![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Gossipy Romans
Jul. 30th, 2005 10:22 pm09 July 2005
A Murder on the Appian Way / A Mist of Prophecies - Steven Saylor - Robinson 1998 / 2002
* * * / * * * *
Comparisons are invidious but inevitable. Lyndsey Davis and Steven Saylor both write murder mysteries based around a single viewpoint character and set in ancient Rome. Both make use of their protagonist's family and friends as a source of soap operatic elements to leaven the procedural strands of the story (neither of them, it must be said, is particularly good at whodunnit plots). Both clearly have an encyclopaedic knowledge of ancient Rome and a nice eye for detail. Both are witty, humane and intelligent writers. But I have to say that I prefer Davis' Falco series to Saylor's Roma sub Rosa, and the reasons for this are related to the aspects in which their milieux differ.
( Read more... )
A Murder on the Appian Way / A Mist of Prophecies - Steven Saylor - Robinson 1998 / 2002
* * * / * * * *
Comparisons are invidious but inevitable. Lyndsey Davis and Steven Saylor both write murder mysteries based around a single viewpoint character and set in ancient Rome. Both make use of their protagonist's family and friends as a source of soap operatic elements to leaven the procedural strands of the story (neither of them, it must be said, is particularly good at whodunnit plots). Both clearly have an encyclopaedic knowledge of ancient Rome and a nice eye for detail. Both are witty, humane and intelligent writers. But I have to say that I prefer Davis' Falco series to Saylor's Roma sub Rosa, and the reasons for this are related to the aspects in which their milieux differ.
( Read more... )
