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    Fortune's Favorite
    Fortune's Favorite
    Fortune's Favorite
    Audiobook (abridged)5 hours

    Fortune's Favorite

    Written by Colleen McCullough

    Narrated by Michael York

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Return to Ancient Rome - where politics, ambition, and greed collide in the fortunes of two fiercely powerful men: Lucius Cornelius Sulla, the great general who returns from exile to be installed as dictator, and then stuns Rome with his startling self-imposed retirement; and Pompey, the young scion of an enormously powerful rural family, who determines to leapfrog over the traditional milestones to Roman political pre-eminence by any means necessary.

    Passionate, ambitious, and larger than life, these men play out their fortunes against rebellious elements in Spain, dangerous rumblings in the East and the doomed slave revolt of the tragic figure Spartacus. But a greater threat to their place in history awaits - the fiery young warrior Julius Caesar, exploding now into manhood, his priest's robe shed in a most surprising manner. A newcomer to military glory and the Senate, he earns a formidable reputation as diplomat, lawyer and politician.

    In fascinating and unrivaled grandeur, Fortune's Favorites sows the seeds of Caesar's terrible rivalry with Pompey, and sets into motion the events which will finally enable him to tower over history for all time.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateNov 1, 1993
    ISBN9780743547390
    Fortune's Favorite
    Author

    Colleen McCullough

    Colleen McCullough is the author of The Thorn Birds, Tim, An Indecent Obsession, A Creed for the Third Millennium, The Ladies of Missalonghi, The First Man in Rome, The Grass Crown, Fortune's Favorites, Caesar's Women, Caesar, and other novels. She lives with her husband on Norfolk Island in the South Pacific.

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    Reviews for Fortune's Favorite

