Thursday, September 13, 2012

Cleopatra's Daughter - Michelle Moran

Date Started: 9/9/12
Date Finished: 9/13/12

Being that this is the third book I've read in the last year or so that relates to Rome and Ancient Egypt, one could probably guess that this is a time period that interests me. Having read Cleopatra: A Life, it was interesting to move to this historical fiction account of her daughter's life.


Our narrator is Kleopatra Selene and we follow her from the palaces of Alexandria to captivity in Rome. Along the way she loses almost everyone she loves, except for her twin, Alexander. She learns about the new culture, develops her interest in architecture, frees a slave and ultimately finds love. I thought, overall, that she was a really likeable narrator.

I really enjoyed this book. I thought the author did a pretty good job bringing the ancient world to life and developing the different historical characters with a good amount of depth. Obviously I'm not checking her resources so I don't know how accurate her descriptions were, but either way it was an enjoyable read and gave more color to a time-period and figures that I'm at least somewhat familiar with. I also really liked that the book contained an Afterword, where we learned what happened to the main characters in the book. Note for those not already in the know: Ancient times were BRUTAL! I also liked that there was a Historical Note section where the author clarified places where she intentionally strayed from the historical records. Helpful!

Was it a surprise that she ended up with Juba? No, not at all. Was it a surprise that he ended up being the fictional "Red Eagle" fighting against slavery? Kind of. But this isn't really a book you read because you're expecting to be surprised; you read it to get to know what life was like over 2000 years ago, and on that count, it was great.

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