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Richard Blake
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The Blood of Alexandria (Death of Rome Saga Book Three) Hardcover – 10 Jun. 2010

by Richard Blake (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars 30 ratings

The tears of Alexander shall flow, giving bread and freedom . . .


612 AD. Egypt, the jewel of the Roman Empire, seethes with unrest, as bread runs short and the Persians plot an invasion. In Alexandria, a city divided between Greeks and Egyptians by language, religion and far too few soldiers, the mummy of the Great Alexander, dead for nine hundred years, still has the power to calm the mob - or inflame it . . .


Aelric, the young British clerk who has become a senator and the trusted henchman of Emperor Heraclius, has come to Alexandria to send Egypt's harvest to Constantinople and to force the unwilling viceroy to give its land to the peasants. But the city - with its factions and conspirators - thwarts him at every turn. And when an old enemy from Constantinople arrives, supposedly on a quest for a religious relic that could turn the course of the Persian war, he will have to use all his cunning, his charm and his talent for violence to survive.

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  1. Book 3 of 6
    Death of Rome Saga
  2. Print length
    512 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    Hodder & Stoughton
  5. Publication date
    10 Jun. 2010
  6. Dimensions
    16.1 x 23.5 x 4.3 cm
  7. ISBN-10
    0340951168
  8. ISBN-13
    978-0340951163
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Product description

Review

As always, Blake writes with immense historical and classical erudition, while displaying an ability to render 1500-year-old conversations in realistically colloquial English. (C4SS)

If you like your Dark Age stories to be, well - particularly dark - then you'll love this. - (Historical Novels Review)

It would be hard to over-praise this extraordinary series, a near-perfect blend of historical detail and atmosphere with the plot of a conspiracy thriller, vivid characters, high philosophy and vulgar comedy. (The Morning Star)

Fascinating to read, very well written, an intriguing plot ... I enjoyed it very much. (Derek Jacobi, star of I, Claudius and Gladiator)

Book Description

Alexandria is the setting for the third in the brilliant trilogy set in the dying days of the Roman Empire, featuring the most compelling anti-hero since Flashman.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Hodder & Stoughton; First Edition (10 Jun. 2010)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 512 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0340951168
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0340951163
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 16.1 x 23.5 x 4.3 cm
  • Customer reviews:
    4.0 out of 5 stars 30 ratings

About the author

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Richard Blake

Richard Blake

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Richard Blake is a pen name used by the British author Sean Gabb, known for his historical novels set in the late Roman and early Byzantine periods. Blake's novels are notable for their meticulous research and attention to historical detail. He has created a series of novels that take place during the tumultuous years following the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Here are some of the key aspects of Richard Blake's historical novels:

Setting: Most of Richard Blake's novels are set in the 7th century AD, a period of significant political, religious, and cultural upheaval in Europe. This is the time when the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire) was facing numerous challenges, including the rise of Islam, internal conflicts, and the Lombard invasion of Italy.

Protagonist: The central character in many of Blake's novels is Aelric, a Roman clerk and scholar. Aelric finds himself caught up in the tumultuous events of his time and becomes embroiled in various political and military intrigues.

Historical Accuracy: Richard Blake is known for his commitment to historical accuracy. He carefully researches the historical context, including political, social, and religious aspects, to create a vivid and authentic portrayal of the period.

Themes: Blake's novels often explore themes of power, corruption, religious conflict, and the clash of civilizations. They provide a window into the challenges faced by individuals and societies during a time of profound change.

Series: The Aelric series, consisting of multiple novels, follows the adventures and trials of the main character as he navigates the complexities of the Byzantine Empire and the wider Mediterranean world.

Some of Richard Blake's notable novels include "Conspiracies of Rome," "The Terror of Constantinople," "The Blood of Alexandria," and "The Curse of Babylon," among others.

It's important to note that while Richard Blake's novels are grounded in historical research, they also incorporate elements of adventure and intrigue to make the stories engaging for readers. If you have an interest in historical fiction set in the late Roman and early Byzantine periods, Richard Blake's novels may provide an entertaining and informative reading experience.

