shana's Blog

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

Ugghhh. That was me. I forgot to log in.

I've never heard of Rice's Beauty series. Now you've made me curious Jennifer!

Hee, hee. I'm the one whose mom returned The Glass Castle partially read because she couldn't handle the language :)

What Dar said.

I see how alchemy fit into the story but the detailed descriptions, well, let's just say I was sooooooooooo tempted to skim those parts.

As far as the extended life, like others have said it was pretty crucial to the story and I enjoyed that particular aspect.

You girls have me LOL.

I was pretty neutral about him throughout the book. He did seem a little convenient.

I did like him in the final scene though. He seemed to kind of tie everything together which in that instance was okay since he was the other 'immortal' Luca had known throughout his life.

Have fun, Jennifer!

I have two more by Plaidy, a scarily thick volume on Katherine of Aragon and the one Meghan mentioned above about Elizabeth I. I agree that she isn't as given to sensationalizing the facts as Philippa and I also think that the dialogue between characters seems a little more authentic. Still, if I wanted to pick up a quick, engaging read, I'd choose Gregory over Plaidy :)

About male narrators ... has anyone read Pillars of the Earth and World Without End by Ken Follett? Both books were written in the third person, but both had prominent male characters (Jack in Pillars and Murfin in World.) They ended up being two of my favorite characters in the books, in addition to Aleana and Caris. (I have no idea if I'm spelling these right, since I listened to the audio version and am too lazy to go to Amazon and check spelling.)

Good point, Meghan.

I do think women make more interesting narrators, in general, although that is purely personal preference and I can cite exceptions.

Jen, have you read much Plaidy?

I've read The Thistle and the Rose, which is about Margaret Tudor who marries James of Scotland. Her writing style is very different from, say, Philippa Gregory. She doesn't take as much liberty in terms of filling in the blanks between the historical facts, which makes for a bit more of a dry read, but I still enjoyed the book. It's just not the page turner that, say Philippa Gregory is.

I'm on page 150. It's excellent!

I'd love to discuss more general topics while we're finishing this.

Jen, I agree that it's a quick read.

Jennifer, thank you for coordinating this.

I'm so excited to participate. Have you read the book already? I'll be starting it this week.

I am Shana, wife to Darren and mother to Ally, Juliet and Jake. I have a business degree but am currently a stay home mom.

Reading and blogging are two of the things that keep me sane in this season of my life. My book blog, Literarily, is located here at http://blog.literarily.com.