A historical fiction masterpiece

Conn Iggulden transports the reader to the streets of Rome, into the farms in the outlying areas and off into battles in foreign lands.
bringing to life every character, place and action. the deviousness of the Senate, the love and loyalty of Caesar's family, friends and those who serve him is illustrated in these wonderful books.

Onwards to book 3.

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Great 2nd Installment, superb narration..

However, the same cannot be said for the 3rd in the series. There has been a change in narrator and it really detracts from the listening experience.

Note to Publisher: Take great care when choosing narrators that suit the subject matter and especially, if for whatever reason, there has to be a change in narrator, then have them be as similar as possible and of the same quality.

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Good yarn but some historical inaccuracies

An enjoyable story but I cannot understand why the author has strayed so far from the accepted truth in some places. Normally the departure between fact and fiction is explained at the end by this author but that is absent in this book. Great narration brings ther characters alive but a little more respect for history would have made this book worthy of five stars.

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Well read and engaging plot

I’ve read the first book so thought I’d try the audiobook for the second, having recently listened and thoroughly enjoyed Robert Harris’ Cicero trilogy.
Overall, very good! Narration was v good (although first hour felt the performance was slightly flat - but then as story developed and narrator got into more some v good characterisations).
Plot wise - entertaining, although as other reviews have alluded, very lenient with historical accuracy… although once you’ve accepted that the ‘historical inaccuracies’ do work very well with the wider plot. Moments of delightful narrative and evocative imagery which I was surprised by given the mainly action-focus of the book.

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Epic Adventure (start of)

Just an excellent listen. Historical fiction, with a great pace. No long, boring descriptions of things that aren't required - just the opposite of how you expect a historical book to seem. Loads of action and adventure, no dullness.... Unfortunate that again the Audiobook of the first in the series is not available on Audible as per the Genghis series. But you can get along without it just fine, you miss out on the childhood of Julius by not having the first book available, but you get the bones of that story in here anyway. This book takes you vividly to the heart of massive battles, told from the perspective at the front line to the generals watching over - to pirates, treasure, murder, slaves, executions and more. Yes, I suppose there is quite a lot of death, but then there was at the time and it is not done in a gratiutious manner. This leaves you with a real want to learn about the true history of these things, and leaves you smiling when you see how little things were changed or added to make this a work of fiction based on true history. The book really took me to these times and places - I could not stop listening to it.

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23 people found this helpful

What a Book

This book kept me captivated from the beginning, Robert Glenister was one of the best narrators I have come across, I will be listening to more of his reads. The only problem I have is I didn't realise when I purchased it is that this is book two of three, so now I've got to go back and listen to book one, not a problem this book was so good and action packed all the way through, I'll just listen to it again before going onto book tree. Although it is loosely based on historical fact the story reflects the violent times of the period an so its not the faint hearted. Best listen ever bring it on Conn Iggulden and Robert Glenister.

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2 people found this helpful

Loved every second

Again the author manages to create an original and engaging tale using characters you already think you know. Very skillful.

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Loved it.

Would you listen to EMPEROR: The Death of Kings, Book 2 (Unabridged) again? Why?

Yes, I think I would... it's fast paced and exciting and well read.

What did you like best about this story?

Julius' relationship with his wife - I thought the development of the story was nice and gave a good side story to the endless adventuring.

What does Robert Glenister bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

His narration is really great - with so much gravitas and authority. I tried the third one in this series but because of the change of narrator I couldn't go straight to it and so am having a break from the series until I've got over how good he was!

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, but I did funnel through it extremely quickly. It's very addictive.

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Book2! just as good !

Again superbly narrated by Robert Glenister, great storyline well rounded characters. Forget whether events were historical fact or fiction a damn good yarn well told

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conn iggulden. just awesome.

such detail that you can feel the battle, the argument or the conflict. just wonderful

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