Gain The Water Thief (Aelius Spartianus, #1) Compiled By Ben Pastor Shown As Softcover

book is written by an Italian historian and you can tell because the book is dry and the names are long, But I did like the mysteries, Aelius, an historian and Roman soldier is ordered to write the history of Hardian and his companion, Antinous, Antinious was found dead and the mystery of his death is never solved, so the author gives her idea of what could have happened.
The ending is surprising and sad, Its worth reading if you like Roman history and mysteries, Um ótimo retrato do Império Romano e da Idade Antiga, A trama é sonolenta no começo, mas ganha corpo pela metade do livro e fica bastante interessante ao final, Sem grandes surpresas ou clímax, é um livro que vale a pena para conhecer um pouco mais desse período histórico, Reasonably functional historical mysteries are getting to be just not enough for my tastes anymore, I need something to go on, charactorization, interesting themes, a humourous voice, anything, The protagonist doesn't have to be likeable, but he needs to have some distinguishing personality traits, and for heaven's sake the pining over the woman he didn't settle down with has been done done done.
Inc. e. Aelius Spartianus, officer and historian at the court of Diocletian in Dalmatia, is writing the biographies of past Roman rulers, including Hadrian, who has been dead for nearlyyears.
Aelius's particular charge is to investigate the unsolved mystery of the drowning death in the Nile of Hadrian's favorite, young Antinous,


Soon his duty turns twofold: the hunt for Antinous's grave, supposed to conceal proof of a conspiracy against Rome, and the murder of a wealthy army supplier and his servant.
The mystery thickens as deaths multiply scholarly work turns into a race against time and into a confrontation with risk, lies, and halftruths at the hands of priests, authorities, and former colleagues.
While the trials against Christians later known as the Great Persecution inflame Egypt, Aelius gathers clues in odd places until his road leads inescapably to Rome.



Joined in his search by a blind retired soldier who is well experienced in counterespionage, Aelius scavenges for evidence in a world capital in decline.
From Rome his breathless trail takes him to Hadrian's country estate, which is now acres and acres of monumental ruins in the wilderness.
In the haunted stillness of roofless halls and overgrown gardens, Aelius deciphers the great plan of the villa, an astronomical chart confirming how the danger against Rome is clear and imminent.
But who is behind it all How deadly close is danger In order to save the state and himself, Aelius must solve not only the puzzle of Antinous's drowning, but also the murders that have marred his path.



Internationally renowned and critically acclaimed author Ben Pastor brings her thematic skill to bear in this new historical mystery,
 
International Praise for the Works of Ben Pastor
 
"History blends with absolute perfection to personal story, and the novel is like an orchestral score, with pages of rare evocative power.
It is narrative one reads with admiration and even devotion, "
La Stampa Turrolibri on Kaputt Mundi
 
"The mystery plot develops within a perfectly wrought historical milieu.
A novel of great emotional impact, "
Il Giorno on The Horseman's Song
 
"Along with Margaret Doody and Elizabeth George, Ben Pastor is considered one of the strongest female voices of today's mystery writing.
Her investigative tales show a breathless rhythm, a perfect blend of action thriller and authorial narrative, "
La Repubblica on

The Dead in the Square
 
"Pastor's plot is well crafted, her prose sharp.
"
Publishers Weekly on Lumen I was enthusiastic about this new series by Ben Pastor, but after reading this first book set in theth century AC in Roman Empire, I think I'll stick to her Martin Bora series, which takes place during the WWII.
The writing in Il Ladro d'Aqua is of the same high quality as in Martin Bora's books, but the protagonist and the plot left me indifferent and unconvinced for the most part, and quite annoyed by the end.


