STEVEN SAYLOR'S 'RAIDERS OF THE NILE' IS THE BEST GORDIANUS ADVENTURE YET

ANYONE who neglects to read Steven Saylor's RAIDERS OF THE NILE, which has just been released in Britain, will be soundly lashed, hung upside-down for three days and then fed to a crocodile.

At the very least!

Gordianus the Finder is back ... younger and more daring than ever ... in this prequel to the series of novels 20 years ago which featured Gordianus as a mature sleuth in the waning days of the Roman Republic ... and which established Saylor as a major writer.

A metamorphosis has occurred, befitting a Classical myth: A generation ago, Saylor was a young author writing about a middle-aged Gordianus who had an established reputation for solving inscrutable mysteries by means of his sage deductions. 

Now, Gordianus is a randy and somewhat naive 22-year-old who has a lot to learn ... and Saylor is the mature author with an established reputation for deftly guiding his readers through a tangle of clues as dense as any papyrus thicket in the marshes of the Nile Delta.

This superb historical novel works on so many levels ... as an adventure mystery yarn with the thrills and spills of any Indiana Jones flick ... and also as a brilliant literary spoof of Classical literature which will make scholars nod in recognition.

The story has all the elements of Greek tragicomedic literature: Lovers torn from each other's arms ... mistaken identities ... abductions ... pirates ... poisonings ... rapes ... cuckoldry ... buffoonish potentates ... smart-aleck slaves ... men dressed up as women .... 

Why, there's a Spielbergian cute kid who squeals and gives away secrets at the most inopportune times.

And there's even a cowardly lion whose uncharacteristic courage saves the day.

But this is a novel by Steven Saylor, after all, whose epic best-seller ROMA traced the history of Rome from its founding as a cluster of mud huts on the banks of the Tiber to the city of marble which would influence Western Civilization for all time.

His scholarship is no less meticulous for this novel, set in Ptolemaic Egypt in the chaotic days of the 1st Century BC just before Julius Caesar stepped in to "save" the Egyptians from themselves ... and end Egyptian sovereignty for 1,900 years to come.

As always, his characters are richly drawn and developed. The plot is writhing with villains and brigands, cut-throats and pirates. 

But in the best tradition of the Greek tragicomic novels Saylor used as the basis of this book, each character is more than what it appears to be at first glance. Good and evil dwell in every heart.

This is masterful writing by a master story-teller. 

Other successful writers become jaded and formulaic with success ... and age. But Saylor has rejuvenated not only his protagonist, but also his skills as a story-teller. 

In many ways Raiders of the Nile is the best book for first-time Saylor readers ... the book which best introduces a new reader not only to Gordianus the Finder, but also to Steven Saylor.

STEVEN SAYLOR'S 'RAIDERS OF THE NILE' HITS BOOK STORES FEBRUARY 25

EXCITING news for fans of Steven Saylor, gay author of the best-selling epic "ROMA" ... he has announced publication of his newest novel ... a further adventure of Gordianus the Finder.

"RAIDERS OF THE NILE" hits book shops worldwide February 25.

The new book comes fresh on the heels of his highly acclaimed Gordianus prequel "THE SEVEN WONDERS", which traces the exploits of Gordianus the Finder as a young man.

Saylor just posted this on Facebook:

"My new novel is called 'Raiders of the Nile' and directly follows 'The Seven Wonders,' recounting the further adventures of young Gordianus (and Bethesda) in Egypt. I took inspiration from the motifs of the ancient Greek novels: separated lovers, kidnapping, bandits, concealed identity, love tested and redeemed. This plot hinges on a true incident: the disappearance of the golden sarcophagus of Alexander the Great..."

STEVEN SAYLOR'S "RAIDERS OF THE NILE" AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDERING

EXCITING news for fans of Steven Saylor, gay author of the best-selling epic "ROMA" ... he has finished his next novel ... a further adventure of Gordianus the Finder.

"RAIDERS OF THE NILE" is available now for pre-ordering prior to publication in February 2014.

The new book comes fresh on the heels of his highly acclaimed Gordianus prequel "THE SEVEN WONDERS", which traces the exploits of Gordianus the Finder as a young man.

Saylor just posted this on Facebook:

"My new novel is called 'Raiders of the Nile' and directly follows 'The Seven Wonders,' recounting the further adventures of young Gordianus (and Bethesda) in Egypt. I took inspiration from the motifs of the ancient Greek novels: separated lovers, kidnapping, bandits, concealed identity, love tested and redeemed. This plot hinges on a true incident: the disappearance of the golden sarcophagus of Alexander the Great..."

