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Olympiad
'Wry and droll, fascinating and funny, by bringing us Alexander's nether parts this novel gives momentous matters unforgettable life' - Ross Leckie
'Witty, ironic ... and achieves a deeply felt authenticity' - New York Times
Two thousand, seven hundred and seventy-six years ago a group of men ran between two piles of stones, and invented sport. If, that is, its history can be believed.
The first ever Olympic Games in 776BC were apparently so memorable that all Western chronology is based on them. All we know about them is the name of the man who won the race. Over two and a half millennia later, it's about time somebody told the story.
OLYMPIAD is an enthralling and beguiling historical novel full of adventure and misadventure. It will confirm Tom Holt's place as an innovative, challenging and wonderfully entertaining writer of historical fiction. Essential reading for all fans of Tom Holt and historical fiction.
A compelling historical novel from the acclaimed author of THE WALLED ORCHARD.
Books by Tom
Walled Orchard Series
Goatsong
The Walled Orchard
J.W. Wells & Co. Series
The Portable Door
In Your Dreams
Earth, Air, Fire and Custard
You Don't Have to Be Evil to Work Here, But It Helps
The Better Mousetrap
May Contain Traces of Magic
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Sausages
YouSpace Series
Doughnut
When It's A Jar
The Outsorcerer's Apprentice
The Good, the Bad and the Smug
Novels
Expecting Someone Taller
Who's Afraid of Beowulf
Flying Dutch
Ye Gods!
Overtime
Here Comes the Sun
Grailblazers
Faust Among Equals
Odds and Gods
Djinn Rummy
My Hero
Paint your Dragon
Open Sesame
Wish you Were Here
Alexander at World's End
Only Human
Snow White and the Seven Samurai
Olympiad
Valhalla
Nothing But Blue Skies
Falling Sideways
Little People
Song for Nero
Meadowland
Barking
Blonde Bombshell
The Management Style of the Supreme Beings
An Orc on the Wild Side
'Witty, ironic ... and achieves a deeply felt authenticity' - New York Times
Two thousand, seven hundred and seventy-six years ago a group of men ran between two piles of stones, and invented sport. If, that is, its history can be believed.
The first ever Olympic Games in 776BC were apparently so memorable that all Western chronology is based on them. All we know about them is the name of the man who won the race. Over two and a half millennia later, it's about time somebody told the story.
OLYMPIAD is an enthralling and beguiling historical novel full of adventure and misadventure. It will confirm Tom Holt's place as an innovative, challenging and wonderfully entertaining writer of historical fiction. Essential reading for all fans of Tom Holt and historical fiction.
A compelling historical novel from the acclaimed author of THE WALLED ORCHARD.
Books by Tom
Walled Orchard Series
Goatsong
The Walled Orchard
J.W. Wells & Co. Series
The Portable Door
In Your Dreams
Earth, Air, Fire and Custard
You Don't Have to Be Evil to Work Here, But It Helps
The Better Mousetrap
May Contain Traces of Magic
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Sausages
YouSpace Series
Doughnut
When It's A Jar
The Outsorcerer's Apprentice
The Good, the Bad and the Smug
Novels
Expecting Someone Taller
Who's Afraid of Beowulf
Flying Dutch
Ye Gods!
Overtime
Here Comes the Sun
Grailblazers
Faust Among Equals
Odds and Gods
Djinn Rummy
My Hero
Paint your Dragon
Open Sesame
Wish you Were Here
Alexander at World's End
Only Human
Snow White and the Seven Samurai
Olympiad
Valhalla
Nothing But Blue Skies
Falling Sideways
Little People
Song for Nero
Meadowland
Barking
Blonde Bombshell
The Management Style of the Supreme Beings
An Orc on the Wild Side
476 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2000
13 people are currently reading
272 people want to read
About the author
Tom Holt
99 books1,178 followersTom Holt (Thomas Charles Louis Holt) is a British novelist.
He was born in London, the son of novelist Hazel Holt, and was educated at Westminster School, Wadham College, Oxford, and The College of Law, London.
Holt's works include mythopoeic novels which parody or take as their theme various aspects of mythology, history or literature and develop them in new and often humorous ways. He has also produced a number of "straight" historical novels writing as Thomas Holt and fantasy novels writing as K.J. Parker.
