abookishaffair's review
3.0
"Oracles of Delphi" is a historical mystery set in the ancient city of Delphi. This is a fascinating historical fiction tale with a lot of good historical detail. This book takes place in fourth century Greece, a time and place I have not read a lot about (this book was a great opportunity for armchair traveling). This book gave me a good opportunity to visit someplace new through my reading while being entertained by this mystery.
What made those books so interesting to me is that we really get a front row seat to the murder, which this story surrounds but we also get to see how the various characters deal with this mystery. Believe it or not, knowing whodunit doesn't make this book any less interesting. Even though we know who committed the murder readers will still be pulled into the story by watching the other characters try to figure out who did it.
The beginning of the book starts with a bang when the murder is committed. It did lose a little bit of traction for me during the middle but comes to very satisfying conclusion. The middle of those books went much slower for me than the beginning or the ending of the book. I think some of the detail could have been slimmed down for pacing's sake. I did appreciate the mysticism that is woven throughout the story. I really enjoy magical realism as a literary element within a book. Overall, I think this book gives a really interesting insight into a time and place that was not familiar to me.
What made those books so interesting to me is that we really get a front row seat to the murder, which this story surrounds but we also get to see how the various characters deal with this mystery. Believe it or not, knowing whodunit doesn't make this book any less interesting. Even though we know who committed the murder readers will still be pulled into the story by watching the other characters try to figure out who did it.
The beginning of the book starts with a bang when the murder is committed. It did lose a little bit of traction for me during the middle but comes to very satisfying conclusion. The middle of those books went much slower for me than the beginning or the ending of the book. I think some of the detail could have been slimmed down for pacing's sake. I did appreciate the mysticism that is woven throughout the story. I really enjoy magical realism as a literary element within a book. Overall, I think this book gives a really interesting insight into a time and place that was not familiar to me.
elysianfield's review
3.0
3,5 stars
I have to confess I hadn’t heard about the Oracle of Delphi before this and I realized how little I actually know about ancient Greece.
Althaia is a privileged young woman from Athens but thanks to her lenient and loving father she’s had more rights than most women. She has knowledge to perform an autopias on a dead body, which becomes handy when a dead woman is found.
I liked Althaia, Theron and her two slaves. Praxis was almost like a brother to her even though he was a slave and it was nice to see their close relationship. Althaia was very likeable character: strong, compassionate and quite outspoken for that time. We get another perspective of her from the point of view of Nepthys, her personal slave.
Little by little we learn more about their past and how they became to each other’s lives.
I loved reading about the Oracles of Delphi because there the women could have power and be quite independent since women didn’t have much rights in Ancient Greece. And many of the women were born peasants and they could still be powerful.
I have to confess I hadn’t heard about the Oracle of Delphi before this and I realized how little I actually know about ancient Greece.
Althaia is a privileged young woman from Athens but thanks to her lenient and loving father she’s had more rights than most women. She has knowledge to perform an autopias on a dead body, which becomes handy when a dead woman is found.
I liked Althaia, Theron and her two slaves. Praxis was almost like a brother to her even though he was a slave and it was nice to see their close relationship. Althaia was very likeable character: strong, compassionate and quite outspoken for that time. We get another perspective of her from the point of view of Nepthys, her personal slave.
Little by little we learn more about their past and how they became to each other’s lives.
I loved reading about the Oracles of Delphi because there the women could have power and be quite independent since women didn’t have much rights in Ancient Greece. And many of the women were born peasants and they could still be powerful.
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