This sequel continues the story of Marius, one of the greatest generals that Rome had ever known, and his student and rival, Sulla. Julius Caesar is also a child prodigy in it and the familiar cast of characters from the first volume are back as well. As far as new characters go, there are the brutal "oriental" despot Mithradates, Ciciero, and the ambitious Pompey family. They are all believable and very interesting as well as embodiments of possible roman futures in a way that most history books do not explore. The characters also evolve, which adds a depth that makes it all the more believable.

It is about a very sad era in Rome, with the republican institutions in precipitous decline as powerful generals rise, whose troops are more loyal to them than to the Roman Republic. The descent into barbarism is horrific and brilliantly delineated by McCullough, who has done a superb job of historical research. Just as Marius' star is waning - and his decline from the great and far-thinking man he was makes for depressing reading - so Sulla's time has arrived.

I do not know of a better way to live in a different era than historical novels. This series is so masterly, so fascinating in detail, and so fast-moving in plot and action that it is one of the best that I have ever read. Warmly recommended.

"The Grass Crown" follows up on the themes first played out in "The First Man In Rome"--political pre-eminence, alliances and betrayals, the worsening relationship between Rome and her Italian allies, and, of course, love, marriage and infidelity.

As Gaius Marius ages and loses influence with the Senate, Lucius Cornelius Sulla rises and attains power simply by being in the right places at the right time. McCullough paints Sulla as, paradoxically, the invisible man--his peers support him for his high birth while knowing next to nothing about the man or his motives. And Sulla keeps his secrets well, in spite of his attempts--and failures--to keep his darker impulses in check. McCullough does an excellent job of portraying Sulla as a sociopath who manages to camouflage himself so well in civilized society.

Gaius Marius starts out strong in the beginning but swiftly goes downhill after suffering his second stroke during the War of the Allies, his mind and his ethics succumbing to his desire to fulfill the prophecy of his own greatness. Caught in this desire are the fates of his son, his wife, and his nephew, a young boy named Gaius Julius Caesar.

The characters are better drawn here than in "First Man"; there is greater depth to people like Marcus Livius Drusus the reformer, Servilius Caepio, and Pompeius Strabo, but at least one, Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, suffers a softening (which is really too bad for fans of the feisty old man). McCullough does a good job with the children as well--Servilia, Livia Drusa's neglected daughter, is a thoroughly unlikeable, but not completely unsympathetic character, and Young Sulla and his sister Cornelia are wonderful, spirited young people.

The end of this book is bloody, gruesome, and gives a sense of how horrific this period was for Rome, patrician and pleb alike. The changes of fortune are swift and well-told, but McCullough can't resist long pages of barely-broken paragraphs and anachronistic language, even though she throws in a few more Latin phrases and expressions to make her dialogue more authentic. Still, it's a faster and more exciting book than "First Man," which is all to the good.

You'll change that opinion once you're immersed in "The Grass Crown". Better yet, start with "The First Man in Rome" in order to fully appreciate the grandure of Colleen McCullough's series. I've been reading historical novels all my life, and been disappointed by many. But for sheer quantity of details, I've never seen the like. It truly feels like Ms. McCullough was there. It reads like an eye witness account. I especially liked her description of Caesar's mother, and the world she created and inhabited. But the story deals primarily with Sulla. His progress through life reminded me of "The Picture of Dorian Gray". His deeds and misdeeds are etched on his face and body. What a warning we receive from this description of a dictator who gained power due to the apathy of his fellow citizens. They let him have too much power and died regretting it. Think about that the next time you're tempted not to vote. These are long novels, but I couldn't get enough. Some have compared this to "I, Claudius". Not a good comparison. As much as I enjoyed "The Grass Crown", it can't compare to Robert Graveses wit and lyrical style. Still, it has charms aplenty of its own. Read it, you'll be glad you did.

A bit disappointing to me. Tale of the Seige of Troy as told from the various participant's stories. No character development that compares with mccullough's Roman saga. However, not a bad read, but not something to stimulate either.

Disappointing. Tale of the Seige of Troy as told from the various participant's stories. No character development that compares with mccullough's Roman saga. However, not a bad read, but not something to stimulate either.

