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Gábor Papp monugrabke — This is the second part to the story that began with Caius Crispus in Sailing to Sarantium. In the first novel a large theme had to do with the political shaping of religion, or perhaps how politics handles the truth of religion. The magical half-world plays a large role in the shaping of the characters. I am extremely glad that I read the first book before reading Lord of Emperors. Lord of Emperors, though it touches on the physical representation of Jad (God), has far less to do with ideas of religion and far more to do with political intrigue, and how that intrigue affects those it touches personally and the citizens whose lives are changed in its aftermath, as if all are pieces to be played in a game. "Sarantium was not a place in which one found refuge, even in pursuit of a vision." (pg. 104) The main players, themselves pieces in the game, maneuver allegiances and plots, keeping a watchful eye on each in expectation of a victorious end. Yet the story is masterfully told through the mosaicist, the cook, the charioteer, the dancer, and the physician. (Though, at times, we are privy to the Empress and the Queen.) A few quotes that I enjoyed, and that hint at larger thematic enterprises: "The great events of an age appear, to those living through them, as backdrops only to the vastly more compelling dramas of their own lives, and how could it be otherwise?" "It is true, undeniably, that the central moments of an age occur on the margins of the lives of most people." (269) "The soul must bend to endure." (352)"We must learn to bend or we break." (359) And several more in succession. And, then there is another story, barely introduced, of a merchant in the far south talking with a boy, Tarif, in a conversation that will be immortal and leaving a life because of a dream. " That day, in the early spring of the year, there were two [places that may be properly seen as lying at the heart of an age] on the earth, far apart. One was in the desert of Soriyya, where a man in a hood, which a cloak drawn over his mouth, preserved a silence among the drifting sands, having remained awake all the night before, fasting, and looking up at the stars."(270) A third book? I certainly hope so. I feel unfinished with Maximus, the Holy Patriarch's privy adviser. And, certainly, Pertennius of Eubulus needs to receive his just dues. Getting knocked out wasn't enough to make him see the error of his ways.

伍 金雁 jiuhejiaoliu — One of the most entertaining books I've read in a long time...I actually picked it up after going to a talk by a sociology professor who was studying "pre-gaming" (gearing up to go out). ***SEMI-SPOILER*** The sad epilogue is that the hot girl he pulls left him for Robbie Williams after the book was published.