I've never been a fan of grand conspiracy plots, Grand conspiracies, which succeed to control the world for many centuries, attract me even less, Come to think of it, this book feels a little bit like Da Vinci's Code set in Ancient Rome, At the end of both I was left with "much ado about nothing" aftertaste,

As usual, Ben Pastor did a thorough historical research, but this time the premise was too grand, sensational and unconvincing, in my opinion.
Story:mystery focus undermined by irrational plot and divided narrative
Characters:distinct and frequently entertaining
Accuracy:genuine research but historically absurd conclusion

My opinions on this book are.
. . complicated, to say the least, Whats good is really very good, But, of course, whats bad is also really bad, Only a few elements of the book do not arouse strong opinions in me, of one sort or another,

The good first:
This book is set in the final days of Diocletians tetrarchy, For those who dont know, Diocletian is the man who brought the empire back from a period of anarchy and chaos, lasting over half a century, in which only one emperor out of the twenty or so “legitimate” emperors not to mention the dozens of usurpers who failed in their claims and often lasted a matter of weeks died of natural causes in that case: plague.
He's also the man behind the Great Persecution, as he tried to instill religious conformity throughout his empire, This is, needless to say, a phenomenally interesting time most poorly visited in historical fiction, Indeed, apart from a novel about early Christianity and the persecution sitelinkValeria's Cross and a unique work by Evelyn Waugh about Constantine's mother sitelinkHelena I can't think of a single book that tackles this pivotal period in Roman history while Ian Rosss sitelinkTwilight of Empire series starts only two years after this one, its set after Diocletians abdication and is really about the rise of Constantine.
For the most part the period is handled with the nuance that such a watershed moment requires, Pagans often and frequently refer to God in the singular, which is exactly how they would have done in an increasingly heno or often even monotheistic age.
Aelius is all in favor of the persecutions Christians, since they wont make sacrifices to the imperial cult, are a threat to the safety of the empire, although his reasoning for it is never really dwelt on.
Which is probably realistic enough, but feels like a missed opportunity, The preoccupations dealt with are largely those of this moment in time Ill return to that largely in a moment, including Diocletians edict on maximum prices, the persecution of Christians, and the preparations for Diocletians and Maximians retirement.
In general, the structure of the world is first rate,

Also excellent is the authors ability to mimic the pompous style of imperial and formal letters that existed at the time.
There are a lot of these included here verbatim all fake of course and they really help to make the story feel like it exists in a specific time and place.
They also increase the feeling of realism and historical enquiry, The book often reads like a more modern archaeological quest, with Aeliuss enquiries into the death of Antinous oneandahalf centuries prior, often taking place in a library or archive and occasionally in the investigation of some ancient ruin.
Its an unusual blending of the detective novel with a more grounded sort of Indiana Jonesesque quest, I appreciated the way that the information given is acquired piecemeal and both enhances and contradicts our earlier knowledge, The book is also very good on geography, feeling a lot like a tour guide of the city of Rome and the Egyptian provinces in the fourth century.
Actually, it reminded me somewhat of the sitelinkDa Vinci Code, which serves as a beautiful guidebook to Europes greatest architectural triumphs, all of which somehow hide hidden secrets about some grand conspiracy.


And then, of course, there's the bad news:
The entire plot hinges on the idea of a conspiracy hidden deep within Roman and neighboring societies for three hundred years, constantly plotting to destroy the Roman state.
Every. Single. Major. Political. Death. Ever. is a result of the same group, Thats the grand reveal at the end, but it is also the whole premise of the book, which represents an awkward and unworkable compromise between the need for a sense of scale and danger from the beginning, and the desire for a grand and worthy reveal at the end.
Also, its completely mental. What possible reason could there be for such an absurd conspiracy Its written like its a modern technothriller conspiracy, complete with evil businessmen at the top and an independent cellbased structure, but that makes no sense in the Roman world.
Why would a set of multinational businessmen for thats basically what they are for all that these didnt exist need or want to destroy the Roman state If the state falls its not the men of commerce whod benefit, but the warrior class who could now take their property unopposed.
The vast multinational conspiracies make “sense” today because theres the assumption underlying it all that megacorporations will be in a position to maintain their equivalent of law and order while selling our organs for cash.
In the ancient world, there were no corporations as we would now understand them, and the closest things that existed the guilds and corpora naviculariorum relied on the state for protection and enforcement of their rules.
Society was always only one or two steps removed from lawlessness, and the people who benefitted from that were not those with money but those who lacked money but carried swords.
The whole conspiracy is there to awkwardly introduce the topic of the decline and fall of Rome, While the portrayal of Diocletians reign is admirably accepting of the regime on its own terms and dismissive of the idea of decline, thats simply done so that Constantine can be blamed for all Romes disasters since hes a major player in the plot to destroy the Roman empire.
Again why If you've conquered the whole empire and stand to profit immeasurably from its continuance, why would you plot to destroy it What would be the point An attempt to provide an answer to this absurd and unanswerable conundrum is undoubtedly provided in future books, but alas, apart from the immediate sequel sitelinkThe Fire Waker, those sitelinkother sitelinkbooks are only available in Italian, so I shall likely never know.


