A Fantastic Story
This is my second review on Downpour and my second 5-star rating, perhaps prompting some to question my fairness and maybe others will think I'm a Downpour plant. I am not. I will say that Downpour has re-energized my thirst for books. If you have trouble plowing through long books with weak eyes, this audiobook company, using excellent professional readers, is the solution. My first review was for Edward Rutherfurd's Paris. That book was closer to the book, Cloud Atlas, with its six separate plots coming together at the end. Rutherfurd is a master at complex fiction that goes down a completely accurate historical road. Imperium is more like the Ryan Gosling movie, Drive. Just one main character and the plot remains crystal clear from start to finish. Virtually all of the story is about the rise of Marcus Tullius Cicero in Rome at the time of Pompey, Crassus, and Julius Caesar. You will enjoy the wonderful descriptions of Rome's various neighborhoods, the customs of the people, and the constant tension between the aristocrats and the plebes. The story is brilliantly told by Cicero's personal secretary, a slave named Tiro. The existence of Tiro is also part of actual history as is his claim to inventing shorthand. Tiro is there with Cicero in all his ups and downs, loyal to the end, taking chances for his master and mentor. If you're thinking this is a stodgy work, filled with unrealistic recreations of Roman life, you will be surprised to know it is a criminal defense lawyer's dream work, and politics aficianado's favorite reading. Cicero, a man of the people, both defends and prosecutes in his role as lawyer. The trials he goes through are exciting, filled with suspense, and anyone following all of the TV trials going on today in America will find the trials of Cicero as modern in vocabulary and just as exciting. In addition, I'd say the second major theme is how politicial campaigns were run in Roman times. Cicero's brother, Quintus, was his campaign manager, planning events and speaking engagements. The political intrigues are so exciting you won't want to leave the book until you know how things turned out. This is the first of Robert Harris's Cicero trilogy. I am about to begin Conspirata, the second in the series, followed by Lustrum. Between Rutherfurd and Harris, I am having the time of my life.