Booklist Review - Starred!

Booklist has also been kind to me. This makes three starred reviews for Pride of Carthage (out of a possible four) from the industry magazines. Kirkus actually gave me the best review, although they held back the star. No worries, though. I'm more than happy. This also means that I've gotten seven starred reviews for my first three novels. Very happy about that.

*Starred Review* Durham, the author of Gabriel's Story (2001), has crafted a grand recounting of the second Punic War. Fresh off a victory in Arbocala, Hannibal Barca, the great Carthaginian warrior, has set his sights on Saguntum, an ally of the growing Roman Empire. An attack on Saguntum will ultimately bring on a war with Rome, but this is what Hannibal longs for. Aided by his brothers, envious Hanno, pleasure-loving Hasdrubal, and shrewd Mago, Hannibal manages to sack the impenetrable city and with the blessing of Carthage begins the long march to Rome that will take him past treacherous Gauls, forbidding mountains, and inhospitable marshes. Durham depicts the great general as a fully rounded, complicated man: he's both a larger-than-life hero, propelled by his great ambition, and an ordinary man, who longs to be by his wife's side and regrets missing his beloved son's childhood. To give the reader a fuller picture of the war from all sides, Durham does not shortchange the lesser players in this great war: he develops characters such as Imco Vaca, a young man in Hannibal's army, who is ill-equipped for war; maimed Tusselo, seeking revenge against the Romans who enslaved him; and Aradna, a much-abused young woman who shadows the army. Durham's epic is truly a big, magnificent, sprawling story complete with a sizable cast of compelling characters, intricately drawn battle scenes, and fluid, graceful prose.