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Even after all the other magi have left for a feast, Ramates continues hunting the elusive white leopard. But his hunt is interrupted when he sees a new star, shining in the Virgin’s bosom.

Ramates is overjoyed at the chance to finally make a name for himself as a stargazer and rushes to the temple to make an official sighting–only to find the prized white leopard already dead along his way, shot by another man’s arrow.

Thus begins Daniel Gilbert’s tale of the magistenes search for Shoshia–the deliverer foretold by the cult of Belteshazzar.

Magi is rich with cultural and historical details of the Parthian (Persian) religious and political world–and of how the Parthians interacted with Rome. The reader will learn historically accurate information about how the Parthians buried their dead versus how the Romans did, how crucifixions were carried out and why, how kings were anointed in ancient Persia, and how caravans traveled through the ancient world.

I loved this aspect of Magi.

Other parts were less exciting.

The author sounds like a scholar (which he is). He gives careful attention to historical details, but his attention to the craft of writing fiction is rather less impressive.

The author gives each character a name (including the guy who opens the door at the inn), and expects that the reader will remember every name and the position of the individual (even if the only way he figures into the story is that he opened a door.) This makes it difficult to keep the characters straight–and even more difficult to figure out what people or interactions are truly important to the story. Further more, the point of view jumps from one character to another willy-nilly making it hard to figure out whose head you’re inside at any given time.

I could tell that the author had a grand scheme of developing the main character Ramates throughout the book. Ramates is eager for fame, even willing to take fame that does not belong to him. He must learn humility as he travels to pay tribute to the newborn king. All this is good. I think it’s a brilliant idea, but the author falls short of producing a natural transformation. Instead of experiencing Ramates’ soul and watching his transformation, we remain outside, noting clinically that apparently a transformation has occurred.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed this book. A lot. But it was for the cultural details, not for the character development or writing style.

Rating:3 Stars
Category:Historical Fiction
Synopsis:After discovering a new star, Ramates must learn humility as he travels to pay tribute to the long-prophesied deliverer.
Recommendation: If you enjoy reading about historical and cultural details, you’ll enjoy this book. If you’re looking for a story to pull you in and a character to identify with, this probably isn’t going to cut it.

It seems whenever I told someone I was reading Tom Sawyer, they responded with the question “You’re re-reading it, right?”

It seemed inconceivable to all my friends that someone as fond of reading as I would have not read Tom Sawyer. But I had to respond that I honestly did not know whether I had read Tom Sawyer before.

I knew bits and pieces, recognized the names of Tom and Huck and Becky and Injun Joe. I knew the story about whitewashing the fence (of course) and vaguely recollected the island and the cave sequences. Maybe I’d read it before-or maybe I’d picked those details up from other reading I’d done.

Now, having read Tom Sawyer, I think I can confidently assert that before this last month, I had not read Tom Sawyer (except maybe in a highly abridged children’s version.)

Now that I have read Tom Sawyer, I can say that I enjoyed reading it (Thanks, Amy, for picking it for this month’s “Reading to Know Book Club“).

Twain’s descriptions of Sawyer’s childhood brought back fond memories of long hours spent outside with minimal supervision, of brothers and cousins digging pits to who-knows-where, of “adventurous” overnights that sometimes included fire and other times included water (and on the very rare occasion involved both.)

On the other hand, certain elements of Tom’s childhood bear no resemblance whatsoever to my own. I never uttered incantations or signed my name in blood. I never ran away from home or uncovered grave robbers. I never witnessed a murder (thank God!)

I think that before I started this book (and even into the first several chapters), I expected it to be merely a collection of anecdotes with little by way of a unifying story line. I’m glad that did not turn out to be the case–for if it had, I think I would have set down the book in disgust.

Tom is such an awful little creature. He never thinks of anyone except himself and his own pleasure. He is rude, mean, conniving, and thoughtless all at once. Yes, he may have rare moments of kindness (like when he took Becky Thatcher’s beating), but these are few and far between–and one can’t in good conscience say that his misdeeds were simply carelessness and that he had a good heart behind them. No, Tom is a selfish, horrid beast of a boy. He is amusing, but he is bad.

If I had merely been expected to laugh at and enjoy Tom’s antics, I’d have despaired. But Tom Sawyer does have more of a plot than that. Because of that plot, in which Tom Sawyer is scared into being rather a better boy than he would have otherwise been, the book is redeemable and the antics become enjoyable.

I’m definitely thinking I should be reading more Twain. He’s proven by Tom Sawyer that he’s capable of writing engaging fiction–although his apparent enjoyment of Tom’s wickedness makes me wonder if the author is always so morally ambivalent. I think I’m going to reserve judgment for now and wait until I’ve read some more.

Rating:3 Stars
Category:Juvenile Clasic
Synopsis:Tom is a rascally pre-teen who finds himself in over his head when he and a friend witness the murder of the town doctor.
Recommendation: Good story, but the moral ambiguity inclines me to not recommend it for the very young or morally suggestible. I’d read it with a middle-schooler, perhaps, but I’m not sure I’d suggest that they read it on their own.

Check out this Reading to Know Bookclub post to see what other readers are saying about this book.