Rate this book

The Malice Of Fortune (2012)

by Michael Ennis(Favorite Author)

3.19 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0385536313 (ISBN13: 9780385536318)

languge

English

genre

Mystery & Thriller

publisher

Doubleday

review 1: Very well researched, and in parts very readable. The parts that deal with Machiavelli's love interest in Damiata are somewhat overwrought, and like reading squeamishly-badly written sex scenes in some novels (there is a prize for that). Parts of it are a slog, and some themes are not fully developed (the geometry, for example). There are a couple of sections, especially Damiata's at the beginning, that are written in the epistolary conceit, which is nearly always annoying. There is some chronological play, as well. Overall, it doesn't rivet you to a single reading, but is a decent period piece.
review 2: I really liked this Renaissance who-done-it. The characters were actual historical figures: Leonardo de Vinci, Niccolo Machiavelli, Cesare Borgia, et. al. - a... morend as the author says in the frontpiece, all these people do exactly what the archival evidence says they did, when and where they did it. The author just supplied the dialogue and motivations that might explain what we know happened. Now I'll have to find out more about Machiavelli, since his name has been mis-applied to schemes through the years as a result of his writing The Prince about Cesare. less

Download links for: The Malice of Fortune

Advertising