Conspirata (Cicero Series #2)

You Cannot Miss This!

I'm not sure the other reviewers and I read the same book. Far from boring, I found this novel impossible to stop reading. I had separation anxiety every time I was forced to put it down, to work or make dinner or whatever. Like its predecessor, Imperium, it is written as a thriller, not as history. Take away the history and you still have a compelling story--and Harris handles it marvelously. In fact, having finished Imperium and Conspirata, I am now devouring the rest of Harris's bibliography and am finding that all of his books are equally well written. I cannot wait for the third installment in the Cicero Trilogy. Definitely get this one. Whether you like history or not, you will not regret it!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Pass it up

This book covers some of Rome's most interesting years, filled with power shifts, intrigues and shifting fortunes. Great stuff! Right? Why then does the author make it so pedestrian? boring? dull!
I found the last chapter of considerable interest, although I don't think the author intended my take on it. J.G. Caesar qua master manipulator has boxed Cicero into a corner where he either has to capitulate to Caesar or leave Rome in exile. Truly, I felt the power of Cicero's downfall as a parallel to our political situation today. Caesar has obtained overwhelming power which he exercises though his puppets. The constitution is violated, laws outflanked, and the galloping doom of the Republic is tangible. Oh well! Don't Republics end up as dictatorships anyway?
I pondered how an author so familiar with the history could produce such a dreary novel. It wasn't the times. They were really cooking. I came to the conclusion that the author lacks the zip to make the novel interesting. All that intrigue, sex and manipulation! I fear the author maintained too great psychic distance from his subject, or to put it bluntly: he just didn't want to get his hands dirty.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

tiro triumphs

The middle act in this fall of the roman republic is better than the first! A republic in it's death throes, how prescient. Very much looking forward to the finale! You can't go wrong with Robert Harris!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Interesting

Not a page turner, but fun look at "history"

Rome Comes Alive

Harris was wise to pick Cicero as his protagonist. The orator was probably the nearest in outlook to us of all the Romans. Even though any ancient history buff knows the outline of this story, seeing it through the eyes of Tiro, the slave who narrated the first novel of the trilogy is like being a fly on the wall. (He existed and actually wrote a now lost Life of Cicero.) Caesar, Pompey, Cato, Cataline, and Crassus all come alive as they jockey for power and the Republic totters. This book is as good as Robert Graves' Claudius novels. Harris may surpass that duo when he finishes this trilogy. For more background read Tom Holland's Rubicon and Adrian Goldsworthy's Caesar.

Awful book

Not much I can say but I wished after reading 50 pages, that I could return it. Instead I put it down and will give it away with the next books I pass on to Vet's Hospitals and maybe someone, somwhere will like it.

0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Politics Endures

Not being a fortune teller, I cannot tell you how others will enjoy this book in the future, nor will I write a review until I have actually finished reading the novel- which is now. I liked it a great deal. It gives a look at old Roman politics, teaching us that some things never change.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

I have been anxiouly awaiting to know the rest of the story...

I pre-ordered this audiobook last fall. It has not dissapointed me. I have not finished listening to it yet but I know I will be hearing it again and again. Then I will give it to my husband, who will enjoy it just as much.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Lustrum (from UK)

Read this a few months back, as Lustrum, from the UK. Harris is quite an adequate historian, and a capable writer and story-teller, which makes for an enjoyable read. One can feel history through fiction in ways that pure historical text could never convey.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Caveat Emptor

This option requires you to download OpenOffice which is 15mb! T

0 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Asuperb complex Ancient Rome political thriller

The stage is filled with competitors who know no ethics; the likes of Pompey and that upstart Caesar to name a few. However, as slick as his opponents are, in 63 B.C., Marcus Cicero is chosen as the Consul of Rome though not a good time to take over as ruler with all the unrest further enflamed by his opponents and even his allies.

Two days before the oath of office, a young male slave is brutally murdered with his organs removed in what appears to have been a human sacrificial ritual. Fear spreads through the city and Cicero knows even before he takes over he has issues. As the Empire grows, Cicero concludes the biggest threat to the fall of the Roman Empire is from within by the avaricious seeking personal power. He proves to be right when he is fortunate to prevent an assassination that would turn the Republic into a dictatorship, but his strongest rival Caesar survives the defeated conspiracy proving to Cicero this is his biggest threat.

As told once again by slave secretary Tiro (see Imperum), Conspirata is a superb complex Ancient Rome political thriller with ramifications to modern day America. The story line is fast-paced and filled with action that brings to life Ancient Rome in the first century BC, a place filled with riots, civil unrest, and corruption (could easily be DC). Fans will enjoy this strong saga especially Tiro's side commentary and observations as to why would anyone with a sane mind want this ruler job when you can read a book or in modern Twitter text watch Rangers' baseball or Bull's basketball.

Harriet Klausner

0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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