ANTINOUS AND THE SEVENTH

WONDER OF THE WORLD

ANTINOUS and Hadrian may not have seen all Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (they didn't make it to Babylon), but they definitely visited most of them — including the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus in June of 129 AD.

In the new novel "The Seven Wonders" by STEVEN SAYLOR there is a stunning description of the Temple of Ephesus — both the fabulous and monumental exterior as well as the awesome interior.

Reading this description gives you something of an idea of what greeted the eyes of Emperor Hadrian and Antinous as they entered the fabled city of Ephesus during the cycle of the Summer Solstice in the year 129 AD as part of their three-year tour of the Eastern Empire.

Ephesus had 300,000 inhabitants at its peak in the time of Hadrian, and it drew thousands of devotees to the shrine of the goddess annually. Even today, Ephesus is one of the most complete and most splendid ancient sites in the world and still draws thousands of tourists every year. The Great Library of Ephesus, which Hadrian patronized and greatly expanded, has been lovingly restored.

The Temple of Ephesus was consecrated to Artemis in her Asian element as a Phrygian-Hittite goddess of the hunt, a youthful manifestation of the Great Goddess of Mount Ida and Dydimus.

The Ephesus form of Artemis looks strange to our eyes — and looked strange to Roman eyes as well.

The Roman Artemis — called Diana — is a virgin huntress. She carries a bow and wears a short, simple tunic suitable for the chase.

But Artemis of Ephesus — presumably more ancient — stands stiffly upright with her bent elbows against her body, her forearms extended and her hands open. She wears a crown, and outlining her head is a nimbus decorated with winged bulls. More bulls and other animals adorn the stiff garment that covers her lower body, almost like a mummy casing.

From her neck hangs a necklace of acorns  and a ring of zodiacal figures, and below this you see the most striking feature of Artemis of Ephesus — a mass of pendulous, gourd-shaped protrusions that hang in a cluster from her upper body. At first glance, they appear to be multiple breasts. But in fact these protrusions are bulls' testicles.

You can read the full description (which we have only paraphrased here) in Saylor's marvelous novel, along with vivid details of the festive procession of the goddess through the streets of Ephesus and the sacrifice of scores of bulls to the virgin goddess at the temple — a ritual which Antinous must have seen with his own eyes.

The Temple had burned down on the night that Alexander the Great was born, but after his conquest, Alexander ordered the reconstruction of the Temple, which was still standing when Hadrian and Antinous visited.

ANTONIUS SUBIA explains the parallels between Artemis and Antinous and why we celebrate this Sacred Event:

"Artemis is considered the female Antinous, as his divine twin, the only goddess to exhibit lesbian qualities. She was worshipped as Diana alongside Antinous by the funeral society of Lanuvium. Ephesus was one of the first cities to proclaim Hadrian a living God, and one of the first to adhere to his veneration as a Divus.

"The presence of Antinous and Hadrian with their very pronounced Artemisian qualities must have made a deep impression on the Ephesians, in that they were aware that the city was being visited by living gods. It is to Artemis of Ephesus that this day is Sacred, as the female twin of Antinous, the Bithynian hunter god."

NEW STEVEN SAYLOR BOOK

PUTS THE WONDER BACK IN OLD GORDIANUS

 

GORDIANUS is back and his legions of fans can take delight in finding out — at long last — how Gordianus the naive teenager became cunning and cynical "Gordianus the Finder," the finest sleuth in the turbulent waning days of the Roman Republic.


THE SEVEN WONDERS is the prequel to a dozen previously published Gordianus novels and short-story collections by award-winning, openly gay writer STEVEN SAYLOR. 

Last seen, Gordianus was semi-retired and had more or less been turned out to pasture by Saylor, who turned his attention to epic novels about Rome spanning generations and centuries. Those epic novels were really quite good — good, but not great — and Gordianophiles were worried.


Had Saylor done what Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did with Sherlock Holmes? Weary of writing "trivial" serialized short novels, and itching to be regarded as the next Dickens, Conan Doyle dispensed with Holmes  — sent him hurtling over the Reichenbach Falls with Moriarty. And Conan Doyle turned to epic novels which were quite good — but not great.


Under pressure from fans (and his publishers), Conan Doyle grudgingly brought Holmes back in a "now it can be told" prequel about his most remarkable case prior to his tragic demise — "The Hound of the Baskervilles" — considered Conan Doyle's best novel, if only because grieving readers were so delighted to see their hero in his youthful prime of vim and vigor.


Saylor has done the same with THE SEVEN WONDERS, which is in many ways his best novel. Gordianus is no longer old and world-weary. He is 18 years old, wide-eyed and boyishly naive. All his sleuthing skills are there, but he hasn't yet developed a really good investigator's ability to look at a case objectively and to eliminate the impossible, so that whatever remains (no matter how improbable), must be the truth.

