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"Luca Bastardo is a lovely young boy living on the streets of Florence when he is kidnapped and forced into a brothel by Bernardo Silvano. Not only in Silvano cruel, he holds papers that reveal secrets about Luca, secrets in which Catholic Church would be very interested. Luca begins to discover some of these secrets for himself, when he discovers that he ages at a much slower rate than other people.

In finally freeing himself from Bernardo Silvano, Luca makes an enemy of Silvano’s son, and all the heirs who follow him. Luca has made the Silvanos into enemies for the whole of his extraordinarily long life, and this is something of which he must be cognizant as he moves in and out of Florence.

This book is perhaps better classified as historical fantasy, rather than historical fiction, with Luca’s near immortality - in addition to simply having an extraordinarily long life-span, he is also impervious to disease and heals amazingly quickly - his alchemical workings, and his ability to heal others. Given that, it was still an amazingly rich and, as far as I could tell, largely historically accurate look at life in Florence between the 13th and 15th centuries. I was completely caught up in Slatton’s story and willing to suspend disbelief for the more fantasy/magic aspects of the plot due to the realism of her Florence.

This was a great read and something I definitely recommend."

http://www.devourerofbooks.com/2008/09/immortal-book-review/

Immortal is a historical fiction novel that is rich in language and detail. It takes place in Florence during the Italian Renaissance. Throughout the novel we encounter actual historical people like Leonardo da Vinci, the Medicis and so on. In addition we are taken through historical events such as The Inquisition and The Black Death.

This isn't an easy book to read-it is quite dark really. In the beginning we are introduced to the main character, Luca Bastardo, who had been abandoned as a young boy. He survives on the street, scrounging up food, begging and sleeping under bridges. One fateful day he is kidnapped by Silvano and introduced to a life as a child prostitute in a brothel. This was a very hard part of the novel for me to read-just the thought of the horrors Luca suffered there was enough to almost make me turn away from the book. I moved quickly through this part and a few shorter ones like it. Finally Luca escapes the brothel and ends up meeting a wonderful Jewish man who takes him in and teaches him to be a physico-a doctor. He also feels his first taste of what love and a normal sexual relationship can be with Rachel, the physico's daughter. At this time also Luca is introduced to alchemy and healing and seeing into his future.

This novel is full of supernatural elements and of course immortality. Luca's life spans over 180 years. From the beginning we know that Luca will come to a bad end but the book itself is his journey through all of these years. He is looking for the meaning to his life-why was he abandoned, who his parents were or are and why does he possess an ageless beauty. While the world and people around him are aging, Luca is staying the same. He is also looking for his one true love; the one promised him in a vision when he chose this one true love over an endless life. Finally through all the darknesss Luca finally meets Maddelena, his true love and he has several years of happiness. However, as seems to happen in Luca's life, this comes to a bad end too.

I liked Luca's character, I was drawn to him from the beginning and through all of his hardships in life. I enjoyed meeting all the people he met, famous or not. Hearing about the art and the history of Florence was enjoyable and I loved the supernatural elements. The sections on alchemy dragged on and I wasn't too keen on those. I think the book wrapped up in the end in a way that left us satisfied.

Travelling this journey with Luca was an interesting adventure. I did like the book except for the brothel part which I could have done without. I think the book was longer than it needed to be but for the most part a good book. There is talk of a sequel to Immortal and I would be curious to read it.

You can visit the author's website here and thanks to The Literate Housewife Review and her new online reading group for this read.

Immortal,the story of Luca, Luca Bastardo. This is not a tale for the faint of heart, as it begins after Luca's parents have disappeared, while he is living on the streets and then shortly after captured and lives in a brothel in Florence in Renaissance Europe. And it goes much darker than that. Luca is also blessed (or cursed?) with an extraordinarily LONG lifespan. He will tell you his own secrets, if you read Immortal, but he is not like the rest who age and die, when he is 30 years old he still holds the youthful look of a 13 year old!

Enjoyable as this historical fiction novel was, it seemed just too dark and too full of gloom. I did enjoy it for long segments of the book, and then the story, the writing, and the characters seemed to drag on. It seemed slow, or too long, too many words that didn't say enough. Yet I did enjoy much of it, I was interested in the concepts and Luca, who could not love Luca!?

