Tyrant - Valerio Massimo Manfredi

[I, Brian]

I'm reading "Tyrant" by Valerio Massimo Manfredi, but it looks like I may not finish it.

The author is a classical scholar, but he fails to really engage in character thoughts - he uses such an oblique Third Person Objective perspective that you never really get an idea of individual character thoughts and motivations, and there's little depth to their exploration.

Possibly that's a good thing - the lead inTyrant - Dionysios - is an awful stereotypical "warrior rebelling against authority". His earlier descriptions basically have him up as someone who prefers to fight than talk, yet somehow we're supposed to like that.

We're also supposed to like that he pretty much falls madly in love with a girl within 24 hours. Er...okay.

Aside from possible anachronisms at the beginning, the writing is pretty shallow and cliched - the Point of View use is frankly awful - everything is a superficial experience, and there's no real character viewpoint.

I don't really think I'm going to finish reading this mass of pseudo-historical pulp .

[nj1]

While i've never read 'Tyrant' i have read 'Spartan' and 'Heroes'. Spartan was in my opinion a fairly enjoyable read, The rise from a Helot slave to warrior etc, etc at the time of the persian invasion. OL not the best HF book i've read, but still entertaining in it's own way.
That promted me to pick up a copy of Heroes, I'd just read Gemmell's Troy tilogy and thought, why not. BIG MISTAKE, the story was based on the events following the end of Troy told by an 'eye witness', Like you stated with Tyrant, there was absolutly no depth to the characters and I couldn't have cared less what the final outcome was. Even the grudge battle that has been overly mentoned throughout the book was a Huge disapointment.

So in short, I know how you feel.
It will take something extraordinary for me to pick up another of his books.

[svalbard]

I have read a few of his books now. The Alexander Trilogy, The Last Legion(now a movie) and Spartan. I found that they were all difficult to read and I wonder is this down to the fact that English is not his first language.

[nj1]

I forgot to mention the Last Legion, not a bad book, but the film was awful.
I know VMM's an Italian, so does he write in Italian and then gets it translated by others? or does he write in english?
My problem with the books i read of his were that they seem to lack a lot of 'feeling', he doesn't seem to reveal his characters inner self, espically with 'Heroes'.
As a result, the parts which were supposed to be dramatic were in my view boring, I couldn't really care for the outcome.
I know others will say that they really enjoyed his books, but that lack of feeling justs lets the tale down IMHO.

[jenna]

I started reading Spartan just after Gates Of Fire. I got about 4 pages through it I think! I just couldn't get into it, it didn't engage me at all. It's a shame because he writes about subjects that interest me a heck of a lot, but I'm not into his style at all..