Just Finished Reading: Rubicon by The Historical Writers Association (FP: 2019) [177pp]
I thought this was an interesting idea/concept so picked it up to try it out. The idea is to showcase a number of established as well as new(ish) authors who are writing in a particular historical period. This volume, naturally, revolves around Ancient Rome with others based around the Crusades, the Tudors and the Victorian era. It’s a really great way to deepen your experience in an already favourite era – especially if you’re unsure which author to try next – or to expand into other historical periods you’re less familiar with.
This slim volume contained 10 short stories or extracts from longer works and each story concluded with a short (3 pages or so) Q&A with the author uncovering their backgrounds, motivations and future plans. I was aware of some of the authors, and indeed have books by them waiting to be read – like Anthony Riches, for example – but others were completely new to me. One that particularly impressed me was Alter Ego by Ruth Downie where a Roman doctor travelling in occupied Britannia solves a crime at a roadside hostel because his travelling companions had annoyed him. I’ve added the author to my interest list, and she will, no doubt, be showing up here again at some point. Another author, who has been on my interest list for a while now, got my attention with her story Mystery of Victory where a small cadre of Romans during the Empire’s transition to Christianity smuggle out one of their icons to set up the break-away state of Roma Nova in order to keep the Old Ways alive. Oddly Roma Nova shows up again in a completely unrelated book of short stories coming up soon. Maybe the Book Gods are telling me something!?!
I’m giving some serious thought to picking up the other volumes in this series as this one impressed me and they’re only £6.99. They’re a great way to test the waters and, if you’re anything like me and are always looking for something new, a great way to pick up future historical reads with confidence. Definitely recommended.
[This is my last book review of the year, so I’ll be posting my 2023 yearly review on Saturday. My plans for 2024 and beyond will be posted on the following Saturday.]
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2 comments:
Interesting collection. Like you, I'm pretty much done for the year...not intentionally, but the last few days I've just been listening to lofi jazz, playing games, and generally vegging out, only reading during lunch at work, and focusing on Coursera stuff so I can say I finished a class on python and a class on sql during 2023. :p
Funnily, I was in 2 minds about it (kinda disappointed when it showed up that it was pretty thin) but ended up enjoying it and that it gave me some good pointers going forward.
Oh, I REALLY like some Lo-Fi stuff. I sometimes chill out to it on YouTube when looking for stuff on other websites.
I remember studying COBOL for a job promotion (the job was dependent on me at least *passing* the course, which I did) as well as SSADM. I enjoyed System Analysis a LOT more than programming!! Databases are OK but I'm much more of a User than anything else. I only ever felt the need to understand them *enough* to use them adequately. When my IT/gaming friends talk to each other in techspeak I understand the gist of what they're saying but enough to be a Project Manager with techies working with/for me (as I used to have). That's more than enough in my book! [lol]
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