Pretty grim in many ways, although I don't actually recall how it ended.

Nana is the only Emil Zola I've read as well. It ends fairly grimly, too, with Nana dying of smallpox that completely disfigures her, all traces of her beauty destroyed. There is a plot summary of the book here--that's a nice little site btw, with loads of little essays on the portrayal of medicine in literature and visual arts.

Just finished Banewreaker by Jacqueline Carey. Here's the review I wrote for Amazon:

It's an interesting conceit to re-tell The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion from a point of view that's sympathetic to Sauron/Morgoth. And it's more philosophically interesting yet to map that sympathetic evil god to Lucifer, suffering because he gave the gift of sex to humans, but still the only god who will answer a human's prayers.

Interesting conceits do not a novel make, however. Carey seems to having taken a lesson from Robert Jordan, and written 500 pages wherein Nothing Happens.

That may be part of her philosophical study also, mirroring the textual assertion that no matter what people do, fate is pre-ordained. I don't care; it makes for a pointless read. If she'd written this as Lit Crit of Tolkein, or as a writing exercise clearly reversing Tolkein, or as a thought piece about predeterminism, I'd forgive. But it's supposed to be a novel, which means it's supposed to have things like character development and a denouement.

I understand this book and the second, Godslayer, were supposed to be published as one. Perhaps if Carey had edited out several hundred pages of Nothing Happening they could've been, and this would have worked as a novel.

I love your snarky tone, Raq. I bounced hard off Carey's first novel, and never looked back. Nothing anyone else has said about her is sufficient to get me back into her stuff.

Hmm. I enjoyed Banewreaker. (I have not read the second one yet.) I enjoyed the worldbuilding, which I thought was fascinating in its own right. I though the characters were real. No they did not undergo a lot of transformation, but they did reveal more of themselves as time went on. Then again I like the LOTR too, and there many complaints that it had long passages with nothing much happening too. Different views...

My housemate and I are a leeetle obsessed with HBO's Rome now and both of us are bemoaning our dearth of knowledge of actual Roman history. Does anybody have any recommendations for well written non-fiction about ancient Rome?

Robert Graves's I, Claudius is a classic for a reason. For fluff, Lindsey Davis's Marcus Didius Falco mysteries are a lot of fun.

Robert Graves's I, Claudius is a classic for a reason.

Thanks, Betsy. Yeah I definitely want to check that out but I was looking for some non-fiction too.

• pounds head* I read "fiction" for "non-fiction".

I remember enjoying Edith Hamilton's The Roman Way, although the scholarship is probably very dated by now. (1930s)

I, Claudius was supposedly loosely based on Seutonius's The Twelve Caesars, which I have. It's quick good dish on Roman emperors, written by a near-contemporary with a love for the scandalous.

Does anybody have any recommendations for well written non-fiction about ancient Rome?

From the Gracchi to Nero by H.H. Scullard is fairly easy to read, and covers the period that the show seems to (though I've only seen the first episode so far). It's fairly long as it's a dense period of history, but it's easy enough to skim to the interesting bits.