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Valerio Massimo Manfredi

User avatar
Rubrius
Scribbler
Posts: 8
Joined: September 2017
Currently reading: God of Vengeance, by Giles Kristian & Warrior in Bronze, by George Shipway
Interest in HF: growing up watching movies like Ben-Hur, Quo Vadis, & The Vikings; there weren't enough of them to satisfy me, so turned to books as my personal time machine
Favourite HF book: The Earth is the Lord's, by Taylor Caldwell - fascinating account of the youth of Chingis Khan
Preferred HF: Like the whole breadth of history, but am partial to the ancient Mediterranean and Feudal Japan
Location: Toronto

Re: Valerio Massimo Manfredi

Post by Rubrius » Sat September 2nd, 2017, 5:59 pm

There is indeed something lacking in Manfredi's work, though it's definitely not the smell of cheese. It has that. His flagrant abuse of history, sometimes taking the story way beyond the bounds of legitimate historical speculation, reduces his credibility and, as another user pointed out, tends to make one wonder if his efforts are aimed at Hollywood agents, not at his readers.

To be fair, I have not read all his work. I only listened to Empire of Dragons and Talisman of Troy - both were mildly interesting, but I doubt I could have gotten through them in printed form. I have tried to read Tyrant, but it just failed to keep my interest, which is unfortunate, because the subject matter is a good choice for a novel. Thus, I still intend to finish it.

someday...

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