Fifth book of McCullough’s Masters of Rome series which covers the end of the republic from Marius to Antony, 110 BC to the Battle of Actium in 31 and Octavian’s assumption of the title Augustus in 27.
First class research, first class recreation of an alien culture.
Bleaker than the fourth volume which told of Caesar’s rise to power. The conquest of Gaul more realistically cruel than Caesar’s own breezy PR despatches in the Commentarii de Bello Gallico. The task abroad complete and opposed by political enemies at home, Caesar chooses the path Marius and Sulla took before him, and marches on Rome.
First book of McCullough’s Masters of Rome series which covers the end of the republic from Marius to Antony, 110 BC to the Battle of Actium in 31 and Octavian’s assumption of the title Augustus in 27.
First class research, first class recreation of an alien culture.
I think she must have taken some of her insights into her upper-class political characters from Victoriana. They come across as very real people. The politics and battles are stirring, there is a little low humor and some genuinely funny scenes. The writing is vivid.
A fun series of essays that teaches a bit of astronomy and physics by hypothesizing different scenarios for the origin of the earth-moon system.
The first half is a very nice introduction to current semiconductor technology: one of the clearest popular accounts I’ve read of how semiconductors work and how semiconductor devices are manufactured. (For example: place a ball on a board and tip the board at an angle. Of course the ball rolls down the incline under the influence of the gravitational potential. That is what happens to an electron placed in an electric field. Increase the voltage: tip the board more.)
The second half I sort of skimmed through, because the book is now 10 years out of date, and my curiosity was sufficiently piqued to want to read a more current account. From my cursory reading, though, the second half is just as clear as the first.
I’m on an English Catholic Fabulist streak. I recently recommended Neil Gaiman’s Sandman to a friend, which reminded me that Gaiman much admires Chesterton, so, interrupting Lewis’ Space Trilogy, I read The Napoleon of Notting Hill (e-texts of Chesterton’s works at dmu.ac.uk.) I might have said English Catholic Moralists but that Chesterton and Lewis are wonderfully entertaining writers (in very different ways) and terrific storytellers, which mere Moralists usually are not.
Very funny send up of academic types and the contrast between british and american styles.
Bleah. Maybe real fans would like it. I liked the Sirens of Titan and Cat’s Cradle, that’s it.