I was at the bookstore doing some Christmas shopping when I happened upon The October Horse, the latest and last entry in Colleen McCullough’s Masters of Rome series. I hadn’t known it was out and was completely thrilled. I bought it immediately and told Darin it was his Christmas gift to me.
(He said, “I thought the iBook was.” I told him to hush.)
I finally began reading it about two weeks ago. It took me a week to read. Given that The October Horse is 800 pages, a week sounds like I read it at a good clip, except I’m just about the fastest reader I know. Reading the book was an experience completely unlike the first five entries in the series: it was tedious, ponderous, and crammed with so many facts and people’s names that it reads like the worst Ancient History textbook. The book is so not engaging that it read like McCullough wrote it in a weekend—a meth-fueled weekend, given how long and dense the novel is, but a weekend nonetheless.
The October Horse has the subtitle “A Novel of Caesar and Cleopatra,” which is the most misleading phrase under a title since all those Nancy Drew novels said “By Carolyn Keene.” Caesar and Cleopatra do get together in this novel, but it’s a deeply uninteresting coupling. Perhaps making Caesar and Cleopatra unromantic is McCullough’s way of putting new light on the tale, but it didn’t draw me in. Not that this is a major drawback, since Cleopatra hardly figures in the tale.
No, The October Horse is primarily the tale of SuperJulius—er, I mean, Caesar—as he dashes around the Mediterranean Sea, putting down rebellions here, setting up new governments there, vanquishing the Republican side of the Civil War. Everywhere he goes he inspires admiration (certainly from McCullough, who apparently thinks Caesar walked on water) and even more resentment from all the men he’s outshines (which is almost nearly the same subset of Roman citizens as the men Caesar has cuckolded). The resentment leads to a conspiracy against Caesar, eventually leading to Caesar’s assassination.
Weirdly, the book doesn’t end there.
The last third of the book discusses the ascendance of Caesar’s grand-nephew (and adopted son) Octavius in Roman politics and what happened to the conspirators afterward. I thought the ending was weird because it leaves us hanging with regard to what happens to a few of the major players: Octavius (who will eventually change his name to Augustus), Mark Antony, Cleopatra. McCullough tells us a few things about what happens afterward, but she had plenty of material for at least one more book: Mark Antony and Cleopatra, Augustus’s consolidation of power, the definite end of the Republic.
Given how much I loved the first five books—to the point of haunting used book stores until I found the first few in hardback—I found The October Horse to be an unfortunate conclusion to the Masters of Rome series.
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The Masters of Rome series:
Does this mean I don’t have to finish it?
For the book report, just do what I always did: read the book jacket and make something up.
Have you tried the Roma Sub Rosa series by Steven Saylor? They are more-or-less mysteries and, it seems, largely respected for attention to historical detail. I read the books in about four weeks last year and loved them.
I liked it better than you did, Diane, but I agree it’s weaker than the previous books. I found the political side of the earlier books in the series the most interesting, and that’s largely missing here.
However, I did find the contrast between McCullough’s portrayal of Augustus (a brilliant, conniving politician, particular in the scene where he brings his army to fight Antony and ends up joining forces) with Graves’ portrayal in “I, Claudius” (a kind-hearted but easily deceived man).
And, yes, Rob, you do have to finish it. 🙂
Damn.
I was at the bookstore doing some Christmas shopping when I happened upon The October Horse, the latest and last entry in Colleen McCullough’s Masters of Rome series. I hadn’t known it was out and was completely thrilled. I bought it immediately and told myself it was my Christmas gift to meself. Sorry I had to copy the first statement because I felt that was my story. I just could not beleive that the hard back came out in 2002. Where was I? In Alaska. Yes I live in Alaska. I have been looking for this book for years and just cannot beleive that I missed it last year.
Unfortunately I was left extremely dishearted with the book. I felt that the author just wanted to finish the series and get along with her life. Colleen you said that you wanted to take your time on this last book but it feels rushed. I feel like waiting for the EE DVD version of the book. And yes when Augustus becomes becomes emperor is 17AD is usually considered the end of the Republic.