Caligula

Caligula The Damned Emperors Book 1

Simon Turney2018
'An engrossing new spin on a well-known tale' Antonia Senior, The Times 'Caligula as you've never seen him before! A powerfully moving read from one of the best ancient world authors in the business' Kate Quinn, author of The Alice Network Everyone knows his name. Everyone thinks they know his story. Rome 37AD. The emperor is dying. No-one knows how long he has left. The power struggle has begun. When the ailing Tiberius thrusts Caligula's family into the imperial succession in a bid to restore order, he will change the fate of the empire and create one of history's most infamous tyrants, Caligula. But was he really a monster? Forget everything you think you know. Let Livilla, Caligula's youngest sister and confidante, tell you what really happened. How her quiet, caring brother became the most powerful man on earth. And how, with lies, murder and betrayal, Rome was changed for ever . . . 'A truly different take on one of history's villains . . . All through this I am seeing Al Pacino in The Godfather, slowly stained darker and darker by power and blood' Robert Low, author of The Oathsworn series 'Enthralling and original, brutal and lyrical by turns. With powerful imagery and carefully considered history Simon Turney provides a credible alternative to the Caligula myth that will have the reader questioning everything they believe they know about the period' Anthony Riches, author of the Empire series
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Reviews

Photo of Amira BEN
Amira BEN@amirasreading
2 stars
Mar 25, 2022

2.5 ⭐ I wanted to give it 3 stars but I can't. Many things are lacking. First of all, what ruined the experience for me was the choice of POV. We read the "supposed" Caligula's story in his little sister's POV: Julia Livilla. However, we read more about Julia's état d'âme, whinings, jealousy towards her sister Drusilla... lol. It ruins the experience because we see Caligula's story from afar. We get a glimpse of Caligula's feelings, motivations etc. Therefore, I felt like nothing much happened whereas Caligula's reign is one of the bloodiest in roman History! I don't know how we got from a loving, smart, sane man to a supposedly tyrant and then things happened but since we learn those events through Julia's eyes and she didn't witnessed them, you don't exactly understand why and how those events occurred. I wished the POV was different. Maybe from a different POV we would have accompanied Caligula in his ascension in a more intimate way. AND the dialogues were borderline a joke. I was basically reading about Roman people speaking like Americans. Too many words in italic for emphasis. I had sentences like "Weeelll" are "This is insaaane" lol Now I'm done.

Photo of Roos Kuijper
Roos Kuijper @roosk94
4 stars
Aug 28, 2021

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