Official Review: The Cursed Kingdom by Peter Darman

[Anirudh Badri]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Cursed Kingdom" by Peter Darman.]

---

4 out of 4 stars

---

Share This Review

---

The Cursed Kingdom, by Peter Darman, is the eighth book in the Parthian Chronicles series. It is a work of historical fiction set in the time of Mark Antony’s attempt to conquer Parthia. The story follows several characters from many kingdoms in Parthia as they navigate dangerous personal and political waters.

The principal character that the story arc follows is Spartacus, the king of Gordyene (a small wild kingdom in Parthia). He is the son of Spartacus, the slave who revolted against Rome. King Spartacus is filled with rage at Romans and Armenians for his past and that rage threatens to consume him. He is brave and leads his army with consummate skill in numerous battles against more powerful foes and is victorious. However, his cruel treatment of prisoners and his overflowing rage seem to alienate even his closest allies, including his son. Other important characters include Aliyeh, the Queen Mother of Media (also in Parthia). She schemes to gain power for her son and kingdom, with no care as to the means. There are familial links between the many small kingdoms of Parthia and Aliyeh uses the bonds of kinship to her advantage. She manages to convince other kingdoms to come to her aid after attempting to ally Media with the Romans, which prompts an attack by the ruler of Parthia and his allies, including Spartacus. As the story progresses, the reader wonders who will be victorious since the balance of power seems to constantly change.

The book’s greatest strength is the complexity of the characters. None of the main characters is cast as purely vanilla ‘nice’ people. There is conflict within all of them that we learn more about it as the story progresses. There are elements in their past that cause us to feel sympathy for them and then a few pages later, they demonstrate a flaw that makes the reader stop rooting for them for a little while. While there are many battle scenes and wars in the book, the focus remains on the characters, which is something that I appreciated immensely.

The other fascinating element of the book was the quality of the battle scenes. The writing of these scenes was very well done and gave the reader an excellent idea of what was happening. This was managed by having the narration follow the leaders on both sides of the battle. As a result of knowing the aims of the commanders of both sides, the reader is able to fill in the details for themselves and follow complicated battle scenes quite easily.

The only issue I had with the book was the repetition of some of the details. For example, the armies of King Spartacus are trained and equipped like Roman legionaries but are referred to as Immortals because of the King’s hatred of Romans. However, at nearly every mention of these armies, the author explains this again and again. As this happened with other facts as well, this problem was a minor irritant to me as a reader.

I enjoyed the book immensely as the only demerit of the book was not a major one. As a result, I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars. I would recommend this book to people who enjoy historical fiction or wish to give it a try.

******
The Cursed Kingdom
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on Smashwords

Like Anirudh Badri's review? Post a comment saying so!

[stacie k]

Complex characters and well-done battle scenes would be a draw for me as well. I like your point of being in the minds of the leaders on both sides. Thanks for a great review!

[Nelsy Mtsweni]

That is nice review over there, it sounds like you enjoyed reading the book. I would like to read the book, it seems to be interesting, although I am not much of a fictional readings, let alone historical.
Thanks for the review.

[Libs_Books]

I've never heard of this author, but he seems to have quite a following. I don't know this period of history very well, either - does the author tell you at the end how many of the events are actually historic? I'm thinking of reading this one, but wondering if I'll miss out from not having read the other seven.

[Markiee_Mulla]

This author is very creative , make me want to actually read more and I hate it sometimes due to the different images i receive from reading peter Darmangreat job and way to grab the readers attention!

[EMoffat]

Sounds like the book has complex character development which is something that I love! Will definitely have to give it a go, thanks for the review.

[obifemade]

I love this book because of it historical fiction, politics, defiance of king SPARTACUS, his allies and the adventure that follow. I will also recommend this book to my friend who his crazy about adventure.

[SunVixen]

How did the son of Spartacus become king in Parthia? Spartacus was a Thracian.
Of course, this is a fiction book, not a historical science book. However, the idea of the Parthian king Spartacus is too strange even for a fiction book.
Maybe Spartacus Jr. just moved to Parthia from Italy?