- Paperback: 480 pages
- Publisher: Tor Books; First Edition edition (Nov 18 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0765344513
- ISBN-13: 978-0765344519
- Product Dimensions: 16.2 x 13.7 x 3.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 231 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,814,873 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
There's a mountain of solid scholarship entertainingly dished out in this fact-based historical tale of an ancient trading mission in the years following the death of Alexander the Great. But the featureless "and then" narration renders the story at once engrossing and flat. Dispensing facts chiefly through dialogue, Turteltaub not so much narrates as lays out the trading journey of the Aphrodite, under the command of two Rhodian cousins, Menedemos and Sostratos, as they attempt to carry, among other items of cargo, a peacock and some peahens safely from Rhodes to Pompeii in Italy. Along the way, the cousins, who are paired off like an ancient Greek version of Oscar and Felix (Menedemos is the roustabout, Sostratos the accountant), take their own and each other's measure and play a part in larger historical events. But because there is little authorial direction with everything communicated through his characters' mouths, third-person narration is almost nonexistent the story and the history are flavorless and forgettable. Turteltaub (familiar to readers of science fiction as Harry Turtledove) may have intended this stripped-down style to add to his tale's realism, but there is little life behind his impressive armada of facts. And since we share their thoughts but little of their inner life, the two main characters rarely rise above their schematic position as opposites. The journey of the trading vessel Aphrodite may have covered hundreds of miles, but the reader will end this novel still waiting for the book's real journey to begin.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.From Library Journal
A painless way to learn history is to read a well-researched historical novel such as this latest from Turteltaub (a pseudonym for novelist Harry Turtledove, author of Justinian, LJ 6/15/98). Here, he instructs and entertains with a novel of Rhodes in 310 B.C.E. Menedemos and Sostratos, two very engaging (and very different) cousins, are traders on the Mediterranean in such exotic cargo as silks, wine, and peacocks. Their adventures as they journey from Rhodes to Asia Minor and Italy form the basis of the story. Along the way, we learn about sailing, dress, eating, and other everyday customs of the Hellenistic world. Although the book has maps and a table of weights, measures, and money, it suffers from the lack of a glossary; unfamiliar words frequently interrupt the flow and do not always have contextual clues, limiting the pleasure one would take in this otherwise well-written book. Fred M. Gervat, Concordia Coll. Lib., Bronxville, NY
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
MENEDEMOS AND HIS COUSIN SOSTRATOS walked down toward the Aphrodite in the main harbor of Rhodes. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
MENEDEMOS AND HIS COUSIN SOSTRATOS walked down toward the Aphrodite in the main harbor of Rhodes. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining but kind of annoying,
By
This review is from: Over the Wine-Dark Sea (Hardcover)
During the first third of this book, I kept checking to make sure it was written by the same author that wrote the sophisticated and dramatic "Justinian", a book that I loved. The two cousins, Sostratos and Menedemos, who are sent on a trading journey across the Aegean Sea seem very immature, continually arguing about insignificant matters, when it seems more realistic that they'd be concerned about guiding their ship and managing their crew. I was amazed that so much of the story focused on trading their cargo of peacocks, which the cousins continually argued and worried about as the peacocks ran around deck and bit the crew.What I particularly noticed during the first third of the book was the author's unsophisticated writing style in his method of conveying the historical setting. In most historical fiction, you absorb the history through the action, but the two cousins were constantly discussing the ancient writers, describing the different ships, clothing and places, supposedly instructing one another, but it was obvious that their dialogue was meant to instruct the reader. It was an unskillful and unsubtle writing technique. In spite of these annoyances, the story was entertaining enough to keep me reading as they confronted pirates, got into messes with merchants' wives in places they traded, skirmished with a sword-brandishing mercenary, and had other amusing adventures. There were no intensely violent scenarios, and they always escaped, mostly unscathed, so the mood of the book is pretty lighthearted. In spite of the immature bickering of the cousins, I enjoyed their adventures and was able to form a mental image of the the culture and sights of this early Greek period.
4.0 out of 5 stars
A LOOK INTO ANOTHER TIME,
By MJR reader "mjayr5859" (Valencia, CA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Over the Wine-Dark Sea (Hardcover)
This is a very clever book that gives the reader a look at another time, over two thousand years ago. While not as good as the author's previous historical novel, "Justanian," "Wine Dark Sea" is a excellent read. You won't find it in most book stores so order it here, you won't be disapointed! ...
5.0 out of 5 stars
You'll read this more than once.,
By
This review is from: Over the Wine-Dark Sea (Hardcover)
This is a masterly evocation of the ancient world -- with interesting characters who are sympathetic and understandable, but _not_ like modern people stuffed into chitons.The scholarship is solid but not obtrusive, the action is exciting, and the settings are well-drawn. I'm particularly impressed by the way the language -- while natural, smoothly written English -- _feels_ like ancient Greek. When you've read this book, you'll want to read it again for the bits you missed; and you'll know down in your bones that it's a long, dangerous way from Rhodes to Italy.
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