Tämä sivusto käyttää evästeitä palvelujen toimittamiseen, toiminnan parantamiseen, analytiikkaan ja (jos et ole kirjautunut sisään) mainostamiseen. Käyttämällä LibraryThingiä ilmaiset, että olet lukenut ja ymmärtänyt käyttöehdot ja yksityisyydensuojakäytännöt. Sivujen ja palveluiden käytön tulee olla näiden ehtojen ja käytäntöjen mukaista.
Decius Caecilius Metellus, this year's magistrate for cases involving foreigners, is living the good life in southern Italy, happy to be away from Rome, a city suffering war jitters over Caesar's impending actions. He thinks he is merely visiting one of the local sights when he takes a party to visit the Oracle of the Dead, a pre-Roman cult site located at the end of a tunnel dug beneath a temple of Apollo. He quickly learns that there is a bitter rivalry between the priests of Apollo and those of Hecate, who guard the oracle. When the priests of Apollo are all killed, the countryside looks to explode in violence as Greeks, Romans and native Italians of several conquered nations bring out old enmities. Decius is caught squarely in the middle, desperate to find a way out that will pacify the district and, incidentally, save his own skin. This riveting series began with the Edgar Award-nominated SPQR and has gone on to international success in 13 languages.… (lisätietoja)
This book finds our hero judging cases in Southern Italy while deciding what to do about Ceasar and his showdown with the Senate. Fortunately he has the murder of a group of priests of Apollo to distract him. ( )
Pleasant enough excursion into the Campania with Decius Metellus, with the political situation rumbling ominously in the background. Decius is serving his year as magistrate for cases involving foreigners, and is visiting the area around the Bay of Naples. He is present at a local oracle when a body appears under mysterious circumstances, and sets to investigating a plot that grows more and more complex. Meanwhile, Caesar is poised to cross the Rubicon, and Decius wants to get as far away from Rome as he can. As usual, Decius is a dry and witty central character, and the detail on life in the Campania is interesting. Julia, who is getting rather shrewish in her middle age, figures prominently. ( )
Plot: The usual muddled crime plot, helped along by coincidences and a few leaps of logic. A few little side plots, but not quite as many as the city-bound books usually have. The historical setting is there, but in the background.
Characters: Decius, as always, is wonderful, as are the other established characters. Unfortunately history has eliminated a lot of the historical ones by now, and they're missed. The suspects are not very interesting in this round, and feel flat and out-of-the-box.
Style: The usual tongue-in-cheek writing, which really is what makes those books so much fun to read. What is lacking are those little scenes of everyday life, which makes the story feel relatively distant.
Plus: Cults and religion as the background, which is always interesting to see.
Minus: Routine has set in, which together with the out-of-Rome setting makes the story move very slowly.
Summary: Worth reading, but far from the best in the series. ( )
Tiedot englanninkielisestä Yhteisestä tiedosta.Muokkaa kotoistaaksesi se omalle kielellesi.
This book is dedicated to the Albuquerque
First Friday Writers' Group
with special affection for Tony Hillerman
an inspiration and encouragement
for writers everywhere
Ensimmäiset sanat
Tiedot englanninkielisestä Yhteisestä tiedosta.Muokkaa kotoistaaksesi se omalle kielellesi.
I first heard of the Oracle of the Dead during the year of my praetorship.
Sitaatit
Tiedot englanninkielisestä Yhteisestä tiedosta.Muokkaa kotoistaaksesi se omalle kielellesi.
"The Oracle is the source of all knowledge," she said in that thrillingly portentous voice employed by religious charlatans everywhere. p.4
But it seems to me that all the defeated and subjugated people in history somehow acquire the reputation of having been great sorcerers. I find myself wondering how, if they had such potent magic at their command, they always got themselves conquered by unmagical but soldierly people. To carve and move big stones all you need is a lot of time, a lot of manpower, and an odd idea of what it is the gods want. p.31
Roman ladies of those days weren't upset by dead bodies, what with all the disorder and combat in the City. These days they are more delicate. With all the peace and quiet enforced by the First Citizen, everyone has gotten disgracefully soft. I've seen patrician ladies turn pale at the sight of a gladiator being killed. p.42
Our host has thoughtfully brought along some burly slaves who carried sizable jugs of wine and others with cups; girls passed around cups to us all, and soon we were standing around the bodies sipping at the excellent vintage like guests at an embassy reception. p.43
Viimeiset sanat
Tiedot englanninkielisestä Yhteisestä tiedosta.Muokkaa kotoistaaksesi se omalle kielellesi.
We did not know it then, but it was the last year of the true Republic.
Decius Caecilius Metellus, this year's magistrate for cases involving foreigners, is living the good life in southern Italy, happy to be away from Rome, a city suffering war jitters over Caesar's impending actions. He thinks he is merely visiting one of the local sights when he takes a party to visit the Oracle of the Dead, a pre-Roman cult site located at the end of a tunnel dug beneath a temple of Apollo. He quickly learns that there is a bitter rivalry between the priests of Apollo and those of Hecate, who guard the oracle. When the priests of Apollo are all killed, the countryside looks to explode in violence as Greeks, Romans and native Italians of several conquered nations bring out old enmities. Decius is caught squarely in the middle, desperate to find a way out that will pacify the district and, incidentally, save his own skin. This riveting series began with the Edgar Award-nominated SPQR and has gone on to international success in 13 languages.
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