    4.5/5

    20 ratings11 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I recommend this to everyone! If you haven't read this, you must do so right now! Masters of Rome, Harry Potter, Twilight and The Lord of the Rings are the best series I've ever read! You won't regret reading this. I'm in love with it.
    • 5/5
      Fortune's Favorites, according to McCullough, is the final volume of Masters of Rome where source data is scarce enough that the novel is able to cover almost every significant event around the Mediterranean. The story shows the beginning of Julius Caesar's military career (under Lucullus gathering ships and winning the Civic Crown in battle) and his relationship with the King and Queen of Bithynia. It covers Sulla's consulship and eventual death, the military and political climb of Gaius Pompous, the efforts of Crassus against Spartacus and his army, and the legal exploits of Hortensius, Cicero, and Caesar. Caesar's perspective is a keen and penetrating one as he grows into an extraordinarily intelligent, well-rounded, patient, and dangerous man (as Phillipus told Magnus, Lucullus fears Caesar and the only person Lucullus ever feared was Sulla). Yet Caesar continues to hold the same beliefs in Rome that Marcus Aemilius Scaurus and Gaius Marius held during the time they were political allies. He cannot stand Roman governors abusing the provinces any more than he can tolerate inept military leaders. He travels quickly, thinks logically, and shows the best of Aurelia and Marius in his actions and thoughts.The amount of historical data included in this book is remarkable, ranging from ships of the time to court processes to military tactics to gladiators, superstitions, and even grain sales in the Roman Republic.
    • 4/5
      The First Man In Rome centers on Gaius Marius. This book tracks the decline of Marius due to age and strokes. It also follows the rise of Sulla. He seeks to eclipse Marius and manages to do so. Despite his peculiar personal habits he manages to surmount everything and become Dictaor of Rome. Once there he introduces a new persecution to Rome called proscription. It is a police state move to rid the state of all Marian sympathizes, He then tries to return Rome to ancient times when everything was controlled by the Senate or the aristocracy. Due to the demands of Empire it is impossible for Rome to return to an earlier simpler time. Sulla tries to insure there will not be another "Sulla" or "Marius" in Rome. Instead, almost immediately we have Pompey, Crassus, and Caesar.
    • 4/5
      As in the other books, the histories and descriptions of the various campaigns were not my favorite parts. The political intrigues, scheming, manipulation, etc. were quite fun. I enjoyed seeing Sulla finally get his man (though his deterioration was sad even for a merciless killer) and seeing Piglet turn into somewhat of a hero. Her take on Spartacus was interesting too. Caesar's development from a child to a powerful man and his relationship with Aurelia and Julia was well fleshed out by McCullough. The best of the series thus far.
    • 4/5
      First class research, first class recreation of an alien culture. Sulla in his old age, a physical wreck, as malignant as ever and now with power to achieve his ends. He is ambitious for himself, and eager for revenge: but he also has a deep sense of Roman traditions and his cruel reign does as much to set Rome back on her constitutional feet as it does to satisfy his personal needs. It is hard to paint a sociopath with a sympathetic brush, but McCullough has done it.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed it. It was hard to follow sometimes. Roman politics were very complex.
    • 5/5
      This is the third, and in many ways, the most engaging of MaCullough's Masters of Rome series. It touches upon the final years of the Roman Republic, the dictatorship and fall of Sulla, the rise of Pompey and the early years of Julius Caesar. McCullough challenges the reader through an accurate portrayal of the Roman culture, with its terminology and ceremonies.
    • 4/5
      Plot: The first half has Sulla as focus and is a more or less contained story. The second half frays into several plotlines, with none of them taking center stage. The overall coherence suffers from it, as does the pacing, but history makes it unavoidable. Characters: Sulla is as well portrayed as before, and easily dominates the first half of the book even when he is in the background. The rest of the cast is still finding their feet and being sketched out, with Caesar beginning to look just a little too perfect. Style: This volume is weightier than the first two, mostly because there is not quite as grand a scheme anymore as before. It makes for a rather disjointed feeling, and some scenes and subplots have an air of must-include-because-this-happened rather than because it was an interesting story.Plus: The first half, on Sulla. Some of the small plotlines in the second half. Minus: The second half drags on. A few cuts here and there would have made it a more interesting read. A family tree would have been a lot more useful than the countless maps.Summary: Still excellent, but not up on the level of the previous two.
    • 5/5
      Probably my favourite historical fiction series. Really meaty and engrossing.
    • 5/5
      This is the third book in the Masters of Rome series--each book is a doorstopper, but each is also wonderful in immersing you in Ancient Rome, giving you a feel for the late Republic and the men that shaped those times. In the first two books that primarily consisted of following two brothers-in-law and uncles of Julius Caesar--Gaius Marius and Lucius Cornelius Sulla. In the last book we watched Marius decline and Sulla's rise. Now in this book we see Sulla at the peak of his power, and a new generation begin their rise to power--including the young Julius Caesar and Pompey. Sulla is one of the most fascinating figures in this series. McCullough manages to make a man that was arguably a sociopath sympathetic without minimizing his monstrous acts. I really felt in this book how dangerous and scary it was under his dictatorship, especially for aristocrats--reminiscent of the Terror of the French Revolution--and how that chaotic period fed into the death of the Republic.I feel a bit mixed about McCullough's Caesar. He's definitely a fascinating and admirable character here. A bit too admirable. I got the feeling McCullough was more than a bit in love with her Caesar--just as I thought Mary Renault was a bit too in love with her Alexander the Great. The degree of a character's virtue seems to tie in with whether he was for, or against Caesar, and I feel that only gets worse with successive books. They're still I think though worth the read. Like the best of historical fiction I've read, it gives you a sense not just of the everyday life of a long past era, but the very different mindset. When a classicist friend of mine told me she only wanted to have dignitas in her field, I understood what she meant because of reading this series. It made me feel I understood Ancient Rome better because of reading these books, and made me want to read more about the period.
    • 5/5
      Well written and well narrated. I loved learning about their early years