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Tyrant | 
 enlarge | Author: Valerio Massimo Manfredi
Creator: Sir Derek Jacobi
Publisher: Macmillan Digital Audio
Category: Book
List Price: £16.99
Buy New: £8.98
You Save: £8.01 (47%)
New (15) Used (3) from £7.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 330715
Format: Audiobook
Media: Audio CD
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 5.7 x 4.9 x 0.9
ISBN: 0230704174
EAN: 9780230704176
ASIN: 0230704174
Publication Date: July 4, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
 Excellent October 22, 2008
Manfredi is on safe ground here doing what he does best. This time for Dionysis, who for me was a new historical charachter (although I knew the name). Manfredi delivers another epic page turner, a must for historical fiction fans!
 A Thin Slice of History April 16, 2008
As usual Manfredi writes reasonably well and the story at least has the benefit of some sense of reality. But, and its a big but, I always come away from one of his novels with a sense of disappointment. The book is too brief, the characters are not explored fully and large slices of history are simply ignored. The conclusion that Dionysis fails because of his absolutism is trite and is not explored properly. As usual Manfredi sacrifices a the opportunity to write a really good book in the interests of airport sales. This, of course, is not uncommon nowadays, but I really do think that a bit more effort should have been put in. We see the story of Dionysis but never really understand it or him. Verdict - could have done better.
 Manfredi needs a new editor June 10, 2007
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
I have read two other Manfredi books besides this one and they all share one characteristic, to one degree or another. There are too many instances where the English used just isn't, well . . . "right". Either the word is wrong or the phrasing of the sentence is stiff and awkward. I assume that English is the author's second language (Italian being the first) and that everything he writes goes through an editor. Or maybe he dictates in Italian and it is then translated? Whichever, the instances are often and jarring enough that they become a distraction. How much of an editor would it take to prevent assaulting the reader with something like "they refurbished their water supply"? Add to this the tendency to make most of the characters sound like Homeric translations and I find Manfredi quite tiring.
Enjoyable - but not a classic March 24, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
When I started reading this one day on the bus I got so absorbed by the story that I missed my stop. The early parts of the book, with the story of how Dionysius' character was formed and almost elegiac descriptions of the doomed Greek colonies of western Sicily awaiting their destruction at the hands of the Carthaginians, are very good indeed. But like others I felt that the later sections, which are much more episodic with large stretches of time between them going undescribed, were less enthralling. And I too found the ending very abrupt and so somewhat disappointing. Still, a good read and I'm glad I read it.
 Historical Fiction at it's Best September 22, 2006
7 out of 11 found this review helpful
Few authors can be better equipped to write about the history of ancient Greece and Rome than Valerio Massimo Manfredi. Professor of archaeology at the university of Milan, he has carried out many excavations and expeditions in the Mediterranean region. He has produced many factual books on historical matters, mainly military and has still found the time to write several novels and this is one of the best of them.
I think that this is one of the authors best books to date and he has written several excellent ones including the Alexander trilogy which received world wide acclaim and probably brought the authors name to the forefront of ancient historical writers.
The book takes place in 412 AD and charts the clash of one man and a superpower. The man is Dionysius of Syracuse. The superpower is Carthage, a city with thriving trade links and one of the most powerful navies in the Mediterranean. How can a 20-year-old even think of going against the might and resources of a place such as Carthage.
Thus begins the journey into manhood of a man who rose to gather one of the greatest armies in the Ancient World and also invented many of the trappings of war that lasted for centuries. Machines never seen before by mankind. Machines that could wreak havoc and destruction on a scale never before dreamed of. Dionysius also invented the quinquereme a five module battleship that had fifty oarsmen to propel through the water.
But who was the man Dionysius, was he the ruthless, murdering tyrant that his enemies depicted or was he an intelligent man born ahead of his time. History has lumped him with the so called tyrants, but the greatness of the man is impossible to deny.
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