"Claudius the God," Robert Graves

Ah, Claudius, everybody's favorite possibly-retarded Roman emperor. I've read the first volume of this duology and I adore the miniseries and would purchase it in a heartbeat if I had any of that little thing called cash. So when I saw "Claudius the God and His Wife Messalina" (no forgetting Messalina, people) at the library, I felt compelled to pick it up.

And now I have to pick a bone with Orson Scott Card, who slates Graves's Claudius books for being anachronistic and unappealing to a modern audience. I disagree - you don't have to have grown up scribbling "amo, amas, amat" under the beady eye of your headmaster to enjoy the books. The more knowledge you have of the time period, the more rewarding the book is.* But if you have an amateur interest in Roman history, or even if you've watched the I, Claudius miniseries, you won't be left scratching your head over the particulars.

In fact, that's a problem, as much of the book is taken up with Claudius and pals' various military and political endeavors, described in loving detail, so that you, the reader, know everything of the times. This matches Graves's conceit exactly - his Claudius prides himself on his historical works, so it's no surprise that much of this "autobiography" is a record of events. It's also no surprise that all of the drama and intrigue of the miniseries is gone, as there would be no reason for Claudius to dwell on the more sordid and personally painful aspects of his reign. Of course, this also means that there's no $1.98 orgy scene and no Decapitation-cam (although I doubt that those charms would translate into print - Colleen McCullough's "Masters of Rome" series, anyone? Time for some indigo prose!) Visual appeal aside, Claudius's viewpoint does become limiting, after a while - unlike the first book, in which he's mainly observing his crazy relatives, here he's mostly justifying his own actions, and it does become tiresome. Still, better written than most historical fiction, and a good companion to the miniseries.

* And if you know something about Graves's own life (I know the bare minimum), it's fun to extrapolate Claudius's prejudices from the author's life experiences.