Book Review: Total War Rome: Destroy Carthage by Gibbons (DNF)

Total War Rome: Destroy Carthage by David Gibbons

DNF (no star rating because I did not finish reading it)

Attempted to read during September, October and November 2013

I wanted to love this book.  I read a blurb about it from one of my many book-related newsfeeds, through Tor’s RSS feed.  Here’s a link to the article penned by the author:  Ancient Rome and the Destruction of Carthage: The Stuff That Dreams Are Made On.

I started reading with high hopes, because I’m always fascinated by ancient history.  I’ve read other historical fiction novels set during the time frame of the ancient Roman Empire and enjoyed them.  I also enjoy movies that visit that time period.

But I just didn’t appreciate Gibbons’ style.  I couldn’t relate to the characters.  I thought he did well describing the ancient world, but I craved more dialogue.  Way too many pages of nothing but paragraph after paragraph of description.  The one battle scene I read was well done, though.

I took several breaks from this book, reading two or three other books during those breaks.  I picked up Total War: Destroy Carthage a couple of days ago and found myself nodding off after reading only a page and a half!  I tried again last night and again fell asleep before I’d read five pages.  At that point, I decided enough was enough.  I’d given this novel several chances to peak my interest and engage me, but “Life is too short …” so I gave up.

I may come back to it in the future, if some of my other family/friend book readers give it a thumbs up.  Otherwise, I’m moving on to something, anything, else.

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