Severus: The Black Caesar
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Severus: The Black Caesar
Narrated by:
Ifeyinwa Unachukwu
Buy Now for £14.99
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Narrated by:
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Ifeyinwa Unachukwu
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By:
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Steve Exeter
About this listen
Severus follows the amazing true story of a rebellious boy who grew up in an African province and became the first Black Caesar of the Roman Empire, the head of a dynasty that would lead Rome through bloody civil wars and rapidly changing times. As a young man, Severus hates the Romans and conspires to humiliate them. What begins as a childish prank unfurls into a bloodbath that sends Severus careening into his future. Through a tragic love affair, dangerously close battles and threats both internal and external, Severus accrues power - and enemies - in his unlikely rise to become the most powerful man in the ancient world.
©2019 Steve Exeter (P)2020 Steve ExeterListeners also enjoyed...
but I struggled a bit keeping in the story.
the narrator was ok.
quite good
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I was given a free review copy at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
Good Story
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Unexpectedly, I found myself looking forward to each new chapter. Before this book, I had very limited prior knowledge of Roman history and so cannot say how historically accurate the story was, however it was packed full of action and I found myself greatly admiring and empathising with the main character. Despite covering over 30 years of history, the author mostly managed this well in his writing, and avoided what could have been a dull retelling of an amazing rise to power.
However, at times the story skipped on by months or years right in the middle of a chapter, or changed to a new setting with different characters, without making this immediately clear. Perhaps these changes in time and place would have been more obvious had I been reading a hard copy and in fairness, despite not knowing anything about the story beforehand, I was able to follow it relatively easily.
Unfortunately, I feel the story itself was let down in two main ways, the first being the author’s decision to write in the present tense. This worked well during battle scenes or dramatic moments of betrayal, making them intense and exciting, but for the rest of the story it almost sounded like a play script being read with stage directions included. Additionally, the story became quite confusing at times with so many different characters, some with very similar sounding names, although of course being based on a true story this was not the fault of the author.
Secondly, the narration was very disappointing, mainly because it was incredibly slow and quite monotone, although the narrator does have a lovely clear speaking voice. It was quite difficult at times to keep up with which character was speaking, as the narrator didn’t vary her voice much at all. She did not seem particularly invested in the story and it felt in many chapters like she was simply reading mindlessly out loud from the book. I was tempted to give up on the audio version during the first chapter but then discovered I could speed up the narration to 1.4x which did help. Out of curiosity I slowed back down to regular speed in the final chapter, and can confidently say I would not have been able to continue with this book being read at this painfully slow pace.
To summarise, this was an incredible story that has not quite been done justice by the narration and style of writing. Having said that, I would still definitely recommend reading it, although probably as a paperback.
A fascinating true story let down by poor narration
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Listener received this title free
Very enjoyable, easy listening
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thank you for this book. I enjoyed listening to it
excellent writing
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