What do You think about Fortune's Favorites (1994)?
Fortune's Favourites is where the Masters of Rome series really gets into its stride. It's hard to pinpoint how exactly, but there seems to be more colour and movement than in the first two books, making this the first one where the ending comes up before you're ready.It opens with Sulla's return to Italy and the civil war that results, giving us plenty of time to ogle this extraordinary young man Pompey. From there it swirls breathlessly through the years of Sulla the Dictator, giving us time to check in on a young man called Caesar, before taking us on a rolicking adventure from the distant heat of Spain to the oriental decadence of Anatolia, with stopovers at the siege of Mitylene and pirate strongholds to tide us over. If I had one criticism it would be that McCollough's descriptions of these places still don't put me on the ground, where I can feel the hard-packed earth and smell the brine and olives on the breeze, but I'm wondering if that's an unfair criticism since I'm not sure McCullough ever got to visit these places herself.No matter: if it's still short on florid descriptions, Fortune's Favourites makes up for it with some much-needed variety in the action. Besides the familiar Senate and Comitia wrangling and yet more civil warring, there's plenty of strategy discussion for we armchair generals, chief among them Pompey's campaign against Sertorius in Spain and the grand idiocy of Spartacus, a very different story to the one Hollywood tells. There are even elements of courtroom drama, such as Cicero's prosecution of Gaius Verres, and the whole thing builds up to a triumphant climax with the consulship of Pompey and Crassus.As always, though, the chief pleasure of the series is taking these titanic figures of legend - Caesar, Pompey, Crassus, Sulla, Cicero - and seeing them interact as real people, all fighting to influence these historic events from ground level. That happens in every book of this series, but in Fortune's Favourites, it's somehow brighter and more alive. A fabulous read.
—Dane Sørensen
Another excellent book in Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series. I've always liked long books with lots of characters and complex plots. Over the years I've tended to become less tolerant of shoddy writing. These books cover all the bases - long, involved, very well written - and this one equals its predecessors. If you have any interest in ancient Rome and are willing to go through thousands of pages that seem to go by entirely too quickly, I recommend you start with First Man in Rome, pass me here at book three and keep going through the end at book seven. Unless the books take a serious turn for the worse, and reviews I've looked at say they do not, it'll be well worth your time.I have another series that I have spread out on my calendar so as to not run out too quickly. I read one book from Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin books every summer. I've been reading one book from this series every winter. The only problem with my plan is that I will be done with Rome long before the Royal Navy, but I have some years yet.In short, an equal to the other books in the series, all of them among the best books I've ever read.
—Shane
The third book in Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome Series that began with The First Man in Rome, Fortune's Favorites covers the period from 83-69 B.C. It picks up shortly after The Grass Crown left off. Lucius Cornelius Sulla has defeated King Mithridates of Pontus and expelled him from the Asia Province, and is headed home with the intention of becoming Dictator of Rome. While Sulla's career has reached its peak, Gaius Julius Caesar has just come of age. Caesar's adventures are mythic: from military glory to being kidnapped by pirates; from battling a slave rebellion led by the ex-gladiator Spartacus, to political intrigue in the Roman Senate. Caesar is the Ancient World's version of James Bond -- he is a handsome, brilliant, fearless, womanizing rake who is also hard-working, loyal and ambitious. McCullough brings history to life in such a way that in spite of a basic familiarity with the events to come, I can't wait to see what happens next.
—Becky
