The Death of Attila

Typically lean and sleek novel from Holland, this time set in the 5th century, as Atilla contemplates another invasion of Italy with his Huns and Germans. Tacs, a Hun scout left to make his own way back with the body of his dead friend after the last attempt to reach Rome, forms an unlikely friendship with the son of a German king. Their two tribes could not be more different, and with the fundamental and recurring problem of European history, the strong leader who puts together a prototype viable state only for the whole thing to fall apart on his death about to repeat, the whole thing ends in a welter of violence and tested loyalties.

Holland's smooth, polished, diamond-hard prose sucks the melodrama and extraneous details out of show more historical fiction like venom from a snake's fang, leaving a strong, muscular, stripped-down tale of young men finding their places in a turbulent world. show less

This is a very literary novel, and there's more interior rumination than action. I'm not impressed with mood conveyed, and the local colour is nearly non-existent. Avoid unless you do like the philosophical content of Cecilia Holland.

Story of an adolescent Gothic boy who befriends a Hun towards he end of ttila's reign; they go on a mission in the Roman empire together, but after Attila dies they end p fighting on opposite sides in the Battle of the NEdao where the Hunnish empire is destroyed as the Hun who was the youth's friend is killed. Rather downbeat; in some ways a paler version of Until the Sun Falls.

Very interesting, really liked the friendship between the two characters. No happy endings here however.

Situado en el siglo V, La muerte de Atila narra un conflicto entre hunos, godos y romanos. El núcleo del libro es el conmovedor y peligroso intento de dos hombres por cimentar una amistad a pesar de las barreras de la raza y costumbres. Dietric, el joven hijo de un jefe germano, bisoño, sin experiencia en el comportamiento de los hombres, cree que Cristo sacó al mundo de una terrible oscuridad, y que los brutales hunos de rostro aplanado, los invasores llegados del Este, son poco más que animales. Tacs, por su parte, es un típico soldado huno, que se siente más seguro a caballo que un soldado germano a pie, y sabe que, salvo Atila y sus soldados, todos son despreciables y débiles. A pesar de ello, nace una unión entre ambos... show more un vínculo basado en la curiosidad, el afecto, incluso la confianza, una unión extrañamente real y poderosa... Hasta que muere Atila y el mundo se rompe en pedazos: la precaria alianza se destruye y se convierte en una guerra brutal show less