He was born in London, the son of novelist Hazel Holt, and was educated at Westminster School, Wadham College, Oxford, and The College of Law, London.
Holt's works include mythopoeic novels which parody or take as their theme various aspects of mythology, history or literature and develop them in new and often humorous ways. He has also produced a number of "straight" historical novels writing as Thomas Holt and fantasy novels writing as K.J. Parker.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
June 15, 2023
My GoTo author for interesting and relatively undemanding storytelling doesn’t disappoint, even with this fairly obscure historical fiction from his back catalogue. Just what I needed.
A historical fiction loosely linked to the start of the Olympic Games in Ancient Greece. It’s set about 200 years before the rise of Classical Greek civilisation (you’ve heard of that era - all those plays, philosophers, geometry and Pythagoras, etc.!) when Greeks were still an unremarkable part of the Eastern Mediterranean region, farmers with many small scale city states, but a recognised common ancestry and language that linked them, and with shared legends they could tell relating to the Siege of Troy. As classical Greeks record little more about the start of the Olympics than the fact that a character named Coroebus won a 192m footrace in 776BC near a small city named Elis the author has complete freedom to make up this story on how the games started. In fact, the event itself occupies very little of the novel - it’s really about how two brothers recall their exploration of this backwater version of Ancient Greece before it developed into the historically lauded civilisation sometime later.
The author presents the tale in a very chatty manner. Two relatively wealthy Greek landowners, and brothers, are hosting a Phoenician merchant on his travels through their small city of Elis. They see themselves as part of the ‘Better Sort’ of society, a cut above the labourers and smallholders who can’t afford servants. They tell him the story, in conversational style, of how they got involved in city politics leading to the idea of a sports events, a Games, at which a nobleman could shine to gain popularity. To set up the games, they need to tour as many other city states as possible to gather other ‘games players’ to make the event memorable. They’ll also be special in that they’ll be the first ‘games-without-a-death’, as it seems the death of a notable personage was usually required to allow such occasions to happen. They are frequently made welcome in other cities, despite being strangers, by others of their ‘better sort’ social class thanks to that shared superiority complex!
The brother’s memories of their travels and adventures around Greece sometimes contradict each other. A similar unreliable storytelling method is used by the author when two elderly Vikings tell their ill-remembered story about youthful adventures in North America in the historical fiction, Meadowland: A Novel of the Viking Discovery of America.
As in his other historical fiction I’m sure the author has researched well what little information exists on lifestyle and people’s outlooks. For example, it seems the Greeks were a little uncomfortable with identifying with straight out trading - they preferred to see it as an exchange of gifts between strangers (“I have 3 sacks of grain I’d like to give you as a gift. I’ve been looking around for, umm, 5 ploughshares. Can you help?”). The heart, not brain, was where thought took place and your soul resided. Small scale conflicts, a routine event between these small city states it seems, feature in the story, maybe growing from raiding parties.
The story is meandering, with the author taking opportunities to explore many facets of Greek life of this era in this chatty style. The two brothers are not particularly sympathetic. They don’t really like each other. They’re far from heroic but as members of the ‘better sort’ are expected to take part in wars, like it or not. They have a conservative attitude to women, no doubt representative of the era. Their sister features heavily in the story, a strong willed teenager whose attitudes (such as not wanting to get married to someone they think suitable) they disapprove of. They mock the Phoenician for his ‘scratches on wax tablets’, his writing and record keeping, as they’re illiterate and what’s so wrong with good memory and verbal passing on of information?!
The author originally wrote light comedic fantasy stories under this, his real name, Tom Holt. Then several historical fiction/fantasies (his The Walled Orchard about classical Athens is a masterpiece). Nowadays he writes under the pen name KJ Parker, with somewhat more serious fantasy plots. In all guises one of my favourite authors and here, yet again, another entertaining, interesting, sometimes amusing, read. More of a mix of his older and newer writing styles than I’ve seen before. 5*.
A historical fiction loosely linked to the start of the Olympic Games in Ancient Greece. It’s set about 200 years before the rise of Classical Greek civilisation (you’ve heard of that era - all those plays, philosophers, geometry and Pythagoras, etc.!) when Greeks were still an unremarkable part of the Eastern Mediterranean region, farmers with many small scale city states, but a recognised common ancestry and language that linked them, and with shared legends they could tell relating to the Siege of Troy. As classical Greeks record little more about the start of the Olympics than the fact that a character named Coroebus won a 192m footrace in 776BC near a small city named Elis the author has complete freedom to make up this story on how the games started. In fact, the event itself occupies very little of the novel - it’s really about how two brothers recall their exploration of this backwater version of Ancient Greece before it developed into the historically lauded civilisation sometime later.
