Reading Recap-End of November

Check out my end of November update over on Substack at Steel City Writer!

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What I'm Reading-Hannibal by Harold Lamb

I always have a harder time writing a review for a book I really like than a book I dislike.

I’m not sure what it is. When I dislike a book the reasons usually seem so clear-cut, so obvious. For a book that I love, it seems harder to do the work justice. As if my words can’t live up to the feeling that work of art gave me.

Hannibal by Howard Lamb is one of those books where I’ll once again fail to do it justice. But here goes anyway.

This is a remarkable book. It’s a biography, but written with the pacing and character focus of a novel. Hannibal, the person, practically leaps off the page through Lamb’s descriptions.

Hannibal Barca died in 183 BC (incidentally the same year as Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, his great rival), more than 2,200 years ago, yet his tale is one that lived on in the nightmares of Romans for generations afterwards. Lamb paints a picture of a Rome wracked with disasters at every turn, yet fights through to ultimate, hard-won victory.

As the noose tightens around Hannibal’s coalition against Rome, Lamb conveys the dread of a brilliant mind that can see the writing on the wall, yet can see no way out of his quandary as allies, including his two brothers, are crushed one by one. Even knowing what happens, you still feel immense empathy for the man who did his utmost, who brought Rome to its knees.

I first found this book through an interview of Howard Andrew Jones on the So I'm Writing a Novel Podcast. Howard talks about how much of an influence this book was on him when he was young, and how Hannibal inspired the character of Hanuvar in his new Sword & Sorcery series by Baen Books. Lamb himself is quite a remarkable person. He served in World War 1, then in the OSS during World War 2. Later he became an advisor to the US Department of State. He spoke five languages fluently, something that boggles my mind.

You can probably tell by now that I loved this book. Part of it is that Hannibal and those he contended with are larger than life characters. People who forged kingdoms, fought great battles, and raged against overwhelming odds.

“Of all that befell both the Romans and Carthaginians the cause was one man and one mind—Hannibal’s” -Polybius

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What I'm Reading-Carthage Must Be Destroyed

I recently finished this extremely well done history of the nation of Carthage. This book is remarkable for what it was able to tease out about the vanished city and its people from the paucity of primary sources available. It charts a remarkable arc over the course of centuries, coming to a close in 146 BC as Scipio Aemilianus' army broke into the city and began its annihilation.

I highly recommend this to anyone interested in the great conflicts between Republican Rome and Carthage. If you're looking for a detailed history of the Punic Wars, this is not the book for you. But if you want an excellent source for background of Carthage, it's place in the world, and how it ended up in a series of brutal wars with Rome, then this is a great source.

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What I'm Reading-Our First Civil War

My lovely wife got me this book for Christmas, which I just finished. I thoroughly enjoyed it-a huge portion of the text is made of excerpts from primary sources, and I always like hearing the words of people who lived through events. The author sets the stage well before the beginning of the Revolutionary War showing how Britain meandered its way into such a disastrous position in America. The emphasis on the relationship between common Patriots and Loyalists across the Americas was an interesting take.

My only real critique is that in some sections it became a general history of Benjamin Franklin and George Washington. I thought the majority of the Franklin sections were relevant, especially as many dealt with his relationship to his son William, who was a die-hard loyalist till the day he died (pardon the pun). For someone not well versed in Revolutionary War history the extensive passages about George Washington are probably helpful in keeping the narrative and timeline straight. But a lot of the general bits are features of most Revolutionary War histories already.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and recommend it to anyone with a passion for the Revolutionary War.

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What I'm Reading-Small Boats and Daring Men

I recently finished this very interesting book on the early history of small-scale ship combat and raiding in the US Navy and Marine Corps. For you SciFi lovers, it reminds me quite a bit of the early Honor Harrington books and even some older Battletech fiction I’ve read.

It’s a little pricey normally, but right now the publisher (OU Press) is having a 40% off sale. If you like this sort of thing it is certainly worth your time.

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