Rome on HBO

I also like Cornwell, but I have found him after a while to become a bore.

I read the grail quest, first book was excellent, but it went down hill quickly then, the final book in the series, was dire - imho

I also have the current series, about Alfred, which so far i am enjoying. Only time will tell.

However, back to Caesar, I appreciate that this is pure fiction, but I must admit I am enjoying them, and to be honest, thats all that matters. Once I have completed them, I get get the correct historical stuff, Caesars own.........

Gemmell's books are pretty cut and paste in my opinion

Angry hero with two weapons - sure fire thign that his girl/mate will get raped/killed and said hero gets angrier and choppier.

Loved the first Grail quest book - agree they went downhill.

Really like the Arthur books too.

Just read Men of Bronze - very good.

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Originally Posted by monkian

Gemmell's books are pretty cut and paste in my opinion

Angry hero with two weapons - sure fire thign that his girl/mate will get raped/killed and said hero gets angrier and choppier.

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I don' know about cut and paste but I admit he can be repetitive. I think he was, on one level or another, influenced by the epic saga's, read Beowolf in verse and you'll see what I'm talking about.

Legend, The Swords of Night and Day, Waylander, Sword in the Storm, Midnight Falcon and Lord of the Silver Bow are all, imo, excellant.

Quest for Lost Heros, Winter Warriors and Stormrider were his weakest books, the rest are pretty good but some do have pacing problems.

I think the thing with Gemmel is Scale, I mean imagine attacking Dros Delnoch.

Slightly more on topic: The BBC Is running a factual series in six parts: Ancient Rome - The Rise and Fall of an Empire, I was looking at the pics in our TV book and the designs for the armour and weapons is way off, agian. They did this with their special on Gladiators, where they had the Romans wearing segmented bibs.

ROME had some uniform wierdness as well, though nowhere near as bad. Its almost as if they haven't moved on from the Seventies.

I found the Emperor books okay-ish. The first isn't good at all, but as the story enters the better documented parts of history at least Iggulden has a decent pacing to work with. But the series never rises to a level where I'd say it was good; definitely nowhere near Cornwall's level of either writing or believability.

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Originally Posted by Wigferth Ironwall

Caesar was badly mis-cast, he shouldn't have been all joully and by the time he died he was bald, but still a dandy.

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Just have to say, I disagree. Of all the cast, I found the actor portraying Caesar perfectly laid down the complex character and made clear how he could inspire blind devotion among his men, yet make deadly enemies.

Caesar lacked the charm and extravagence. Pompey wasn't very charismatic either. Both men were ladikillers.

I'm sorry, I just didn't buy it.

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Originally Posted by Geoffrey S

Just have to say, I disagree. Of all the cast, I found the actor portraying Caesar perfectly laid down the complex character and made clear how he could inspire blind devotion among his men, yet make deadly enemies.

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Absolutely - I thought nearly all the acting was excellent, but Ciaran Hinds was the stand-out - portraying a lethal mix of high-minded nobility and low cunning. A lot of the credit must go to the way the part was written, but I thought the actor brought an excellent mix of gravitas and subtlety to the part. He was so good, he even holds his own when compared with the vividly acted Emperors in "I, Claudius".

I wasn't convinced by the acting or casting at first, but by the end of the series, I thought it was perfectly done for the most part.

It's a very good high budget production, but it's a shame the budget didn't stretch to some proper battle scenes. Then again, if they turned out cheapy, perhaps not. Probably best they focus on what they can do well.

Cinematography really made band of brothers great. They used the same technique in the first opening 20 minutes of Saving Private Ryan.

Well, that came out of nowhere...

Well at least someone mentioned Band of Brothers in this thread earlier.

Now had they said, 'I like balancing billiard balls on my nose' then that really would have come from nowhere. Or from the mind of a nutter. Something I'm not of course.