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Roxana
Daughter, courtesan, wife, and mother to the most powerful men of her time, Roxana and her passionate adventures sweep through an age of violent conquest, lush decadence and deadly intrigue. Across ancient Persia and India, into the exotic palaces of Persepolis and Babylon, Roxana's beauty and brilliance bewitch those around her as whims and willful passions incite fatal plots and alter the course of history.
- GenresHistorical Fiction
488 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1977
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 14, 2016
I was not prepared for that ending AT ALL and I doubt any reader will be. Despite the brutal historical context of the book and the moral ambiguities of the protagonist, I still expected the token happily ever after respected in the romance genre and romance reader community. Nope! Though, with my sensitivities out of the way, I can admit it is only fitting that a story full of murder, despair, carnage, jealousy, scandal, tragedy, despair,rinse, repeat would end with more of the same. Also, to be fair, this isn't a bodice ripper in the strict sense. It's a dark historical fiction with minor bodice ripper elements that was marketed as being more aligned with romance than it actually is. That cover may look campy and whimsical but this book has some heavy stuff going on behind it.
There is plenty of sex, orgies, desire and relationships but none are developed to the extent that court intrigue, competition for Alexander's throne and war strategy are. If you get bored by politics and war strategy, social engineering and manipulation, you will not enjoy this book. Luckily I really loved the unique focus and combination of all these elements. I also really appreciated that Roxana was written as a morally gray character and had a strategic, tough intelligence that overrides her more feminine instincts. She was no Mary Sue. She in fact murders and influences the destruction of enough people that she could easily be seen as just as much of a villain as any blood thirsty conqueror. Perhaps that is why her story ends the way it does. Strangely she was not too different from Alexander. Both saw themselves as vehicles of epic destiny and were willing to do anything to live up to the prophesy that was their lives obsession. But really in the end there are no heroes...only power hungry madmen.
Read it if the idea of Game of Thrones set in the time of Alexander's Reign sounds fun.
There is plenty of sex, orgies, desire and relationships but none are developed to the extent that court intrigue, competition for Alexander's throne and war strategy are. If you get bored by politics and war strategy, social engineering and manipulation, you will not enjoy this book. Luckily I really loved the unique focus and combination of all these elements. I also really appreciated that Roxana was written as a morally gray character and had a strategic, tough intelligence that overrides her more feminine instincts. She was no Mary Sue. She in fact murders and influences the destruction of enough people that she could easily be seen as just as much of a villain as any blood thirsty conqueror. Perhaps that is why her story ends the way it does. Strangely she was not too different from Alexander. Both saw themselves as vehicles of epic destiny and were willing to do anything to live up to the prophesy that was their lives obsession. But really in the end there are no heroes...only power hungry madmen.
Read it if the idea of Game of Thrones set in the time of Alexander's Reign sounds fun.
Displaying 1 of 1 review