Colosseum: Sangre en la arena (Planeta Internacional)

by Simone Sarasso

Eligió olvidar su nombre y borrar su pasado. Renunció a su libertad. Intentó no convertirse en gladiador. Pero acabó en el Coliseo para enfrentarse a su destino. No hay lucha más cruel que la que está a punto de comenzar.Hoy ha llegado su día. en pocos minutos, alguien levantará la reja y le obligará a luchar. Y él tendrá que combatir a muerte con su mejor amigo, en un enfrentamiento en el que uno de ellos caerá en el olvido de los vencidos. Puesto que en la arena sólo existe una ley: «O todo o nada».

Genres: Historical Fiction, Historical Romance

372 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 25, 2012

About the author

Simone Sarasso, born in 1978, lives in Novara. He is the author of Confine di Stato (The State Border), Settanta (Seventy), and the epic historical novel Invictus: Constantine, the Warrior Emperor, which will be published in English by RCS Libri and Open Road Media in late 2014. Sarasso also writes for film and television and teaches creative writing at the Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti in Milan.

Reviews

[Martina Sartor · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Ne resterà soltanto uno"
Con questo secondo romanzo ambientato nell'antica Roma, dopo Invictus, Sarasso ci immerge definitivamente nel mitico passato della Città Eterna e dei suoi miti.
La storia del gladiatore Vero è strettamente legata a quella dell'Anfiteatro Flavio, il Colosseo, e degli imperatori che lo vollero a gloria imperitura di Roma, i Flavi: Vespasiano prima e il figlio Tito poi. La scena è vivida, raccontata con piglio cinematografico, con passione e ardimento, proprio come richiede una storia di gloria, morte e anche amore. Non ci si annoia un momento e si va a rotta di collo verso il finale e verso l'inaspettata vittoria dell'amicizia fraterna e amorosa.
Memorabile davvero il capitolo sulla NAUMACHIA.

[Vladimiro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Combattimento finale molto bello ed eccezionalmente descritto. Finale forse un po' troppo rapido.
Sono indeciso tra il 3,5 e il 4.

[Althea Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

You know the most frustrating thing about traveling? It's passing by a bookstore and seeing all the books you've never heard of, in a foreign language, and going, "Argh! I wish I could read that! Why don't more novels get translated?!?!?"

This is one of those books that I would've ogled in Italy. It looks so good! Gladiators! By an Italian! Yay! And it's been translated... well, sort of.

As I don't speak Italian, I'm not sure who to blame: the author or the translator. However, I stopped at 50% complete on my e-reader. There are a lot of problems here: odd word choices, poor grammar, awkward phrasing... but the thing that literally gave me a headache was the tense. This book is primarily in present tense, which is often tedious and strained to read in a novel. It's particularly clunky here, with past tense, present perfect, and past perfect occasionally dropped in. Maybe the author did do this, I couldn't say, but it just should not have been done.

The story? A gladiator will end up facing his best friend in the arena (we learn in the first chapter). After that, there's an extended flashback to find out how this young man ended up where he is. It seems influenced by the 'Starz' TV version of Spartacus, but lacks the dramatic tension.

Usually a did-not-finish equals one star, but there wasn't anything actually wrong with the story - I just couldn't slog through any more to find out how things transpired. On to the next book!

Copy provided by NetGalley. I am going to provide them with this feedback, so hopefully they'll give this an extra edit and render my complaints invalid... If anyone notices that they've fixed it, please let me know and I will update. I normally wouldn't complain about typos in an ARC, but this gets released tomorrow, and the issues aren't just typos. As it stands, it requires a *lot* of fixing.

[GONZA · Rating 1 out of 5]

Actually I have not finished to read this book, even if it was good enough, because this is one of the worst translation ever, and I say that as an Italian that has another italian book from the same author. I will just switch to his original language and finally enjoy the story that was pretty interesting.

Non ho finito di leggere il libro, perché, per quanto buono, questa é in assoluto una delle peggiori traduzioni di sempre e lo dico da italiana che ha anche un altro libro (in italiano) dello stesso autore. A questo punto me lo compreró in italiano e finalmente mi godró la storia che non era niente male.

THANKS TO NETGALLEY AND OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED MEDIA FOR THE PREVIEW!

[Francisco · Rating 2 out of 5]

Al final, no aportó nada. Una tremenda desilusión, donde pasé de esperar una historia épica cargada de fidelidad historica y termine leyendo párrafos sin concentrarme, para escapar de una historia semigay sobrecargada de adjetivos calificativos propios de una ninfomanía y emociones que saltaban entre lo patético y lo cursi. Una larga narracion de los eventos circenses de inauguración del Amfiteatro Flavio, donde podía dar para más en arquitectura, mecanica, incluso arte y acaba en lujo de detalles sangrientos escabrosos. Me desilusionó Sarasso.

[Alberto Bianchini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Libro spettacolare. Scritto molto bene, mai noioso nonostante le importanti tracce storiche che l'autore ha saputo inserire numerose. Mi piace molto lo studio dei particolari sull'abbigliamento e le usanze del mondo dei gladiatori. Ho anche imparato molto su come venivano organizzati i giochi nel colosseo. Bravo Sarasso sia per le notevoli ricerche storiche che per lo stile scorrevole e intrigante che fa innamorare subito della storia del protagonista.

[Elizabeth Grieve · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this book was perhaps let down by its translation to English, and the characters never really came to life for me, strangely enough as it is based on real people, from historical accounts. However, as a historical work, the level of detail about life in ancient Rome was excellent.

Reviewed in exchange for a preview Kindle copy.

[Heather Bennett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Colosseum has great historical facts, but the plot is a little weak. The love story could have been stronger or left out of the story. Overall I enjoyed the story due to the historical details and descriptions throughout the book. This author has potential.