And this reduces all the efforts at realism to meaningless window dressing, How can you take a book seriously when the Assassins and Templars have a more nuanced plan And the Assassins Creed games are precisely what this book reminds me of, despite being published slightly before them.
Its like all the frustration of playing an Assassins Creed game: the frustratingly bythenumbers plot, the onesizefitsall ideologies and characters, the way every interesting quirk of history is secretly about the exact same tired thing, the ultimately meaningless mythology that's not nearly so deep and mysteriousness as they think only without the bits that make those games so great: the stunning visuals, fun gameplay, and inventive platforming.
Nobody takes the stories of those games seriously except Ubisoft, who adorably still somehow believes that people play their games for the plot and dealing with that in book form where you have only the narrative to go on cant be an improvement.
The ultimate absurdity of the whole plot undermines the realistic elements of the setting, Even before you know all the juicy details you know enough to grasp that this isnt exactly possible,

From a standpoint strictly of genre, this book seems to be as torn as it is in other ways, Its not really the historical murder mystery its billed at since there are never really any living suspects to the main mystery, which happened long in the past.
While there are more murders happening in the present, Aelius never investigates them in more than a perfunctory way, Worse still, we relocate halfway through to the city of Rome, which means we now have a completely new cast of characters barring the protagonist and therefore suspects.
It doesnt work as a historical novel for the reasons of plausibility outlined above, As an adventure novel it fails since Aelius never really does anything adventurous, Despite his exsoldier credentials, he fails badly in every fight he gets into and as often as not doesnt even get a punch in.
The closest genre it fits is the thriller, with the gradual reveal of the conspiracy and the constant feel of being in over his head.
But again, this fits poorly with the other genres on display, Aside from the conspiracy making no sense, a true thriller needs to place some sort of personal motivation, even if just a desire for survival and revealing the conspirators.
But for most of the book weve really got no reason to believe that the mystery is in any way important to the present day.
The fact that there can be no reason for this mystery to matter in the age of Diocletian, despite the fact that it evidently does, means that were left permanently uncertain what the basic rules are in this otherwise apparently realistic world.
Aeliuss goal is really only to write a biography of Hadrian, which hardly seems worth risking his life over for motivations that he doesnt seem to possess.
Incidentally, Ive read the work he's supposed to have written, The sitelinkHistoria Augusta is notoriously unreliable and largely made up, Even the authors of the book including Aelius Spartianus are fictitious, which makes his extreme dedication to the craft of historywriting even more absurd.
Unless thats the colossal injoke,

Other than this major issue while it sours every other aspect of the book I enjoyed the novel, There are some stylistic issues here and there, likely occasioned by the translation from Italian, At some sections the novel turns to a first person account for no reason and we get some sentences where the grammar makes no sense such as the memorable “objects such as love requires that be placed.
” Generally though, the prose is good and reads well, Some of the authors ideas about the functionality of Roman society are way off, The assumption of basic literacy is everywhere, but most memorably in the use of numbered disks to indicate your place in the queue and the presence of road signs.
Police forces and soldiers seem to have far too modern an attitude, Crime generally wasnt investigated unless it threatened the state or powerful patrons, and it was up to individuals to bring their accusations of wrongdoing to the attention of the court rather than the to have the justice system seek them out.
Still, none of this is really worse than Ive seen in other attempts to make the ancient world more relatable, For the most part it does a good job at portraying the different nature of the Roman world,

I went into this book hoping that it would either be a serious book that somehow found a reasonable way to make Antinouss death relevant centuries later perhaps something to do with hidden temple treasure or an overpowerful cult, or, failing that, that it would be an absurd adventure romp that didnt take itself very seriously.
Instead we get an absurd adventure that takes itself very seriously indeed, The setting alone leaves me unable to dismiss the book entirely, It does a very good job setting up a key place and moment in history which we rarely get to visit, But while I will provide a cautious recommendation to those who are already interested in the era, I cannot wholeheartedly state that it is a good book.
Just half of one. .