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The Shadow of Ararat Book One of 'The Oath of Empire' Thomas Harlan Books

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The Shadow of Ararat Book One of 'The Oath of Empire' Thomas Harlan Books

Shadow of Ararat is book 1 (of 4) in what is shaping up to be an epic in today's fantasy/sci-fi genre's.
The author does an extremely fine job of detailing all surroundings, no matter how trivial, so as you can paint the best possible picture in your mind. The varying landscapes of this novel are a joy to read.
The characters, for the most part, are interesting, and you soon take on a few favorites. However, some (not all) are very cliche, the same type you see over and over again in these types of novels. And a few of the names are hard to pronounce (because of thier heritage). Lastly there are soooo many characters to keep track of, it may get confusing at times who is on who's side, and who is related or connected to someone else.
The novel itself is good, but what makes this very interesting is that there are multiple stories going on concurrently, and one overall 'big picture'. I found that the introduction of the book was fun and showed a lot of promise, but soon the story takes on a more lethargic tone, and it seems to take forever. Only until the last 100 pages, where once again the book picks up in action and resolves some plot lines. This is where the book is made, and now I MUST buy the second to see how things pan out.
I personally would have liked to see much more involvement of the Egyptians, both in characters and in landscape. Though this is a book about the Roman Empire, a large portion of the book does not take place anywhere near Rome or Egypt, but Persia.
Overall this 510 page book, probably could have been just as good, or better, by cutting out some non-essential occurences (maybe they were meant to flesh out chracters) and bringing it down to 350-375 pages.


Tags : Amazon.com: The Shadow of Ararat: Book One of 'The Oath of Empire' (9780312865436): Thomas Harlan: Books,Thomas Harlan,The Shadow of Ararat: Book One of 'The Oath of Empire',Tor Books,0312865430,Historical - General,Alternative histories (Fiction),Fantasy fiction.,Rome;Fiction.,AMERICAN SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY,FICTION Historical General,Fantasy,Fantasy fiction,Fiction,Fiction - Coming of Age,Fiction Fantasy Epic,GENERAL,General Adult,Rome,United States,Alternative histories (Fiction

The Shadow of Ararat Book One of 'The Oath of Empire' Thomas Harlan Books Reviews

An alternative-history epic, this envisions a world where magic works and the Roman Empire is divided between the western emperor in Rome and his eastern counterpart in Constantinople.

The eastern emperor talks the western emperor into joining armies with him and invading the Persian empire. At the same time, the younger brother of the western emperor discovers that a mysterious curse has been sapping his countrymen of their vitality for generations.

He raises Julius Caeser from the dead to help him research this; it soon becomes apparent that he too must go to Persia to locate the tomb of Alexander the Great and raise him to help break the curse. These two plotlines are drawn out over a lot of pages the Persian invasion is wrapped up, but the curse plotline is left to carry into the sequels.

The viewpoint characters are numerous Prince Maxim; Dwyrin, a Celtic boy trained in an Egyptian school of magic and drafted into the legions; Ahmet, his guilt-stricken schoolmaster; Krista, a conniving slave girl; Thyatis, a woman assassin elevated to centurion rank in the western army; and even a pre-Islamic Mohammed. (Interestingly enough there's no Christianity or Judaism around whatsoever.)

A solidly researched story, it contains several breathtakingly realistic battle scenes, and the magic is thoroughly grounded in concepts like auric fields and the all-encompassing energy matrix.

Aside from sheer wordiness, one crucial thing dragged this book down from greatness the characters are all stock-types subordinate to the plot. That's what made it ultimately seem to go on mind-numbingly long.

The poor author especially can't do female characters though he means well. They are all sex goddesses who are either conniving (the Duchess, Krista the slave girl) or saintly (the Queen of Palmyra).

Then there's Thyatis (and a minor character Zoe, a love interest for Dwyrin) they are men, period. I know they're clothed in the bodies of gorgeous women, but they read like transgendered males in personality.

I'd sort of like to know how the series turns out but I don't think I commit myself to another lengthy stay in this universe - at least not for a very long while.
Item as advertised delivery as quoted
This is the first book I have ever read by this author . I am currently reading the second book in this series and am looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
This book was really good. I read it the first time about 10 years ago and it just got better the second time I read it.
Read this first when I was in high school. It's not as good as I remember it. Typos everywhere in the kindle version. Really disappointed
The Shadow of Ararat is one part historical novel, two parts adventure story. This book is a lot of fun, and the reader quickly finds out that anything goes. Thomas Harlan's staggering creativity and attention to detail help him build a rich and complex backdrop for this exciting story. He creates a cadre of complex and compelling characters, then breathes life into them with lots of action, surprising plot twists and a spellbinding story. The book gets better and better as it goes along; it almost seems to pick up momentum by the page. You will NOT be bored by this novel. I can't wait for the next installment.
Shadow of Ararat is book 1 (of 4) in what is shaping up to be an epic in today's fantasy/sci-fi genre's.
The author does an extremely fine job of detailing all surroundings, no matter how trivial, so as you can paint the best possible picture in your mind. The varying landscapes of this novel are a joy to read.
The characters, for the most part, are interesting, and you soon take on a few favorites. However, some (not all) are very cliche, the same type you see over and over again in these types of novels. And a few of the names are hard to pronounce (because of thier heritage). Lastly there are soooo many characters to keep track of, it may get confusing at times who is on who's side, and who is related or connected to someone else.
The novel itself is good, but what makes this very interesting is that there are multiple stories going on concurrently, and one overall 'big picture'. I found that the introduction of the book was fun and showed a lot of promise, but soon the story takes on a more lethargic tone, and it seems to take forever. Only until the last 100 pages, where once again the book picks up in action and resolves some plot lines. This is where the book is made, and now I MUST buy the second to see how things pan out.
I personally would have liked to see much more involvement of the Egyptians, both in characters and in landscape. Though this is a book about the Roman Empire, a large portion of the book does not take place anywhere near Rome or Egypt, but Persia.
Overall this 510 page book, probably could have been just as good, or better, by cutting out some non-essential occurences (maybe they were meant to flesh out chracters) and bringing it down to 350-375 pages.