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Deborah (162 KP) rated Master and God in Books

Dec 21, 2018

Lindsey Davis' latest offering isn't a new Falco, but it isn't all bad news, because I thought it was a really good read! The Master & God of the title is, of course, the emperor Domitian, son of Vespasian and brother of Titus, so readers of the Falco novels will already be in familiar territory.... Domitian isn't the main narrative character in the novel though, so in some ways it's not really 'about' him. The story centres around a soldier and a hairdresser and imperial freedwoman, and it is their story and the story of the times they live through.

The book I read just before this was Kate Quinn's Daughters of Rome, which covers the Year of the Four Emperors, concluding with the accession of Vespasian, so in many ways this linked in nicely from an historical point of view. What I noticed almost straight away though, was how much better Davis' writing is; Rome and the characters really came alive for me in a way they never quite managed in Quinn's work.

Davis' sense of humour is still very much apparent, thought it doesn't come across quite so keenly as in the Falco novels; I think this may be because Falco is in the first person while Master & God is told in the third person, utilising more than one character point of view - including Musca the Fly, that I see several people have commented on!

Kudos

Day of the Caesars: Eagles of the Empire 16

Simon Scarrow

(0 Ratings) Rate It

Book

If you don't know Simon Scarrow, you don't know Rome AD 54. Claudius is dead. Rome is in turmoil....

Pandora (New Tales of the Vampires, #1)

Anne Rice

8.0 (4 Ratings) Rate It

Book

Anne Rice, creator of the Vampire Lestat, the Mayfair witches and the amazing worlds they inhabit,...

Details

Leoncavallo: Mattinata / Wien, Wien, Nur Du Allein / Amapola / O Sole Mio (with Jos�arreras / Pl�do Domingo / Luciano Pavarotti / Orchestra Del Teatro Dell'Opera Di Roma / Orchestra Del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino / Zubin Mehta) by The Three Tenors

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David McK (3540 KP) rated Angels & Demons (2009) in Movies

Mar 20, 2019

Angels & Demons (2009)

2009 | Drama, Mystery

6.8

(5 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Ron Howard's take on the Dan Brown book of the same name, with that book actually being the first (albeit less famous) of his Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon mystery novels (The Da Vinci code being the more famous).

Like the book, this takes place almost entirely in Rome, with Langdon (Tom Hanks) in a race against time and through the city to unravel the mysteries of the Illumunati during the period immediately after the death of the Pope but before the choosing/ordination of the next.

Also starring Ewan McGregor playing an Irish priest, I have to say that this - unfortunately - didn't really had my attention all that much (although I did have fun playing 'been there! seen that!)