The author presents the tale in a very chatty manner. Two relatively wealthy Greek landowners, and brothers, are hosting a Phoenician merchant on his travels through their small city of Elis. They see themselves as part of the ‘Better Sort’ of society, a cut above the labourers and smallholders who can’t afford servants. They tell him the story, in conversational style, of how they got involved in city politics leading to the idea of a sports events, a Games, at which a nobleman could shine to gain popularity. To set up the games, they need to tour as many other city states as possible to gather other ‘games players’ to make the event memorable. They’ll also be special in that they’ll be the first ‘games-without-a-death’, as it seems the death of a notable personage was usually required to allow such occasions to happen. They are frequently made welcome in other cities, despite being strangers, by others of their ‘better sort’ social class thanks to that shared superiority complex!
The brother’s memories of their travels and adventures around Greece sometimes contradict each other. A similar unreliable storytelling method is used by the author when two elderly Vikings tell their ill-remembered story about youthful adventures in North America in the historical fiction, Meadowland: A Novel of the Viking Discovery of America.
As in his other historical fiction I’m sure the author has researched well what little information exists on lifestyle and people’s outlooks. For example, it seems the Greeks were a little uncomfortable with identifying with straight out trading - they preferred to see it as an exchange of gifts between strangers (“I have 3 sacks of grain I’d like to give you as a gift. I’ve been looking around for, umm, 5 ploughshares. Can you help?”). The heart, not brain, was where thought took place and your soul resided. Small scale conflicts, a routine event between these small city states it seems, feature in the story, maybe growing from raiding parties.
The story is meandering, with the author taking opportunities to explore many facets of Greek life of this era in this chatty style. The two brothers are not particularly sympathetic. They don’t really like each other. They’re far from heroic but as members of the ‘better sort’ are expected to take part in wars, like it or not. They have a conservative attitude to women, no doubt representative of the era. Their sister features heavily in the story, a strong willed teenager whose attitudes (such as not wanting to get married to someone they think suitable) they disapprove of. They mock the Phoenician for his ‘scratches on wax tablets’, his writing and record keeping, as they’re illiterate and what’s so wrong with good memory and verbal passing on of information?!
The author originally wrote light comedic fantasy stories under this, his real name, Tom Holt. Then several historical fiction/fantasies (his The Walled Orchard about classical Athens is a masterpiece). Nowadays he writes under the pen name KJ Parker, with somewhat more serious fantasy plots. In all guises one of my favourite authors and here, yet again, another entertaining, interesting, sometimes amusing, read. More of a mix of his older and newer writing styles than I’ve seen before. 5*.
February 14, 2014
Tom Holt's "Olympiad" was a very pleasant surprise -- instead of the usual staid ancient Greeks moving through their paces with reverent attitudes and deep connections to concerns that we no longer share, the protagonists here are snarky brothers who narrate the attempts by the city of Elis to start the very first Olympics.
Though my area of (some) expertise is several hundred years later, from all I know about Greece at this time, Holt is right on the money -- from the resistance to using writing, to the non-comprehension of the idea of "trade," to the sanctity of the guest and the ubiquity of the blood feud. But all of this is delivered in a series of picaresque adventures as the two brothers travel through the Peloponnese (the land area west of Athens where Sparta is located) trying to convince aspiring athletes that funeral games are not the only time that runners, jumpers, boxers, wrestlers and strong men should show off their skills.
The conclusion trails off a bit, but the ride is fun, the writing sharp and the window on the ancient world clear and clever. Of course we can never know if Holt is right about how people thought and acted, or other more conservative writers are, but I like this view quite a bit -- and I liked the book quite a bit too.
Though my area of (some) expertise is several hundred years later, from all I know about Greece at this time, Holt is right on the money -- from the resistance to using writing, to the non-comprehension of the idea of "trade," to the sanctity of the guest and the ubiquity of the blood feud. But all of this is delivered in a series of picaresque adventures as the two brothers travel through the Peloponnese (the land area west of Athens where Sparta is located) trying to convince aspiring athletes that funeral games are not the only time that runners, jumpers, boxers, wrestlers and strong men should show off their skills.
