When agents and editors talk about a book that really excites them, they usually mention voice, that ephemeral quality that lifts a book into the “really good” realm. Levkoff’s novel has an engaging, unique voice in his narrator, Alexander. Alexander started life as the son of a wealthy Greek family and he trained in both Aristotle’s and Plato’s academies. His language and perceptions are laced with a philosophic view and the cadences of his language reflect this background. The other qualities in this distinctive voice arise from his enslavement by the Romans and his long service to Crassus, the richest man in Rome, the third man in the triumvirate that ruled as the Republic crumbled under the force of powerful men. This nuanced voice enriches this engaging tale about the man usually dismissed as least significant when historians discuss the triumvirate of Caesar, Pompey and Crassus.
The Other Alexander mines a surprisingly deep vein when it places Crassus at the center of the tale. So often an ill-fitting piece of history triggers the historical novelist to select a topic. So it was with Levkoff. In his afterword he says, “what interested me most was the answer to the question, what could goad Crassus to leave everything behind – his wealth, his power, his wife of over three decades – to seek war and conquest 1,500 hundred miles from home?” Levkoff’s answer is hinted at in the remaining evidence and it makes for a great story. You’ll see a side of these famous Romans that you won’t find in the standard history books and the read is way more fun.
The author gave me a copy to review and I will happily send it on to another reader. To enter the giveaway contest, please leave a comment and agree to put up an honest review on Amazon and/or Goodreads. The Other Alexander is book one of The Bow of Heaven Trilogy.
Click to buy on Amazon The Other Alexander (The Bow of Heaven, Book I)
Click to visit Andrew Levkoff’s website.
About Andrew Levkoff:
I grew up on Long Island, New York, got a BA in English from Stanford, then put that hard-earned degree to dubious use in the family packaging business. After a decade of trying to convince myself to think ‘inside’ the box (lots of them), I fled to Vermont where I attempted to regain my sanity by chopping wood and shoveling snow off my roof for 8 years. (Okay, I came down off the roof every once in awhile.) Like a fine cocktail, I was by then thoroughly chilled; what could be better after this than no sunshine for 13 years. That’s right – Seattle.
Since 2006 I have been taking the cure in Arizona, where my skin has darkened to a rich shade of pallid. Here it was that I finally realized, under the heading of hopefully-better-late-than-never, that I needed to return to my first love – writing. I live in Tempe with my wife, Stephany and our daughter, Allison, crowded into close proximity by hundreds of mineral specimens Steph and I have collected while rockhounding. “They’re just a bunch of rocks,” says Allison. Ouch.