The Song of Troy is a fabulous look at the ancient tale of the Trojan War. Ms. McCullough spins a marvelous yarn about a fascinating period. I read this after reading her Masters of Rome series and I was not disappointed!!!!

Morgan's Run gets off to a slow start with in-depth background description. Once past the initial basic information of the story, Morgan's Run becomes a book that is hard to put down.

Convicted unfairly of a crime whose penalty is seven years and transportation, Richard Morgan learns to live as a prisoner. Life aboard the prison ship is a job in itself to stay alive.

Arriving in Botany Bay, Richard plies his trade as a gunsmith to the building of a convict community. Having lost his wife and child to death before being sentenced, he lives alone and desires no woman. As more and more convicts arrive, living quarters become sparse and each is required to take in a convict. A frightened young girl, half his age, ends up in his house and thus begins the thawing of his heart. Richard finishes his sentence and deems to stay in this new land and with his new love.

Having read most of Ms.McCullough's books, I was looking forward to Morgan's Run. Although the book got off to a slow start and the detailed descriptions made for very slow reading, I was not disappointed. One of the reasons I like reading Colleen McCullough's books is that her reasearch is very thorough. She describes in detail how people performed everyday tasks. Her descriptions of life in the jails and aboard the convict ships show the hardships of the times and what these people really had to endure. Alot of other books, and especially the movies, paint too romantic a picture. You could almost smell the stench of the prison hold. I liked the character of Richard Morgan. And, even though he may be bigger than life and almost too perfect, isn't that what a hero is? Looking forward to the sequel.

I have read all of Colleen McCullough's novels, and found the Masters of Rome series to be absolutely riveting as well as informative and "real" - Rome at that time came alive for me and the characters had real depth. In addition, she managed to create riveting plot lines that brought me into all the action and helped to make sense of a very far away and ancient time.

Unfortunately, I did not have this same experience with Morgan's Run. I really wanted to know about the beginnings of Australia, and in her usual thorough manner, Ms. McCullough taught me a lot. Even though Richard Morgan is a complex and interesting character, I did not feel myself really caring about him or the many, MANY people he comes into contact with. Near the end of the story I started to finally get into the message that I think she was striving to convey....quiet strength ultimately overcomes adversity, but Richard was SO quiet that he almost bored me. The character, Meghann, in The Thorn Birds, came totally alive for me and Caesar is incomparable in the Rome Series (I am in love with this man and wish I could time travel, even if only half of her description of him is true!). Richard Morgan seems to be more of a plot mechanism and she almost uses this poor man as badly as the people of his time tried to do. He is admirable but there is so much detail written about what happens AROUND him that I barely got to know HIM. I will, however, read the sequels because of the historical knowledge I will gain and because I am now familiar with the main characters and am beginning to see them as more three dimensional.

A wonderful piece of fiction, although it lacks the structure and form 'The First man in Rome' and 'The Grass crown' had. Read the beginning of 'Fortune's Favorites', then the end, and it's next to impossible to make a link between them - it's more a record of historical events than a story - but nonetheless, historical events wonderfully written. Surprisingly, there was little emphasis on the rise of the career of Pompey the Great, considering these years were 'his' if they were anybody's, this is rather puzzling. It seems that the first part of the book is exclusively Sulla's, the second part is Caesar's and anyone else is an afterthought. McCullough also has strong opinions about the 'bad' and the 'good' - throughout, it is clear who she 'likes and dislikes,' as it were. The book is undeniably worth reading, but is very much caught in the middle. 'The First Man in Rome' and 'The Grass Crown' deal with the first direct threats to the Republic, the latter two books with the last threats, and Fortune's Favorites seems to have trouble deciding which way to lean. McCullough does not hesitate in setting the stage for 'Caesar's Women' - it is amusing to read of the mischevious children - Clodius, Antony, Brutus - in this book later becoming the young men who terrified the city, and eventually being destined for different - if horrid - ends. An excellent read, but one that you would have to use every once of concentration for in order to fully understand. I must confess that for my own part, I find the first two and latter two superior.

