Rating: 
Summary: astounding travel with Gordianus
Review: ..quite simply,i loved this book,could not put it down until finished,while i admit i bought the book to meet up again with Meto (my secret favorite),i was facinated with all the people surrounding Gordianus,each with a different and spirit-full attitude.The authors discription of Caesar was so telling in this particular novel,as if looking at Caesar over a long career and relationship where better able to study the aging of this great man,and Gordianus reaches a high point in his life as well,finding unexpected inner peace and strength...I enjoy how all the characters have developed and gone ahead,knowing there is more in the future for each...this book is recommended and will bring colorful dreams to the reader...i promise..the authors website is kool too!!
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Summary: More History Than Mystery
Review: Although this latest Gordianus novel contains little mystery, Saylor's writing is still mesmerizing and sensual. Reading these novels out of order is absolutely not recommended, but faithful readers will be rewarded, as usual. I am a bit worried, though - is this the last Gordianus novel? Say it isn't so, Mr. Saylor!
Rating:
Summary: An enjoyable vist with an old friend
Review: First, writer's of historical fiction are not required to be 100% acurate with their facts. It is called FICTION. They certainly must be 100% true to the tenor of the times and the basic characters of their protaganists. Saylor, as always, does this. Most important he is true to the essence of his series characters.
Second, the next in the series? I don't know. I always wondered why Saylor aged his hero so quickly. Do we know why now?
Third, it's a good read. Up to his usual very fine standards.
Rating: 
Summary: Fractured Plot but Readable
Review: I enjoy Steven Saylors choice of topics and his writing style, however for me this was not one of his best books in terms of plot - the mystery does not even start until late in the book (this is a mystery isn't it?), and it seems overly contrived that Gordianus becomes a first hand witness to so many major historical events.
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Summary: Saylor's latest adventure is wonderful
Review: I just love this series. The Roma Sub Rosa series by Steven Saylor continues to amaze me. Each book combines an accurate historical account of ancient Roman life which in itself is enthralling but there's also the mystery and the continuing saga of the Finders family to whom I am devoted. Reading this last one was every bit as exciting as the previous 9. I couldn't put it down. I highly recommend all the books in this series - but do read them in chronological order. I pray there will be more!
Rating:
Summary: Another winner from Saylor
Review: I've read all his "Sub Rosa" series and they are each excellent in their own right. This one is no different. A pure pleasure to read. I would recommend his whole series with Gordianus The Finder, even you don't think you would like historical mysteries (I didn't this I would), I ended up falling in love with this series.
Rating:
Summary: A Must-read for lovers of Caesar or Roman history
Review: I've read all Saylor's books since "Roman Blood" over a decade ago, and have watched him deepen in texture and subtlety in the process. His marvelous fictional detective, Gordianus the Finder, is a Roman private eye in Rome during the time of Julius Caesar and the late Republic. Saylor has always been (unlike many others in the "Roman gumshoe" novels, now so popular) meticulous in his research and takes a given historical set of facts, then plays with their possibilities without straying from history as we know it. However, of the history we do know, there is much that can be questioned, and no one is better at finding out the truth than Gordianus.I have noticed, particularly since his "Last Seen in Massilia," that Saylor seems to have lately gone beyond simply writing a good historical mystery, which may account for some reviewers' who don't like this book for precisely the reason I find it one of his best. Saylor no longer hangs his entire plot around a murder, but has branched out, as his fictional characters have developed, into a more mature and complex web. At the same time, the actual historical period he's entered is one of the most amazing periods in all world history - the Civil War brought on between Caesar and the Republicans, after Caesar crosses the Rubicon. Many long books ago, Gordianus' adopted son, Meto, became a staff aid to Caesar when he was just another ambitious general in the provinces. Now, of course, it's 48 BC and Caesar, having destroyed Pompey's armies, rules the Roman world. Personal events bring Gordianus and his wife, Bethesda, to Alexandria just at the time that Pompey has fled there after his defeat by Caesar at Pharsalus, seeking to grasp Egypt's riches to save his cause. Caesar follows hot on his heels, with much the same plan. Gordianus, Meto - even Bethesda - are caught in this web of shifting allegiance, lies, betrayal, high politics, and stunning world characters; thus this book becomes much more than just a simple murder mystery. Gordianus is strengthened in his character of the staunch Republican who prefers truth to diplomatic truths and integrity to self-aggrandizement - but you will see what it brings him in this new, raw, Roman world. I've studied much about Alexandria in Caesar's time, but I