Where I Found It Dull And Depressing

Cleopatra by H. Rider Haggard
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I didn't like this book.

I wanted to. I always do. But it was a drag.

From the first page, you know that the main character fails in everything he intends to do. He tells us so, in first person narration. I kept reading hoping that was a sort of fake-out, that he would make something good happen, something exciting, something fun. Nope. Uh uh. Nothing good.

And nobody was a good person. Nobody was truly loving or caring. Nobody worked toward any kind of positive goal. Not really. I thought I liked the MC, but then he was such a dick to Charmion that he lost me. I didn't care what happened to him after that.

The other flaws are mostly of that time. There is little description or world-building beyond clothing and food. If the book were a stage, most of the time it had only 2 or maybe 3 people out there; hardly any extras. It almost felt like the summary of a longer (better) book. And the sorta-early-modern English, with "thee" and the like, just made it more awkward to read; it sure didn't make it feel more Egyptian or Roman or Macedonian. Overall, the novel was sluggish and dull, and it did not fire my imagination at all.

Years ago, I read one of the Allan Quatermain books, and I liked it well enough to try this author again sometime in the future, but I don't recommend this one.


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