This continuation volume is a bit disjointed when compared to the wonderfully unified earlier volumes. You have Sulla, who has suddenly become very ill and aged, in the ascendant; his soul sickness comes to full flower here with his power, which he wields with the most chilling ruthlessness as he attempts to return Rome to an earlier age. Then, there is the young Julius Caesar, whose star is just beginning to rise and whose character is utterly unique and fascinating. (There is an hilarious episode where he is captured by pirates, whom he seduces with his wit while telling them he will return and crucify them, which he subsequently does.) The narrative shuttles between the two rather disjointedly, in a time of change as the Roman Republic breathes its last.

Despite this disjointedness, I enjoyed this novel as much as I did the previous ones. Indeed, I was enthralled as I experienced the history of Rome, which I have studied my entire adult life, in a new way. This is one of the best series of historical novels I have ever read and I can't wait to read the next ones in the series.

I believe that McCullough achieves her ambition of making as complete a portrait of an age as can be done in fiction. Warmly recommended.

If anyone had told me a year ago that I would be hooked on series about ancient Rome, I would have thought they were crazy. I've never been a big fan of Roman history or culture; I always thought of them as highly overrated. Well, this series is changing my mind. All of these books completely immerse the reader in a world separated by ours by two millenia, but I for one was amazed by how many things haven't changed. I didn't think this book was quite as good as the ones before, perhaps because I didn't find Caesar as interesting as I did Sulla or Marius (I did read McCullough's disclaimer about Caesar's intelligence, looks and physical prowess, but I still find him a little too good to be true). I'm currently halfway through "Caesar's Women" and can't wait for "Caesar".

Judging from the reviews it seems all that have read The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery weren't happy with this book at all. The same is true for me. The Blue Castle is full of beauty and humor...while this novel was a pale shadow of it. The story line is very much the same, but holds none of L.M. Montgomery's magic. Frankly, the book was boring and I skipped through most of it once I got to the middle. In my opinion, skip this novel and read The Blue Castle.

For some reason I thought this was going to be a somewhat meatier 'Shell Seeker' type-book, and I continued to think so until about the middle of the book, but then realized it was a romance novel.

OK, I guess as romance novels go. I thought the 'ghost' storyline was stupid - at one point, I thought maybe she had faked her death. No matter, pretty well-written for it's genre but nothing I'd highly recommend.

Very short, reads fast, makes you laugh. A feminist social satire set in the early 1900 somewhere in Australia. It's the story of Missy, a poor and put-upon spinster living under the autocratic tyranny of the male members of the family. She seems destined to a life of misery till a cousin, recently divorced (delicious scandal!!) arrives in town and sets the 'gentlemen' in their place with a scheme that leaves the women in the story and the readers of the book richer for the experience in every way.
Very witty and very wonderful.

I am interested in Colleen McCullough, and I shop a lot with Amazon. However, I regret the way this book is presented - I do not know which three novels are in there so I cannot even think about buying them or not. Please think of this when you present books!

Without a doubt, Colleen McCullough is a marvelous writer who knows her craft. The author often delves deep into her characters, revealing both strength and weaknesses of human nature. I enjoyed all three stories contained in the volume, especially "Tim," which is also an excellent film.

Having read "Thornbirds", "Ladies of Missalongi", and presently reading "First Man in Rome", I am amazed at the variety of literary style McCullough has; however, this is certainly one of her more simplistic styles. There is no guessing what will happen because the reader quickly realizes Judith Carrol is Judas Iscariot, and the main character is Christ all placed in the future. The interesting twist is relating the idea to a twisted, sick love and admiration for someone, a person that must be controlled somehow. In that respect, there may be many who can relate to the idea of a power struggle within a relationship. I guess I simply got caught up in the idea of a type of second coming or more of a rehash of the first coming...as if it needed to happen again because it wasn't perfect enough the first time around. With that in mind, the ending seems fruitless and somehow, so did my reading of this book. Better to introduce yourself to this wonderful writer by reading "Thornbirds" or her Roman series.

I think that this book is the story of Jesus, I don't know why Colleen has to wrote again this story 2030 years later, I didn't learn anything at all everything I just knew it.

Essentially there is nothing wrong with this book - in fact it is very compelling and readable and as such deserves a 4 star rating.

Still in saying that I wonder what made Colleen write about such a religious event but duplicated in the future? It is not offensive in my mind but others who take the Christian religion seriously may see this book as blasphemy.

Others like me who are not so worried will find this an easy and entertaining read that will leave you feeling a trifle sad about the world she has created in this novel.