The conclusion trails off a bit, but the ride is fun, the writing sharp and the window on the ancient world clear and clever. Of course we can never know if Holt is right about how people thought and acted, or other more conservative writers are, but I like this view quite a bit -- and I liked the book quite a bit too.
July 16, 2015
An unusual historical fiction that pairs a thorough and insightful understanding of the ancient Greek world with a brazenly modern and arch tone. Normally, I dislike a modern tone and dialogue in historical fiction. It comes across as lazy and breaks my sense of immersion. However, in this case it's not a problem because Holt's evident expertise in the world sustains his credibility, while the playful and conversational tone makes for pleasant reading.
The story is something of a bumbling picaresque, with the two brothers narrating their wanderings and misadventures with the wry detachment of decades of hindsight. Yet tragedy peeks through the farcical tone often enough to give the novel some real heft. Even for clever men of the 'better sort', the Greece of the 8th century B.C. is a harsh and arbitrary world. One day you're enjoying the open-handed hospital of a local lord, the next you're walking the dusty road hungry and penniless. There's a scene where the travellers approach a renowned city with great anticipation, only to find it was burned to ground some time ago, and now lies abandoned. Time marches apace.
There are some puzzling lapses. Early in the novel, one of the brothers is described as a callow young man participating in battle for the first time, carrying a package of food his mother prepared for him. In the next chapter, he is shown to be a man in his prime with wife and farm, pulling an old chariot out of the barn. And this is ostensibly only days or maybe weeks after the battle. Several lapses of this sort give the impression of hasty writing and superficial editing.
Still, Holt has a breezy voice and offers up some laughs without trivializing his subject. Olympiad left a strong enough impression that I'll be seeking out more of his works.
The story is something of a bumbling picaresque, with the two brothers narrating their wanderings and misadventures with the wry detachment of decades of hindsight. Yet tragedy peeks through the farcical tone often enough to give the novel some real heft. Even for clever men of the 'better sort', the Greece of the 8th century B.C. is a harsh and arbitrary world. One day you're enjoying the open-handed hospital of a local lord, the next you're walking the dusty road hungry and penniless. There's a scene where the travellers approach a renowned city with great anticipation, only to find it was burned to ground some time ago, and now lies abandoned. Time marches apace.
There are some puzzling lapses. Early in the novel, one of the brothers is described as a callow young man participating in battle for the first time, carrying a package of food his mother prepared for him. In the next chapter, he is shown to be a man in his prime with wife and farm, pulling an old chariot out of the barn. And this is ostensibly only days or maybe weeks after the battle. Several lapses of this sort give the impression of hasty writing and superficial editing.
Still, Holt has a breezy voice and offers up some laughs without trivializing his subject. Olympiad left a strong enough impression that I'll be seeking out more of his works.
July 27, 2018
I think what this author is telling us is that the Olympics originated boringly. Or, at least, before the age of mass entertainment everything percolated through at a very slow pace.
As I understand it, before this and from this, the first sporting contests (e.g. wrestling) were only the accompaniment of funerary practices. The Greeks probably started it, then the Romans took sports one stage further by forcing gladiators to fight to their death at funerals, thus triggering more funerals.
The first Greek Olympic games, we hear, was essentially a religious gathering (like the Athenian Mysteries, but on an island) over the course of a few days which happened to have a single running race (in full armour and carrying a shield) at the very end of it. It was about honouring the gods and sport happened to be added on at the end. The fact that sport became all it was about, later, was a modern transformation.
Just as the original Olympics was not about sport, this book is not about the Olympics taking place; it’s really a narrative around the people involved in its creation, touring all the islands and provinces to gather the diverse competitors. I like this aspect, although some readers will be frustrated by the wistful travelogue when they may have assumed they would be hearing about javelins, records and stuff.
Only in the classical ages could you go looking for an heroic sportsman, only to discover that he died 200 years previously and lots of people have since appeared under his name at funeral sports, thus increasing his legend. The word of mouth storytelling tradition helped to boost his reputation and provided more incentive to continue the pretence into the next generation. Is this how Hercules/Herakles became the legend he is, set amongst the stars? It’s like when the longest-lived goldfish in the world (a school mascot) was explained as a series of goldfish that had died when taken home by pupils in the holidays and which had been replaced many times over. How many encores do you get?
