Having read recently three of the Marius' mules / SJA Turney series of books on Caesar in Gaul, I wanted to read a novel about a warrior from the "other side". I enjoyed this one, the story of Vercingetorix, leader of the Averni tribe. As a boy he watches the horrific death of his father, is reared by the druids, and has a hallucinogenic Vision showing him his destiny and that of the Gallic peoples. In his Vision, he sees a statue of himself; to this day he is a French national hero. In the author's conception he has much druid knowledge, besides being a fighter. The story tells of his friendship with Caesar for awhile until Caesar's British invasion [which didn't last]; Caesar's deceit and manipulation turn him into Caesar's implacable enemy. From then on, he struggles against the Romans, uniting the Gaulish tribes. The novel culminates in the battle of Gergovia, siege and burning of Bourges and final defeat at Alesia. These three battles were well done and very exciting. At Alesia, Caesar's military engineer comes up with an ingenious solution: circumvallation. Details of this battle were so vivid, I wouldn't be surprised if the author used Caesar's own writings.There were elements of fantasy, which I had to get used to. Caesar, in his falling-sickness seizures, would have visions; also Vercingetorix would have visions or dreams. Vercingetorix was fully fleshed out and sympathetic. Caesar was also a complete person, fitting our concept of him. All the other characters didn't really have personalities; they were there, it seemed to me, only as a background or sounding board to Vercingetorix or Caesar. The writing style was strange; there was a lot of surrealism and the author used certain phrases over and over, such as, 'the jaws of death'. There were maps on the endpapers but no notes or bibliographies, so I am assuming the history was not terribly accurate, except for the most important incidents. When I guessed that might be the case, I read the novel just as a very good story. I liked the military strategies presented by both the Gauls and the Romans, with each side trying to outguess the other: what the other side likely would or would not do. I liked Caesar's march across the Alps in the winter to get to Gaul to surprise the Gauls. I am sure druid rituals were pretty much the ideas of the author, since we don't know much about the druids. The relationships with the two women characters were odd, to say the least. I recommend this novel, but maybe the history should be taken with a grain of salt...
I hereby propose a comprehensive act of Congress prohibiting fantasy authors from writing sex scenes.Otherwise, the Druid King is pretty well written, just somewhat...trashy? The story is compelling enough (after all, the story of Caeser's conquest of Gaul has been passed for longer than the Bible), but the added psychotropic mushrooms and predestination don't really add too much to the story. Something about the crushing weight of Destiny diminishes, rather than enhances the legend of Vercingetorix.I'm almost tempted to bump it to three stars because it kept me up reading until the wee hours of the morning, but I think that's largely a result of the fact that I can't resist swords and sorcery, no matter what the quality (except Xanth: Piers Anthony need not apply).
Do You like book The Druid King (2004)?
I guess with historical fiction the trap is that the fictionalization is locked into the hard framework of history, thereby limiting the possible flow and spontaneity of the novel. It's certainly true with this book, where terrible events happen which any real person would avoid, and characters are held forth to awful fates by allegiance to their own visions. This aspect makes the plot seem mechanical, and inevitable. It doesn't help that peripheral characters are not well developed enough to dispel their appearing to be convenient props. Well, for someone who has no prior knowledge of the time period, save for reading Shakespeare's Julius Caeser, the story is interesting to read, but lacks the poetic embellishments of a drama to dress it up. This is swords and storytelling, with cleverly depicted battle scenes which lend a lot of appreciation to the Roman war machine. Caesar and Vercingetorix come across as two sides of a flipped coin, while the world spins in the background, inconsequentially.
—Mark Schomburg
Well done novel about possibly Caesar's greatest foe?This novel takes a smart move in not just telling us of Caesar and his march through Gaul which made his name famous, but mostly about Vercingetorix, the leader of the peoples he eventually vanquished, this novel shows the lengths Caesar had to go to defeat him in open battle and how even then all was close, Vercingetorix had more men but much less disciplined, how he used guerrilla tactics and how he ran Caesar close, he still with this force nearly defeated Caesar, great read for anyone interested in Roman wars and especially Caesar
—Matthew
This was an ok book. Well crafted, interesting, a unique representation of the events. So far as I know, the narrative is compatible with Caesar's representation of the course of events. The battle scenes are over-the-top exciting in a cinematic way. My main impression was that this is heroic fantasy without the fantasy. Actual magic was replaced by a vague mysticism. An awful lot of the narrative revolves around Vercingetorix's repressed sexuality. It's a page-turner, and I'm glad I read it, but it is not a book I will ever own.
—Larry
