A battle is like lust. The frenzy passes. Consequence remains. Hannibal is an epic vision of one of history's greatest adventurers, the almost mythical man who most famously led his soldiers on... This description may be from another edition of this product.
It's hard for me to believe that some of the other reviewers read the same book I did. I must be pretty unsophisticated. I enjoyed it and would recommend.
Thoroughly entertaining read
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 19 years ago
I don't wish to belittle other readers but some of the criticisms of this novel are just bizzare. The book may suffer from a small level of historical innacuracies, but then how accurate are accounts of Hannibal anyway since most recorded sources are written by Romans. What amazes me though is that almost all the people who read this book seem to have a perfect recolection of other novels, either that or they are simply copying other peoples comments. Leckie captures the hatred, and emotion in a trully moving way, and the reader is able to associate with a man who is in practice, far removed from todays culture. This in itself is an acheivment. A gripping read
A good novel on a very interesting subject
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 24 years ago
I was instantly attracted to this book, especially because I didn't know much about Hannibal, Carthage or the Punic wars. I thought reading this book was a pleasure and I sure learned a few things that I will carry with me for a long time.I personally liked the style of Mr. Ross Leckie and I think he has conducted his tale very well. The story is very interesting in itself, especially because it is about such a legend and it is passed in a very famous historical period. The character Hannibal is immensely interesting, with his hate for Rome and his courage to challenge and actually scare the most powerful nation of his time. His tactics, the times, the different races and ancient nations certainly add to the beauty of this story.There are some bad reviews, but I think most of them are from people who have very solid historical backgrounds or a deep admiration for Hannibal. Surely this book is not the most accurate or perfect book written about Hannibal, but I don't believe this was the intention of the author, anyway. This book is a novel, and as novel it performs its role very well. If you generally like the historical fiction genre, I have a strong feeling that you will enjoy this book very much. If you want to learn something about Hannibal and the Punic Wars and Carthage, in a pleasant package, I also think you will like this book. If you have a deep interest for history or demands total fidelity to historical records, you'd be happier with a biography or something similar.
excellent military history
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 25 years ago
This is a very well written book, contrary to all the previous negative reviews. If you take a close look at those reviews, they appear to all have been written by the same guy, using different identities, who must have a grudge against the author. This is one of the best written military fiction-histories I've ever read, second only to Bernard Cornwell's books. This is incredibly well researched and the fine points are spellbinding to those who enjoy that kind of thing (I do). You won't find a better novel of this period of history.
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