It’s a good book, charming occasionally and worth reading. It is very drifty and conversational though, to the point where the plot goes missing for large sections. Still, it makes you feel good and passes on a bit of real history on the region, culture and low-key origin of the games.
As I understand it, before this and from this, the first sporting contests (e.g. wrestling) were only the accompaniment of funerary practices. The Greeks probably started it, then the Romans took sports one stage further by forcing gladiators to fight to their death at funerals, thus triggering more funerals.
The first Greek Olympic games, we hear, was essentially a religious gathering (like the Athenian Mysteries, but on an island) over the course of a few days which happened to have a single running race (in full armour and carrying a shield) at the very end of it. It was about honouring the gods and sport happened to be added on at the end. The fact that sport became all it was about, later, was a modern transformation.
Just as the original Olympics was not about sport, this book is not about the Olympics taking place; it’s really a narrative around the people involved in its creation, touring all the islands and provinces to gather the diverse competitors. I like this aspect, although some readers will be frustrated by the wistful travelogue when they may have assumed they would be hearing about javelins, records and stuff.
Only in the classical ages could you go looking for an heroic sportsman, only to discover that he died 200 years previously and lots of people have since appeared under his name at funeral sports, thus increasing his legend. The word of mouth storytelling tradition helped to boost his reputation and provided more incentive to continue the pretence into the next generation. Is this how Hercules/Herakles became the legend he is, set amongst the stars? It’s like when the longest-lived goldfish in the world (a school mascot) was explained as a series of goldfish that had died when taken home by pupils in the holidays and which had been replaced many times over. How many encores do you get?
It’s a good book, charming occasionally and worth reading. It is very drifty and conversational though, to the point where the plot goes missing for large sections. Still, it makes you feel good and passes on a bit of real history on the region, culture and low-key origin of the games.
June 12, 2017
42 WORD REVIEW:
Nobody reading Tom Holt’s historical novels could doubt that he is K J Parker. A scholar of Ancient Greek history, Holt peppered his Olympic Games origin story with gritty realism and a profoundly resigned appreciation of the nemesis inherent in human nature.
Nobody reading Tom Holt’s historical novels could doubt that he is K J Parker. A scholar of Ancient Greek history, Holt peppered his Olympic Games origin story with gritty realism and a profoundly resigned appreciation of the nemesis inherent in human nature.
June 14, 2017
I just couldn't get into it, clever as it was. I skimmed much through the middle.
February 10, 2019
I don't think this book is quite as good as the other historical fiction novels by Tom Holt, but it's worth reading if you liked a few of the others.
January 1, 2026
Brilliant!
June 22, 2015
Olympiad is a book which serves two functions - as well as being an extremely entertaining and amusing read, it also sums up the problems that any historian of Ancient Greece faces when trying to piece together a narrative of true historical events. If Cleander and Cratus can't even agree on what happened to them twenty-odd years ago, and they didn't write anything down, how can we trust the stories that were orally passed down over generations? And then again, if the Phoenician visitor is the one who knows how to write, and we're relying on him to tell us about Ancient Greece, will the version of events that he tells us be coloured by his views of the Greeks as being uncivilised types who guzzle horrible wine and eat nothing but meat?
The most moving episode to my mind is near the end, when the brothers visit what they think is the home of a legendary wrestler, only to find that he died decades earlier and has only lived on in the form of songs and stories. But at least he is still remembered - once the stories stop being told, he will lose his favoured place in the Elysian Fields and be just another voice howling amongst the multitude in the underworld. It's an uncomfortable thought even for somebody entirely without superstition.
All this makes Olympiad seem rather serious and worthy, but it really isn't - it just manages to be a lot more profound and thought-provoking than its jokey tone lets on.
The most moving episode to my mind is near the end, when the brothers visit what they think is the home of a legendary wrestler, only to find that he died decades earlier and has only lived on in the form of songs and stories. But at least he is still remembered - once the stories stop being told, he will lose his favoured place in the Elysian Fields and be just another voice howling amongst the multitude in the underworld. It's an uncomfortable thought even for somebody entirely without superstition.
All this makes Olympiad seem rather serious and worthy, but it really isn't - it just manages to be a lot more profound and thought-provoking than its jokey tone lets on.
