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Wrath of the Furies: A Novel of the Ancient World
Wrath of the Furies: A Novel of the Ancient World
Wrath of the Furies: A Novel of the Ancient World
Audiobook12 hours

Wrath of the Furies: A Novel of the Ancient World

Written by Steven Saylor

Narrated by Stephen Plunkett

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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About this audiobook

In 88 B.C., it seems as if the entire ancient world is at war. In the west, the Italian states are rebelling against Rome; in the east, Mithridates is marching through and conquering the Roman Asian provinces. Even in the relatively calm Alexandria, a coup has brought a new Pharaoh to power and chaos to the streets. The young Gordianus has been waiting out the chaos in Alexandria, with Bethesda, when he gets a cryptic message from his former tutor and friend, Antipater. Now in Ephesus, as part of Mithridates' entourage, Antipater seems to think that his life is in imminent danger. To rescue him, Gordianus concocts a daring, even foolhardy, scheme to go "behind enemy lines" and bring Antipater to safety. But there are powerful, and deadly forces, at work here, which have their own plans for Gordianus. Not entirely sure whether he's a player or a pawn, Gordianus must unravel the mystery behind the message if he's to save himself and the people he holds most dear.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateOct 13, 2015
ISBN9781501902109
Wrath of the Furies: A Novel of the Ancient World
Author

Steven Saylor

Steven Saylor is the author of the long running Roma Sub Rosa series featuring Gordianus the Finder, as well as the New York Times bestselling novel, Roma and its follow-up, Empire. He has appeared as an on-air expert on Roman history and life on The History Channel. Saylor was born in Texas and graduated with high honors from The University of Texas at Austin, where he studied history and classics. He divides his time between Berkeley, California, and Austin, Texas.

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Reviews for Wrath of the Furies

Rating: 3.814285725714285 out of 5 stars
4/5

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  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Appalling, cringeworthy writing & clunky dialogue not improved by tone deaf narration. I quite enjoyed Roma and love historical mysteries & fiction, but much as I want to see if the plot makes enduring the storytelling worthwhile, I can’t bring myself to listen to the last 40%. I’ve tried repeatedly, with breaks between, but it’s too awful. I may try a more recent novel to see if he learned to write in the interim.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Steven Saylor got me into historical mysteries with his Gordianus the Finder series. I had followed it faithfully to when Julius Caesar had some problems in the forum and then the most recent have gone back in time to when Gordianus was young and had travelled to the Seven Wonders of the world and lived in Egypt. Wrath of the Furies takes place during a truly terrible purge of Romans by King Mithridates. My favorite thing, besides Gordianus as a character and a voice, is how Saylor finds really interesting events in history and plays them as the background for the characters we meet in the books. It's something I've tried to emulate in my novels set in gilded age Chicago. I think of it as a huge painting of some big historical event with a set of characters in the foreground. The approach always succeeds in capturing my interest and the massacre that is anticipated in the action of this book is really interesting. I always learn something and have a good read. When I was in Rome walking around the Forum, I was picturing Gordianus. I highly recommend the whole series.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is the third in the author's prequel trilogy featuring his sleuth Gordianus the Finder during his youth, in exile from Rome and living in Alexandria. He seeks out his former travelling companion with whom he visited the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World in the first novel of the trilogy, the historical poet Antipater of Sidon. The latter had become a spy for Rome's enemy Mithridates of Pontus, the self-proclaimed "king of Kings". Gordianus makes a perilous journey to territory that Mithridates has conquered, Ephesus, posing as a mute Egyptian, to hide his Roman-accented Greek from an Ephesian population that now hates all Romans, and has expelled them from the city to starve and worse. This book contains the usual colourful array of characters, though Gordianus's slave, lover and future wife Bethesda plays less of a role here than in other novels. It is quite a grim story with Mithridates determined to unleash genocide against all Romans on his territory. Gordianus, Bethesda and a few others only narrowly escape the tyrannical kings's clutches. I think this is probably the last of the prequel novels, as Saylor has now resumed the main series of Gordianus novels with a thirteenth mystery, set at the time of Julius Caesar's assassination.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Gordianus is hiding outside of Alexandria with two eunuchs and his beautiful slave, Bethesda, when he receives a cryptic piece of paper. Written by his old tutor, Antipater, Gordianus is perplexed. Do the words warn him to stay away or are they a plea for help? The two men had not parted under good circumstances. The old poet went north to Ephesus (in modern day Turkey) to be a spy for the king, Mithradates. Gordianus had no choice but to launch himself into danger to save the old man. As he and Bethesda sail north they hear of dissatisfaction with Roman rule. They meet a large Jew named Samson who helps them hatch a plan to enter the city. Gordianus would become mute so that his Roman accent wouldn't give him away. Little did he know that this would embroil him in a ritual sacrifice to the Furies, a signal to bring the seething hatred for Romans to a boil and loose the citizens to slaughter all the Romans in the city.As always, Saylor has done his research and brought to the pages a story of history that includes his reluctant hero. This is the third prequel to his series featuring a mature Gordianus who is a "finder" in Rome.