhat disjointed story.

Also, there were 127 chapters in a book that is 462 pages long. And within those short little chapters, there was generally a break every three or four paragraphs. Now, I hate long chapters, but this went way too far in the other direction. It was like the author had no idea how to smoothly transition from one scene to the next, so he just threw in a page break show more instead.

I don't really recommend this book to anyone. I'm sure there are much better books about Cleopatra out there. show less

An interesting spin on the Cleopatra story that goes a long way to humanizing the myth. The story occasionally wanders or gets lost in detail, but much of the novel is riveting.

As a previous reviewer notes, Colin Falconer's When We Were Gods does much to humanize the mythical figures of Julius Ceasar, Marc Antony and most of all, Cleopatra. All characters have their vices and passions, and like the real people they were, these flaws sometimes proved fatal. This is admittedly the first historical novel I've read about Cleopatra and her times, and though I fact checked with Egyptian friend of mine and found When We Were Gods to be as factual as you can get, I will certainly seek out more information about this facinating queen.

A very long, involved story of Cleopatra and Marc Anthony. It is not a book that you can speed read. A lot of detail on historical happenings. I did enjoy it though.

This book is mysterious... The way it is written is legendary. It invites you to Ancient Egypt with a woman as delicious as a red wine with a touch of passion..