October 30, 2013
Combining a solid knowledge of ancient history with dry, tongue-in-cheek humour, Tom Holt's "Olympiad" is perfect light reading. It follows the (mis)adventures of two brothers in the 8th Century BC, Cleander and Cratus, who set out with the blessing of their king Leon to promote a new concept: games-where-nobody's-died. Trekking across the Peloponnese from Sparta to Mycenae, Megara, Argos and Corinth, this conjures up a real sense of the lives and customs of the people who might have been involved in the first Olympic Games. As Holt explains in the prologue, the Games are important not only for their significance as a sporting event but also because the Greeks came to define their very history in terms of 'Olympiads'. The previous reviewer noted how Holt uses this theme of memory and history to very good effect as a framing device for the larger story. Highly recommended as the kind of easy, chatty book that's perfect for summer or holiday reading.
To see a longer review, please visit my blog here: http://theidlewoman.blogspot.co.uk/20...
To see a longer review, please visit my blog here: http://theidlewoman.blogspot.co.uk/20...
October 13, 2013
Olympiad is definitely the first historical novel of its kind I've read.
It's humorous, witty, and ironical, exploring the philosophical themes of history: what it really is (and the reasons behind why its recorded and for whose benefit), just how faithfully it's preserved, and how much we can ever know by studying it.
It's also an adventure novel of modest scale. No big occurrences or notable historical events occur during the plot, which goes well with its lets-not-take-ourselves-seriously approach, and this may bore some readers familiar with other types of historical fiction.
Ultimately its driven by the characters, a ragtag group of everyday louts and sometimes vagabonds. It's fiction, but set way back, and Holt pulls it off admirably.
It's humorous, witty, and ironical, exploring the philosophical themes of history: what it really is (and the reasons behind why its recorded and for whose benefit), just how faithfully it's preserved, and how much we can ever know by studying it.
It's also an adventure novel of modest scale. No big occurrences or notable historical events occur during the plot, which goes well with its lets-not-take-ourselves-seriously approach, and this may bore some readers familiar with other types of historical fiction.
Ultimately its driven by the characters, a ragtag group of everyday louts and sometimes vagabonds. It's fiction, but set way back, and Holt pulls it off admirably.
June 3, 2010
More dark irony adventures from the author - this time in Greece around 776 BC as implied by the title, but with lots of foreshadowing about the alphabet, the Greek renaissance, even Rome...
Same duo style of narration as in meadowland, from two brothers this time telling the story to a Phoenician merchant now as the outsider whose comments contrast with the brothers' narration.
Picaresque (mis) adventures around the Peloponnese and not only
Same duo style of narration as in meadowland, from two brothers this time telling the story to a Phoenician merchant now as the outsider whose comments contrast with the brothers' narration.
Picaresque (mis) adventures around the Peloponnese and not only
June 4, 2016
History? Why not? Immortality? Probably not. Humanity? Everywhere, through and through. A great story? You bet! Tom Holt wrote a gem of introspection in the form of traditional story telling about an epic Greek journey that no one knew about, but that may be the actual origin of the Olympic Games. I need to read this one again.
June 21, 2012
After a slow start, this book has really got going. As long as you can keep up with a collection of Greek names and places! Not quite like other Tom Holt novels that I have read (less magic!) but a well written comedy of errors that I would recommend.
May 20, 2014
Annoyingly nearly good, but not quite.
I find Tom Holt very frustrating, the ideas are potentially funny, the humour is "wry", there is some depth in there - but somehow it does just miss the mark. I will preserve - but Jasper fforde is funnier
I find Tom Holt very frustrating, the ideas are potentially funny, the humour is "wry", there is some depth in there - but somehow it does just miss the mark. I will preserve - but Jasper fforde is funnier
March 6, 2014
I remember loving this - it was the first book I read when I moved to Sweden so it has a special place in my heart.
August 26, 2011
Eh, just ok.
December 13, 2012
Very good. A lot of humor and dark irony as only an English writer can write
September 13, 2013
Could not finish got really bored!
September 19, 2015
Again I suffer from the fact this is a five star rating. I'd like to give this a 7/10. A good book but not quite my cup of tea.
February 6, 2015
While it made me smile at times I felt left behind due to my lack of understanding of Ancient History. A bit eclectic for me.
August 10, 2009
Got nowhere with this....
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews