Etruscans
Beloved of the Gods
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- $18.99
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
In the early days of the Roman Empire, the noble Etruscan civilization in Italy is waning, Vesi, a young Etruscan noblewoman, is violated by a renegade supernatural being. Outcast then from Etruria, Vesi bears Horatrim, a child who carries inexplicable knowledge and grows to manhood in only six years. But a savage Roman attack leaves Vesi unresponsive and Horatrim homeless and vulnerable, and he travels to Rome where his talents confound powerful businessman Propertius, who arranges to adopt Horatrim as a son, changing his name to Horatius.
And all the while his demon father is seeking him to kill him, for Horatius is a conduit through which the demon might be found and destroyed.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this sturdy historical fantasy novel, Llywelyn, best known as a fictional chronicler of Irish history (1916, etc.), and U.K. anthologist Scott turn their attention to the legendary Roman hero Horatius (he of the last stand at the bridge). The book's premise is that gods and humans are mutually dependent on one another and shaped by one another's ambitions and feuds. A demon who's the incarnation of the builder of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one Bur-Sin, is fleeing the wrath of the serpent-goddess Pythia. In his flight, he impregnates Vasi, an Etruscan maiden. Etruscan law obliges Vasi and her mother to flee, but they have enough help, both natural and otherwise, to make their escape and safely deliver Vasi's son, Horatrim, who is then given abundant gifts by the gods and ancestral spirits. Unfortunately, the existence of the son will allow Pythia to follow Bur-Sin's trail and wreak her vengeance, so as the boy grows to manhood, the demon desperately pursues him. Eventually, one Horatius Cocles has to travel into the underworld with the shade of an Etruscan ruler and rescue his mother and a prostitute named Justine from the demon, who is now incarnated in the Etruscan prince Lars Porsena of Clusium. The authors' portrayal of an obscure time and place is convincing if uninspired. Horatius grows persuasively as a character as well as in age, however, and the final sequence in the underworld is well up to Llywelyn's usual vivid standard.
