Within the first chapters, I knew I wanted to read this whole series, so I purchased the first book, set in Rome, and it's next on my reading pile.
A third, set in Greece, comes out in August.
The book is divided into 24 chapters, each representing an hour of the day. Each chapter focuses on a different character with a different job. So you get to meet: a midwife, the pharaoh, an embalmer, a retired soldier, a priest, a farmer, his wife, an overseer, a fisherman, a potter, a scribal student, a priestess, the vizier, a fan-bearer, the Great Royal Wife, a professional mourner, an architect, a carpenter, a brick-maker, an upper class housewife, a jeweler, a dancing girl, a physician, and a novice tomb robber.
A lot of the characters are linked together. Sometimes this is in a literal sense. The chapter about the farmer is followed immediately by the chapter about his wife, and the fan-bearer's chapter follows the vizier's and continues the same story. Others are linked differently. The midwife is delivering the fisherman's child. The chapters on the embalmer, carpenter and mourner all have the same funeral. The scribal student is the physician's son. The dancer is the mourner's daughter (and a fellow professional mourner).
I really love this concept and the linked stories. They were well-told and fun.
However, the editing was TERRIBLE. The author kept tense-shifting and he LOVES the phrase "a couple of." Almost every chapter, if not every one, had at least one "a couple of." Like dude, you're writing fiction here. Just pick a fucking number or say "two."
From Chapter 2: "The startling crash that follows alerts a couple of guards, who pull back the chamber's curtains and rush in with a couple of lit lamps."
Even multiple times within the same sentence.
Stuff like that takes me out of the moment of the story and that was really disappointing. It was still a fun read overall. I've never read anything like it. But man, did this editor suck. If it was even edited at all!
The Roman and Greek books are written by a different author. I've read the introduction and one chapter of the Roman book, and it's much better so far.
I'd still recommend this as a good read, but I can't deny that it's also painful if you're used to better editing.