recall no book that made me 'see' its magnificent streets and temples, its tempestuous mobs and tortuous rulers, as clearly as Saylor does in "The Judgment of Caesar." Just as his plots are much richer than before, so the very title speaks to many facets of the plot - the most important being, how Caesar's judgments, large and small, right or wrong, are now capable of changing the Roman world. Whether adversaries succeed in twisting his judgment, is part of the fun of the story. The murder is integral to the story and I found it well written and well solved; but it's only one of the pleasures of this book. I've written at length on Caesar, Pompey, and Cleopatra in my own web site, but Saylor also finds a fascinating twist in his view of King Ptolemy - and deftly weaves that into the facts of history as we know it, as if he was painting in the backdrop for historical characters to strut before. I would highly recommend this book for those who want a good touch of mystery, but far more well-written fictional history. Saylor just gets better. S. Cross
Web Author, Julius Caesar: The Last Dictator
Rating:
Summary: The Judgment of Caesar
Review: If you want a mystery that is right up in your face during the whole book don't buy this. The mystery begins late in the book. But you shold be patient with it because once the case is solved, you realize that almost everything earler in the book builds up to the case. I don't know much about ancient Egypt so I would'nt know the historical stuff. Gordianus the finder is the main character and the story is told from his point of view. I'm kind of glad that it was'nt Caesar's view, esspesially when he's alone with Cleopatra... One of the most startling things in the book was when Cleopatra rolled out of the rug in Caesars room, it was kind of funny also.The story is about Gordianus and Bethesda, his wife, and adopted son who was a mute going to Alexandria. The slave boys, Androcles and Mopsusare witht them also. They are surrounded by Pompey's galleys. For those who don't know, you pronounce it POMpee. Gordianus is thrown on an island and takes Bethesda to bathe in the Nile because she is ill. but she dissapeared. Gordianus is captured by King Ptolemy and is taken in. The actual case is a failed assanation on Casar; well, kind of. I foud the answer to the case long before Gordianus did. Although I was missing many things. to the case. Pothinus the eunuch said in this book; "Dead men dont bite." Oh, he was wrong.
Rating: 
Summary: A parable of the current epoch
Review: Julius Caesar, who fancied himself a direct descendant of Venus, the goddess of love, was, his soldiers sang, "every woman's husband and every man's husband." His well documented bisexuality affected his judgment as he vacillated between the two sibling contenders to the Egyptian throne, fifteen year-old Ptolemy and twenty-one year-old Cleopatra, his sister-wife, who were worshipped by some but not all Egyptians as the living embodiments of the divine Isis and Osiris. As if this motif is not sufficiently dark, the author-narrator overlays an elaborate apologia for homosexuality in general and for pederasty in particular that is inarguably subcultural (pages 151-2). Relieving these somber aspects is a universality of theme and plot so applicable to our terror-prone times as to constitute a parable, just as Biblical accounts of conflicts between Syrians and Jews remind us of current events in the mideast. A few quotations employing Shakespearean chiasmus and Orwellian new-speak will suffice to demonstrate these parallels. "I come not to threaten Egypt, but to embrace her." (Compare Antony's ironic assurance to the Roman mob: "I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.") "The whole world shall be unified under Rome, and Rome shall be unified under Caesar, but, for that to happen, Egypt [read Iraq] must be pacified and brought under Caesar's sway." "Cleopatra has promised to give Caesar a son [who will] found a dynasty to rule the whole world forever," and when she becomes pregnant Caesar "has no doubt that it is his," ignoring her various trysts with others. But, the narrator's son, Meto, wonders, "What if the life of anyone - even an enslaved captive - mattered as much as anyone else's, even Caesar's?" (Remember the post-9/11 military overflights above Washington, D.C., which continued long after those over New York ceased?) When Caesar is in danger of being defeated by Ptolemy's forces, the narrator salutarily observes that "the death of the so-called great [men, especially those whose hubris encourages sycophants to declare in their approving presence that they were divinely chosen to lead] is often more squalid and terrifying [Mussolini comes to mind] than the deaths of their more humble subjects."
Rating: 
Summary: An Excellent Read
Review: Mr. Saylor's Gordianus the Finder is starting to run Falco very close for top sleuth in the Roman crime fighters (although he is from the 1st century BC). It is very difficult to fault these books and this is one of the best yet.
This one features Caesar and the fight for the throne of Egypt between brother and sister. Of course Gordianus becomes embroiled in the plot and the story keeps the reader interested throughout the book. Saylor has the ability to weave a good plot and make it believable for the reader.
For those new to these books, I commend them to you. For avid readers I say on your behalf, keep them coming Steven.
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