Hannibal: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: A waste of paper
Review: Hannibal was among the greats of ancient military history, the equal of Caesar and surpassed only by Scipio and Alexander. It is a tragedy that a novel as poor as this bears his name.

Ross Leckie's first mistake is to try and compress Hannibal's expansive career into a work of less than 300 pages. This novel is one part of a trilogy of historical fiction about the Punic Wars, but Hannibal alone is worthy of a trilogy. The attempt to deal with so much material in a single novel was pure folly.

By compressing the history so ruthlessly, Leckie makes austere prose a detriment to his storytelling. Ordinarily I enjoy an austere writing style. There is almost no character development in the novel, with the singular exception of explaining Hannibal's hatred of Rome. However, this lone effort at character development is stillborn: we never actually feel any of Hannibal's hated, because it is never adequately described or conveyed. Hannibal himself is reduced to a one-dimensional character, which does the reader a great disservice. None of the supporting characters receive any development whatsoever: they are ciphers, used to advance what is essentially. This is what makes the novel so terribly dull - I could not find myself remotely interested in or caring for any of the characters.

It is also painfully obvious that Leckie's research is lacking, and he probably plagiarized Mary Renault's "Fire From Heaven" for one of his chapters.

I am thrilled with only one aspect of this novel: I bought it for only $1 at a used bookshop on a whim. It is atrocious historical fiction, and I only finished it so I could write this review in good conscience.

Rating:
Summary: Blood And War
Review: I didn't know anything about Hannibal before, and maybe (if the other reviews are right) I still don't, but this book is just fun. I do wish the author had spent a little more time on some of the later battles, but as a story its a great read.

Rating:
Summary: Fails to do justice to the great man
Review: I had high hopes when I picked up this book, but my feeling after reading it is a sense of disappointment. Leckie could - or should - have written a historical novel that brings out the many deep complexities of the fascinating person who was Hannibal, but alas he hasn't.

Livy (XXI, 4) paints a striking imagery of a handsome man who possessed that undefinable charisma and magnetism of personality, which inspires (quote) "love and obedience" in his men. He had a dynamism and force of character alluded to in Livy's description of his "vigorous expression" with "fire in his eyes", and an "air" about him. We also know Hannibal was highly intelligent, educated and cultured, egalitarian in his behavior, and not only a military genius but also an able administrator as shown during his suffetate of Carthage.

None of this is conveyed in Leckie's novel. Instead I was left with the impression of an unsophisticated, superficial, ugly, bloodthirsty barbarian, driven only by hatred, who enjoys indulging in gratuitous violence and torture. I venture to suggest that if Hannibal could have read this book, he would probably want to file a suit against Leckie for defamation of character.

My point is, the real Hannibal inspired love, loyalty and admiration in people who met him, and Leckie's characterization fails to inspire these same feelings in me.

The other thing which bugged me was the historical inaccuracies. While historical novels by their nature are of course permitted to take liberties with embellishing facts and details, I don't think this should be at the expense of actually changing known facts. This book is full of changed facts too numerous to mention, which I found frustrating and plain annoying. However, for those with no previous knowledge about Hannibal, or who don't really care, I suppose this might not be too much of an issue.

It's easy to be critical and negative, but then maybe I'm being picky, as I have read a lot of Hannibal books for ancient history class. Although I applaud Leckie for writing a novelization of Hannibal in the first place, in my opinion he misses the opportunity to do it full justice, which is a sad disappointment.

Rating:
Summary: A good novel on a very interesting subject
Review: I was instantly attracted to this book, especially because I didn't know much about Hannibal, Carthage or the Punic wars. I thought reading this book was a pleasure and I sure learned a few things that I will carry with me for a long time.

I personally liked the style of Mr. Ross Leckie and I think he has conducted his tale very well. The story is very interesting in itself, especially because it is about such a legend and it is passed in a very famous historical period. The character Hannibal is immensely interesting, with his hate for Rome and his courage to challenge and actually scare the most powerful nation of his time. His tactics, the times, the different races and ancient nations certainly add to the beauty of this story.

There are some bad reviews, but I think most of them are from people who have very solid historical backgrounds or a deep admiration for Hannibal. Surely this book is not the most accurate or perfect book written about Hannibal, but I don't believe this was the intention of the author, anyway. This book is a novel, and as novel it performs its role very well.

If you generally like the historical fiction genre, I have a strong feeling that you will enjoy this book very much. If you want to learn something about Hannibal and the Punic Wars and Carthage, in a pleasant package, I also think you will like this book. If you have a deep interest for history or demands total fidelity to historical records, you'd be happier with a biography or something similar.

Rating:
Summary: Could have been better
Review: im no historian, just a punic wars fan, and this book makes a great novel. I could hardly put it down, the action is fast paced, and the building of the hero, Hannibal is very well done, painting him not like a pillar of virtue, but as a normal human being, who loved and hated, like we all do. I dont know about the historical innacuracies, but as a novel, it was great fun to read...pity it was so short. But if you ve read your roman texts thoroughly, then dont buy the novel, otherwise well see your complaints on this very page, with the rest of the illuminati around here...

Rating:
Summary: Please, Hannibal deserves better
Review: The great Carthaginian general Hannibal committed suicide by taking poison; he hoped to give the Romans "what they have long desired, the death of an old man." Not to mention the worst enemy they'd encountered since the founding of their city, a man who so terrified the people of Rome that mothers scolded their little children into obedience with the words, "Hannibal is at the gates!"

Pick this book up and you will find nothing in it to evoke any of that terror.

Ross Leckie is a bad writer. I don't mean that he writes without regard for style or characterization, although that's true too. Leckie is an inaccurate writer, and while historical fiction is by its definition supposed to take liberties with the truth, it should at least stick to some basics. Or as the writer Harry Turtledove has said: Choose the lie you're going to tell, and then make your readers believe it.

It's impossible to believe when the style is reminiscent of some Cecil B. DeMille Biblical blockbuster, and the pages are riddled with outright thefts from other authors (yes, in Chapter 7, Leckie lifts whole an entire passage from Mary Renault's "Fire From Heaven," which made me laugh so hard at what publishers seem determined to miss in order to sell ANYTHING). And frankly, Leckie's Hannibal commits the cardinal sin: he is boring. I wouldn't follow this man across the street; Leckie expects us to believe that soldiers gave years of their lives to follow him over the Alps and into a foreign land with no support from the home base?

Find any other novel about Hannibal, and you will find something much more worthwhile than this. The National Enquirer on its worst day is more entertaining, and probably more accurate.

Rating:
Summary: A screnplay based on Leckies book "Hannibal the Conqueror"
Review: They are now making a movie based on this trash, and of all people - Vin Diesel is playing Hannibal. Yes, Hannibal did a few amazing things but he was no Conqueror. The real hero and conqueror is Scipio Africanus, Who defeated Hannibal at Zama, and conquered all of Hannibals Generals in Spain. A better read than Leckie, is "Scipio Africanus, Greater than Napoleon", by Sir Basil Henry Liddel Hart. Scipio was one of the greatest Generals of the Ancient World. A movie about Scipio should be made.

Rating:
Summary: A screnplay based on Leckies book "Hannibal the Conqueror"
Review: They are now making a movie based on this trash, and of all people - Vin Diesel is playing Hannibal. Yes, Hannibal did a few amazing things but he was no Conqueror. The real hero and conqueror is Scipio Africanus, Who defeated Hannibal at Zama, and conquered all of Hannibals Generals in Spain. A better read than Leckie, is "Scipio Africanus, Greater than Napoleon", by Sir Basil Henry Liddel Hart. Scipio was one of the greatest Generals of the Ancient World. A movie about Scipio should be made.

Rating:
Summary: Not for historians or Punic War buffs
Review: This novel is definitely not for the squeamish! There are great action scenes, but also a lot of scenes involving torture, crucifixion, execution, etc. This account may not be 100% historically accurate, but it IS a novel. It is a humorless novel of revenge and obsession, as it is implanted into Hannibal from an early age to hate the Romans and destroy them whenever possible. Of course, he becomes very good at this. Hannibal in this novel has no qualms whatsoever in torturing and maiming prisoners, camp followers, or natives of whatever region he is currently occupying. When he is laying siege to a city, one of his methods is to round up all the peasants in the area and have them disemboweled in the river upstream to poison the water supply. There is a very disturbing scene, when several pregnant Roman women are captured, Hannibal personally exacts his revenge...well, you have to read the book. Suffice to say it's graphic and doesn't pull any punches. All in all told, it is a well-told story, but as I've already said, not for the faint-hearted or those easily offended by graphic violence.

Sequels(of a sort)are 'Scipio Africanus' & 'Carthage.'