Reader’s Diary

Harry Turtledove

Turtledove should be required reading in a “how not to write a novel” course. His work provides endless lessons: characters in the same book should have some relation to each other; a book should have a plot; characters should think and talk differently; readers appreciate it when the pace varies, and so on. Everything I said about the previous book in the series applies to this one, though I was wrong in one detail: the series isn’t a trilogy. In fact, it may go on forever, or at least as long as Turtledove’s publishers pay by the pound.

Colleen McCullough

McCullough delivers more good stuff in this, the fifth volume of her ancient Rome series. We see Caesar defeat the Gauls, cross the Rubicon, and defeat Pompey. The settings are richly detailed and the large supporting cast finely drawn.