The Thunderbolt

Carthage-Rome #1

by James Duprie

Hannibal Barca has grown up in the pearl of the Mediterranean, Carthage. The sole power of the seas, and feared upon the land with their mighty war elephants and Numidian mercenaries. He has ever known the main threat to their power, the upstart empire of Rome. Now a chain of events will set him upon a path that will march him on into history. Will the desolation of Rome consume the fire that burns within him, and at what cost?

224 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 21, 2015

Reviews

[Greg at 2 Book Lovers Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love a good historical war story, especially those based in Roman times. There were two things that especially intrigued me about The Thunderbolt, first of all, because it is set during The Republic and not during The Empire. Secondly, because it is from the point of view of the enemy, from the outside looking in.

The Thunderbolt is the story of Hannibal, one of the very few generals to lead an army to the walls of Rome. James Duprie did an excellent job of telling this fascinating tale and shedding some light on the character of this man, who could have had one of the most profound effects on the history of western civilization.

We are introduced to Hannibal, and we get to see him as a young man. Duprie does a fantastic job of developing the character, we completely understand his hatred of Rome. As a reader, I could sympathize with his frustration in dealing with the politics of Carthage, the indecision and the fear felt by the others. And finally we follow Hannibal with his great army as they pass through the Alps into Italy. It was fascinating to see Hannibal’s character develop as the story went on.

It was great to read someone’s perspective on this Punic War. It was one of the major turning points in history that solidified Rome’s hold on power early on. It is hard to imagine what would have happened had Hannibal been successful.

[Dawn Dorsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Following the career of Hannibal of Carthage from his youth to his death in old age, this novel brings us the famous warrior as a boy learning at his father's side, as a young man at his first battle, through his maturity as a fearsome general who conquered much of the western Mediterranean, complete with his legendary elephants, and was a thorn in the side of the upstart Roman Empire, until his eventual defeat at the hands of Scipio Africanus.

Hannibal's is a fascinating story, but I was distracted by the poor quality of the editing, which left numerous grammatical errors, misuses of the possessive for the plural, and a sometimes amusing use of the wrong homonym, giving the impression that it has been translated from an audiobook by someone only technically familiar with English. Since this is not the case, I think that it probably resulted from a software conversion of the ePub version I had to the Kindle format, so that I cannot give a fair evaluation of the writing. It is still worth reading the story, and just try to ignore the publishing foibles.

[Kim Ingham · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Rome Series

I grew up on those Saturday Roman slave shows and after reading this first book, realized how much I miss them. I'm sure by today's standards they would be silly but you can believe I will read the rest of this series. Very well written, I could visualise every battle.

[Brandon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poorly written in places with contemporary prose and dialogue that felt out of place.

I cannot recommend this book. Parts were vastly rushed, other parts poorly written. The last battle was over in a blink, as though the author was tired of writing.