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Empire of Dragons | 
 enlarge | Author: Valerio Massimo Manfredi
Publisher: Pan Books
Category: Book
List Price: £6.99
Buy New: £0.01
You Save: £6.98 (100%)
New (30) Used (56) from £0.01
Avg. Customer Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 22130
Media: Paperback
Edition: New edition
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 4.9 x 1.2
ISBN: 0330438263
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780330438261
ASIN: 0330438263
Publication Date: October 6, 2006
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: There is very slight shelf wear but the book is new and unread. It will be dispatched the same or next day.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 Back to his best October 22, 2008
In this novel Manfredi mergers 2 giants in history, Rome and China, and writes a gripping novel. Unlike his fact/fiction books, this is entirely fictional, but even so this is on a par with his Alexander books. Manfredi can be very up and down on form, but this is back to his best.
 Good thriller September 25, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I thought this book was a very good thriller. I agree with others' comments who say that you will not learn much from the book about ancient Rome and/or China but that does not detract from the overall very interesting hypothesis in the book or its enjoyability.
I enjoyed the way the author writes and the fact that the pace of the story is fast-moving; he avoids spending too long on any given section of the book and his descriptive passages are just long enough to paint a good mental picture without becoming long and consequently boring.
I agree that there is little character development in the book except for the main protagonists but I don't see how the smaller characters could be better developed in the space available. Also I think the first half of the book was slightly better, but the author is more knowledgeable about ancient Rome than ancient China so perhaps this is only to be expected.
Will definitely be reading more books by this author.
 Enough to make a Hollywood writer blush. March 28, 2007
6 out of 9 found this review helpful
"Hidden Dragon, Couching Tiger" meets "Gladiator" and the guild of Hollywood writers won hands down. A truly awful plot line, replete with mystical princes who can balance on one finger, princesses who can give away a part of their heart to save another and homing pidgeons that can home both ways.
There is evidence that Roman mercenaries did indeed serve a Chinese Emperor, but Manfredi chooses to present us with a plot fit only for a Hollywood executive desperate to find the next sand and sandles blockbuster. Manfredi is, apparently, a professor of classical archaeology in Italy, but one must presume that his expertise lies in digging trenches because he displays little knowledge of ancient Roman culture. The idea that Matellus would be shocked at the idea of an arranged imperial marriage is truly staggering. As to the dove - he should have sought advice from any Lancashire pidgeon fancier.
Truly awful and desperately disappointing when one considers what Manfredi could have done with the idea - the trials and tribulations of a Roman legion escaping the disaster in Persia that Crassus has led them into for instance? I presume that, having glimpsed the glittering prizes because of the filming of "The Last Legion," he simply couldn't help himself.
Comic book historical fiction March 19, 2007
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
Manfredi appears to be an adventure novelist, and this book, like Spartan, which I have previously read is very much a plot driven affair. Lots of action, but the author's treatment of the periods in which he sets the action is very poor.
Did I learn anything about ancient Rome, Persia and the Three Kingdom period of China from reading this? No, not at all. So we are very reliant on having great characters and a great plot. The characters are not bad but they don't have much depth. A Roman legate watches his wife die in his arms. Manfredi donates about two lines to describing how he feels about this event.
We have a China man who seems to have learnt so much about taoism, that he comes across as more like Spiderman. His martial feats would be more appropriate in a comic. This is comic book handling of historical fiction. In fact I would be interested in asking Manfredi if he actually regards his work as historical fiction. In his books plot and action take precedence.
What's all the more surprising is that Manfredi is purported to have a background in archaeology. I find that very hard to believe. If it is true, then he should be ashamed of the lack of historical content that goes into his novels. The novel may not be historically accurate but that doesn't necessarily matter if the period has been treated with affection.
Manfredi doesn't seem to have an interest in the historic side.
The plot keeps rolling along so it's a readable book. I just can't give it more than three stars because it could have been so much better than it is. If you are looking for a romp through the ancient Roman empire and across Asia circa 260AD then this is for you. If you are looking for some character development and a feel for the period in which the novel is set then you're going to be disappointed.
Not what it promises on the cover December 14, 2006
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
The idea of a novel exploring an encounter between Rome and China - the two great Empire of the classical world - is a fasncinating one. As the author says, there is evidence of a certain small amount of contact between them and there is almost certainly a place and a market for a 'what if' novel along the lines of Kim Stanley Robinson's "Years of Rice and Salt". However: you should be aware that this is not it.
It starts excellently; the author knows his Roman history and there is a clear sense of time and place in the adventures of a group of Legionnaires captured by the Persians with Emperor Valerian at Edessa in 260AD. This, however, takes more than the first half of the book, as the soldiers are condemned to slavery, escape and end up hooking up with a lost Prince of China. Whereas the first half of the book is a well-studied and interesting piece of writing, when we finally arrive in China we're suddenly in a high-kicking chop-socky spectacular.
The clash of styles is jarring.
The most awful thing is that much of the second half of the book appears to be written with half an eye to the movie rights. As you read, you can hear Hollywood script agents saying "It's high-concept! It's Roman Legions versus Wire-fu Ninjas! It's Gladiator meets Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon!" As an action film, I can see the value - the cash tills will be ringing. As a novel, it jars and doesn't convince. Used as we are to the uncompromising professionalism and stolidity of the Romans, the sudden arrival of (literally) superpowered ninja in a quasi-historical novel breaks suspension of disbelief. It's rare I put a book down without finishing it, but 60 pages from the end I had to make a conscious effort to read the painful deus-ex-machina conclusion.
I'm giving the book three stars because the first half is a good read. The second half is an unconvincing pitch to Hollywood with lead characters plainly modelled in the hope that Jet Li and Zhang Ziyi will be playing them. I like both historical epics and ludicrous kung-fu action adventures - I'm just not sure that they belong in the same book.
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