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Top reviews from United Kingdom

  • james eves
    5.0 out of 5 stars YOU CAN NOT BEAT A GOOD STAKE
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 June 2010
    This is my first outing with Richard Blake Aelric,the young British clark who has become a senator and trusted henchman of Emperor Heracluis and i found that it kept me page turning all the way to the end of this politcal intrigue in 612AD Egypt.The one character i was not sure of was the Mistress who seem to float through the story but was not notice by anyone except Aelric and who had powers that seem to take us into the world of fantasy.The man who i grew to like was Priscus,the old enemy from Constantinopl who has a drug habit and a passion for a nice stake,but not all ways on the plate,which along with his pet cat,was not unlike that of a Bond villain.I also throught the Amazon Nuns was a nice touch in the final outcome,so perhaps not so far from fantasy.So to sum up,a good read that makes me want to explore the first two books by Blake and the ending leads one to believe we will have more adventures with Aelric yet to come.
    8 people found this helpful
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  • Kathie
    4.0 out of 5 stars Shock of the ancient
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 October 2012
    This is a book brimming with historical insight and interest which also succeeds as a fast paced adventure story. It's well structured, well written and even the editing, so often poor these days, is better than average. Thank you Mr Blake.
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  • J.K. Currie
    4.0 out of 5 stars 'Wayya jaja minti lalakali'
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 January 2014
    `Richard Blake' has trotted out a new Aelric novel annually for the last six years and I guess there may still be another four to come. `Blake' clearly understands his Classics and has good knowledge of the historical period in which Aelric performs his adventures, but it would be wrong, I think, to consider these novels historically sound as some reviewers have done. While there is a basic substratum of historical fact, i.e. the crisis of the Roman Empire in the Seventh Century and its transformation into the Byzantine Empire during the reign of Heraclius, all this is simply a framework for fantastic plots of a febrile imagination. Some might simply say the stories are a complete load of nonsense.

    Of course, these are novels, not non-fiction text books, and strict historical accuracy is neither to be expected or attainable; suspension of belief is necessary for their enjoyment. However, to suspend disbelief over 500 pages is quite an ask, especially in a novel concerned with Byzantine Egypt which manages to incorporate near death experiences, She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed, a guest appearance of the author himself (when Aelric almost meets his maker!), a most irreverent relic pertaining to the infancy of Jesus and an episode of mass impaling which would have caused envy to Vlad the Impaler himself. The silliness is sublime.

