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Book Review
May. 7th, 2018 10:14 pmFuneral Games
by Mary Renault
This novel begins with the death of Alexander the Great and follows the chaos and strife that ensues as his generals and relations vie for power and ultimately tear his empire apart.Renault is, as always, a very good writer who has a talent for bringing the remote past to life. In Funeral Games, she does a particularly good job of making sens of the motivations of a large and contentious cast of characters.
However, I did not enjoy this book as much as Renault's other novels about ancient Greece. The nature of the story prevented Renault from giving us a single central protagonist to follow or a coherent through-line of plot. Instead, we follow various people through their attempts at seizing and holding power until such time as they are killed. The only significant character who seems to have any sustained success is Ptolemy, who goes off to rule Egypt and stays out of all the other power struggles. But we don't get to see much of him once he is set up in Egypt. Thus it was really hard to connect with any of the characters or care much about them.
by Mary Renault
This novel begins with the death of Alexander the Great and follows the chaos and strife that ensues as his generals and relations vie for power and ultimately tear his empire apart.Renault is, as always, a very good writer who has a talent for bringing the remote past to life. In Funeral Games, she does a particularly good job of making sens of the motivations of a large and contentious cast of characters.
However, I did not enjoy this book as much as Renault's other novels about ancient Greece. The nature of the story prevented Renault from giving us a single central protagonist to follow or a coherent through-line of plot. Instead, we follow various people through their attempts at seizing and holding power until such time as they are killed. The only significant character who seems to have any sustained success is Ptolemy, who goes off to rule Egypt and stays out of all the other power struggles. But we don't get to see much of him once he is set up in Egypt. Thus it was really hard to connect with any of the characters or care much about them.