Gordianus develops this ability during his travels with his tutor Antipater of Sidon to see all Seven Wonders of the World.

As always, Saylor's historical accuracy is impeccable, and his readers have fun cross-referencing even minor characters and place names in their bedside LEMPRIÈRE'S for subtle details and wry clues that more casual readers may overlook.

This is "vintage" Saylor at his best, stringing together vignettes and colorful characters which seem to bear no relation to each other and which this brilliant author then weaves together into a Holmesian final chapter in which all is revealed.

(Speaking of revelations, there are a few "spoilers" in the next few paragraphs ....)

This time the vignettes and characters could not be more disparate. There are murders and mysterious goings-on which young Gordianus solves easily and whose outcome the reader has just as easily foreseen.

Some of these vignettes have appeared as short stories in magazines and seem to have been cobbled together for the book. The reader is just about to conclude that this is indeed primarily a travelogue collection of short mysteries in exotic locales, when ... all of a sudden ... Saylor works his magic and begins weaving all those disparate vignettes and characters together into a tale of espionage and intrigue which poses an imminent threat to Rome itself.

Young Gordianus realizes (as does the reader) that everything had been inter-connected and nothing and no one had been what it had appeared to be.

"The world is not as simple as you think," Antipater says to Gordianus. And it would never be as simple ever again for Gordianus in his subsequent exploits. The lessons he learns from Antipater put his career into perspective.

Along the way, young Gordianus beds gorgeous wenches at the Olympiade, consorts with a witch in the ruins of Corinth, sees a boy morph into a girl at the pool of Hermaphroditus, gets seduced by a high-class madame in Hallicarnassus, has gay sex with a beefy blond Gaul who is the true-life Colossus of Rhodes, receives sexual favors from a priestess of Ishtar in Babylon and even has mystical conjugal union with Isis in a sarcophagus buried deep inside the Great Pyramid.



Everything culminates in a fiery climax atop the Pharos Lighthouse at Alexandria when all is revealed quite literally in a blinding flash — and Gordianus the nice teenager from Rome has become "Gordianus the Finder."

After the success of "Hound of the Baskervilles", Conan Doyle had no choice but to write additional "prequels" about the early adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and eventually had to bring Holmes back from the dead so as to fight the Kaiser in World War I.

Last seen, the Great Detective had "definitely retired from London" and had taken himself "to bee-farming on the Sussex Downs" of southern England ... where he presumably still resides, when not appearing in some book, movie or TV mini-series.

That means Saylor now has no choice but to pen further early adventures of Gordianus and to stave off his demise indefinitely. Gordianus still alive somewhere in the world today? Impossible, you say?

Improbable, yes. Impossible, no .... not for Gordianus ... not for Steven Saylor.

NEW STEVEN SAYLOR NOVEL

 

THE long-awaited prequel in openly gay historical novelist Steven Saylor's series of mysteries featuring the 1st Century B.C. sleuth "Gordianus the Finder" is finally ready for pre-ordering, Saylor announced today.

THE SEVEN WONDERS will be published on June 5th, the award-winning author said.

The novel takes place decades prior to the settings for the adventures of the mature Gordianus whom readers have come to know and love. The year is 92 B.C., Gordianus has just turned eighteen and is about to embark on the trip of a lifetime — a far-flung journey to see the Seven Wonders of the World.

As this blog was being posted, Steven Saylor contacted us with a scoop: "PS I can also tell you that Gordianus has his first gay encounter while visiting the Colossus of Rhodes..."

In the new novel, Gordianus is not yet called "the Finder" — but at each of the Seven Wonders, the wide-eyed young Roman encounters a mystery to challenge his already prodigious powers of deduction.

Accompanying Gordianus on his travels is his tutor, Antipater of Sidon, the world's most celebrated poet. But there is more to the apparently harmless old poet than meets the eye.

Before they leave home, Antipater fakes his own death and travels under an assumed identity. Looming in the background are the first rumblings of a political upheaval that will shake the entire Roman world.

Teacher and pupil journey to the fabled cities of Greece and Asia Minor, and then to Babylon and Egypt. They attend the Olympic Games, take part in exotic festivals, and marvel at the most spectacular constructions ever devised by mankind.

Along the way they encounter murder, witchcraft and ghostly hauntings. Traveling the world for the first time, Gordianus discovers that amorous exploration goes hand-in-hand with crime-solving.

The mysteries of love are the true wonders of the world, and at the end of the journey, an Eighth Wonder awaits him in Alexandria. Her name is Bethesda ... who the reader knows will become the love of his life and companion throughout all the other novels.