    `Richard Blake' just about pulls it off in my opinion. As the novel spirals into fantasy in the last 100 pages or so, it also elicited a few long and sustained bursts of incredulous laughter from this reader. I am assured that laughter prolongs life and health. So, thank-you, Mr `Blake'.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Siânlover
    5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Blake Yet
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 June 2010
    I discovered Richard Blake in 2008. I am a big fan of 'Conspiracies of Rome', and I greatly enjoyed 'Terror of Constantinople'. When I heard there was another one on the way, I could barely wait. I was also more than a little apprehensive. Sequels (and sequels of sequels) are often increasingly disappointing. I had been lucky once with Mr Blake, but this was hardly a guarantee of his continued excellence. But I have now read 'Blood of Alexandria', and while I would be the first to say it is not in fact the best novel I have read, it is certainly the best historical novel I have read. Indeed, it is better even than his first, which I have come to prefer to the admittedly more richly-studied and sophisticated follow-up (possibly because it seems to me to be in some way "purer"). But what more of this one? Well, the best idea I can give you of it is to as you if you would like to know 7th century Alexandria. If you would, this is the book for you. Would you like to see the mummy of Alexander the Great? Would you like to see the Great Pyramid before the Arabs chose to deprive it of its limestone casing? Would you to see, hear, smell and taste a world that is long-dead, and may never have existed quite as depicted here, but which is presented with the utmost persausiveness and plausibility? Blake's knack for setting the scene is one of his greatest strengths. He has never been less than impressive in this respect, but here he excels himself: we are presented with a veritable rogue's gallery of disreputable but entirely credible characters. We are also left in no doubt that this is exactly how clever, ruthless people behave when plunged into an interlocking set of crises. Mr Blake's writing is fluent, immersive and so subtly expositional that we are able to persuade ourselves that the guilty pleasure of reading his works is tempered by their educational value. As we have come to expect, there are many moments of delicious black comedy, and many moments of shocking horror. And, driving everyone and everything inexorably on, is a plot as logical, complex and aesthetically and intellectually satisfying as a Bach fugue. It is a plot that picks us up on page one and does not allow us a moment's peace of mind until the moment when it sets us down, cathartically exhausted, five hundred pages later.
    12 people found this helpful
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  • Rm Vermaat
    2.0 out of 5 stars I liked the first books better
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 August 2016
    Verified Purchase
    I liked the first books better. The main chjracter becomes a bit too self-important and egeocentric. plot became much weaker. I stopped after this one.
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  • mark1000
    4.0 out of 5 stars blood of alexandria
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 September 2011
    a historical thriller with blakes usual style and skill
    all the ingredients are in there! conspiracies,riots, effete villains, however it went over much of the same ground as your average eygto thriller the signposted lost city, the secret brotherhod of the old faith, the terrible secret, the lost tomb of alexander
    alexanders mummy was unlike some novels of the same theme only an aside some nice touches but also lot of talk from the now familiar charactors
    if you like blakes other aelric series and i did you will enjoy this but then again i always had a fondness for this period and blakes captures it well
    One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Davey
    4.0 out of 5 stars Compelling Reading
    Reviewed in the United States on 23 February 2013
    Verified Purchase
    Once again Richard Blake has taken a little known time in history and spun a great tale, You will enjoy this book.
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  • Ben Labovitz
    3.0 out of 5 stars Like a tomb looting-lots of neat stuff under the piles of junk
    Reviewed in the United States on 6 September 2020
    Verified Purchase
    This is the second title I’ve read in the series, the previous being #2. I think I’ve come to grips with the series after a while of not really knowing how to feel. Definitely worth reading. The themes he orbits are very close to my own interests and have deep implications. I particularly appreciate how he engages the “who watches the watchmen” concept through Aelric and a few other characters. This is a professor and lecturer fleshing out some of his more ‘controversial’ ideas, so there seems to be a lot more there than what is in the text. That’s really to me what is great about historical fiction, as it lets you interact with concepts in fresh ways.
    That said, the book is indispensable to me for illustrating Egypt after Justinian, but the plot itself is just about disposable. The inclusion of the Mistress could stand for the whole thing-dreamlike and really unimportant when it’s all over with- and that really got to me. You can see that Blake wrote himself into a corner with this one compared to the great structure given by the setting to the previous title.
    The author definitely makes the medieval Roman empire seem strikingly modern, with some things being more plausible or easily fleshed out than a great many others, but he really looks at the subtle implications of little observations he makes. I found reading about how the Library, Alexandria, and Egypt as a whole was managed on a practical, systemic level very interesting. I think where he inserts deliberate anachronisms (which are pretty frequent) they are done well with intent. However, the modern (and somewhat fascistic imo) mindset of the protagonist, combined with the cheerful perversion and vulgarity quickly goes past pithy descriptions of the grotesqueness of the time into distracting semi-trolling territory-it just is not right to have a protagonist who ogles adolescent children no matter how accurate. That’s the author’s idea of an inner monologue, ok...moving on.
    The speculative paleoarcheology aspect that others mention didn’t bother me. I actually thought the final inclusion of the ancient evil and the treasure of Eratosthenes was a breathtaking choice and, again, says a lot about how the author wants to frame the great struggle of Heraclius’ reign.
    It all feels like a storm of motion-new or unexplored characters come to the fore, and some familiar ones are transformed into wooden objects, but still really fun. Every page is something new and unexpected if you can forget that you’re trying to advance a plot. Maybe the theme will be expanded in the next adventure...
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