I've read all of Lindsey Davis' Falco books. Now trying THE COURSE OF HONOUR.

[raccoon]

but I don't think I'll finish it. The details about Roman life are interesting, but I find the book dull.

Anyone else read it?

[Lex]

1. I think I've mentioned Steven Saylor

to you before. He writes excellent books set in Roman times.

http://www.stevensaylor.com/RomaSubRosa.html

[raccoon]

3. I've read a good many of his. **SPOILERS***

Until I got to one where Gordianus drowned. In the next of the series, he somehow came back to life.

[Lex]

5. I read that whole part

as more or less a dream sequence since it was written in a very dream-like way.

[getting old in mke]

2. No.

I've read Falco, but not that one. Looking around, it seems to have been written before Falco and just republished after she gained a following.

Right now I'm reading and enjoying Simon Scarrow's "Eagle" series. In the middle of the second one. It's kind of fun for Falco readers, because the characters are part of Vespasian's Legion. I keep comparing this, younger, Vespasian during the Claudian invasion of Britain, and the older emperor. Claudius just entered the narrative too, and I suspect it's going to be hard to not compare him to Robert Graves's version from "I, Claudius".

I agree with the recommendation for Stephen Saylor. I've read two--"Roman Blood" and "Murder on the Appian Way" and a number of the Gordianus short stories--and enjoyed them. They take place toward the end of the republic. The rest of the series is on my "for real, for sure, some day" list.

[raccoon]

4. My library has 3 of them. I just put one on request. nt

[Rowdyboy]

6. Finished "See Delphi and Die" last week...ordered "Nemesis" and "Master and God"

earlier tonight. Love Lindsey Davis' work in general but "The Course of Honor" was my least favorite.

I've really enjoyed the entire series so far and am really looking forward to seeing how she wraps it up in "Nemesis". According to her webpage she's started a new series based on the adopted daughter Albia. First book is "The Ides of April".

Something about ancient Rome really appeals to me. They were more like us culturally in many ways than Europeans of 1500 years later.

[getting old in mke]

7. Simon Scarrow

So I've read another couple of his (44 AD, with Vespasian in Britain), having fun.

But I think the quote of the year, so far, a far as making me burst out laughing:

"Life, [he] decided, had a funny way of taking an impossible situation and making it effortlessly worse."

That one is Douglas Adams-worthy.