alaterdate | Emperor: Blood of Gods (Reply)

Emperor: Blood of Gods by Conn Iggulden is the 5th and last volume of Iggulden's Emperor series. However, I read it first, lol. It was the first one the library gave me, and a perusal of the synopsis and reviews told me that it was sufficiently disconnected from the previous 4 volumes enough to be read on its own. Coupled with it being another case of fictionalized history I felt comfortable enough to just go ahead and start with volume 5 of 5. It was...

Amazing! Blood of Gods follows Gaius Octavian as he navigates Roman politics as heir to his great-uncle Julius Caesar's legacy after Caesar's assassination. The book pretty much follows historic events with a slight deviation of moving the naval battle with Sextus Pompey to an earlier point in time. I think Octavian's desire for revenge was executed quite well (heh).

Unlike The Falcon of Sparta the pacing is much quicker with plenty of exciting events unfolding one after another. The perspective also switches between more characters with some having their own chapters without Octavian present.

The characterization and dialogue was superb. Octavian had the weakest personality, but was simultaneously the most badass of the lot. Maecenas and Agrippa were given amazing personalities (I loved Maecenas right from the beginning). Mark Antony was annoying and I still hate him lol. After having read some of the first book by now, I sadly have to say that Marcus Brutus lacked much of his fantastic characterization I've been seeing in the first book. However, I enjoyed that Iggulden examined both sides of the conflict.

My favorite part was the naval battle between Agrippa and Sextus and the chapters that covered the battle at Phillipi.

I loved the book so much that even though I finished reading it I still haven't returned it to the library lmao.

Once again Iggulden has perfectly blended history and fiction. I learned things I didn't know and nodded heartily when the events I did know about were expertly handled. His notes at the end are a joy to read too. Like I said in a small thread on twitter "Iggulden doesn't have to go that hard but he does and I love him for it"