The last 50 pages or so locked me in and kept my attention and kept me hopping. Luca, oh beautiful Luca! What a life he lived! I was mesmerized by his resiliency, and his good heart. Despite all that happened to him, he still walked on. The idea of living forever, of the "gift" of the fountain of youth or immortality is an interesting one. Would immortality be a blessing or a curse? You would live, and live and all those you knew would die, and the generation after that would die as well. You could love, marry and bare children, but you would outlast them all...still looking youthful, you could start all over. But would the pain of all that you have seen be too much to let you love anymore? What do you think, is death the curse, or would the be curse being immortal in a world of mortals?

here is the review on my blog: http://exlibrisbb.blogspot.com/2008/10/immortal.html

oooops!! I wasn't logged in!! Can you delete the guest post one? It is a huge block of text! I did post my review, and I reposted it here just above this reply. Thanks :)

"Growing up on the streets of medieval Florence, uncommonly handsome Luca Bastardo knows how to survive. His skills come in handy as he goes on to have a lifespan that is absolutely extraordinary, experiencing the transition from medieval to Renaissance Florence; he endures many trials, some harder than others, in his search for his heart’s greatest desire.

This is one chunky historical novel. Not only is it fairly long at over 500 pages, but it also covers a fair span of history. Luca experiences the beginning of the Renaissance and is consistently involved with some of Florence’s most famous faces. I did find it a bit of a stretch that a homeless boy would encounter and befriend so many “famous” people, but I rolled with it and enjoyed guessing who he met before we were told.

The story is very engaging. It moves along, skipping many years when necessary, and with such a long lived character, we lost out on the many boring parts of Luca’s life. In general, I liked him, although he did irritate me at times. There is some magic involved; Luca practices alchemy and obviously his lifespan is not that of any normal human being. So we have to suspend our disbelief to enjoy the book, but as a reader of fantasy, I didn’t mind. I try to take historical fiction with a grain of salt and a bit of fantasy tossed in does help that. To my knowledge, however, the actual history is pretty accurate.

In short, I enjoyed this book and I’d recommend it to other readers of historical fiction."

Located here: http://chikune.com/blog/?p=240

Sorry Guys, I tried to read the book but just could not get past the Brothel scenes with Luca being the same age as my son. It's not often that I stop reading a book but I just couldn't stomach the book. I'm more sensitive than most I guess! The Kite Runner scenes of abuse bothered me also but I finished the book. It was in no comparison to these scenes.

I hope that there is another book club as I would love to get through the book next time! I second the suggestions for The Gifted Gabaldon Sisters by Lorraine Lopez or The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry.

Sorry Guys, I tried to read the book but just could not get past the Brothel scenes with Luca being the same age as my son. It's not often that I stop reading a book but I just couldn't stomach the book. I'm more sensitive than most I guess! The Kite Runner scenes of abuse bothered me also but I finished the book. It was in no comparison to these scenes.

I hope that there is another book club as I would love to get through the book next time! I second the suggestions for The Gifted Gabaldon Sisters by Lorraine Lopez or The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry.

-redlady-bonnie

Don't feel you need to apologize for anything. Not every book is for every person. What bothers me to that level might not affect you at all. This is all about discussion and your feelings are valid and important additions. Thank you for sharing!

I went into Immortal thinking it was going to be pretty straight-forward historical fiction. It is so much more than that (which should have been obvious from the title.) There is a mystical, supernatural element to Traci Slatton's debut novel and it flirts with time travel, too. While both require a certain suspension of belief on the part of the reader, I enjoyed the extra dimension they added to the story.

Luca, the 'immortal' main character was extremely well-developed. He was forgiveably flawed and easy to relate to. Slatton gives the reader other memorable, sympatheic characters. As Luca moves through is supernaturally long life, he gathers friends and enemies, and I loved the friends as much as I despised the enemies.

Immortal provides a vivid glimpse of Florence at a turbulent stage in its history. Several significant events are interwoven into the plot: the Black Death, the Inquisition, the rise of the powerful de Medici family, and the cultural revolution we know today as The Renaissance.

At certain places, I felt a little bogged down by the author's writing style, usually during the discussions of art and alchemy. Both subjects had their place in the novel, but the way they were handled interupted the flow of the plot and the book could just have been tighter and more succint in these areas.

From the beginning, Slatton used foreshadowing to suggest that things would turn out badly for Luca. However, the ending still managed to surprise and evoke emotion as she brought together various elements, including the mysteries of Luca's parentage and his immortal nature, in a masterful and powerful way.

http://blog.literarily.com/2008/09/26/book-review--immortal-by-traci-l-slatton.aspx