TEST
Picture yourself at an airport. You are looking for a “brick” (a really big book) to bring with you on a lengthy trip, and you’re fed up with spy thrillers with the sickle & hammer on the cover. What you want is something that centers more on women without making you weep in public, but you’ve already read Bradley’s The Mists of Avalon and Auel’s The Clan of the Cave Bear on previous trips. In this situation, The Light Bearer could be a good choice. 
The story begins in Germania, the uncivilized lands outside the Roman Empire during the reigns of Emperors Nero and Domitian. The Chatti tribe is under pressure from the Romans and are troubled by infighting. Auriane is the daughter of a chieftain and at her birth, a dire prophecy was spoken. Growing up, she learns the ways of war, how to defeat and confuse the Romans, but traitors within the tribe prove too strong even for her. When Auriane is brought to Rome, she rises to fame as a gladiator.
Auriane is a true heroine, a woman who stands out from the crowd and who makes a journey of growth and discovery. Her innocence and deep faith makes her trials the more poignant, her choices more stark, as when she leaves her infant daughter to take up arms and lead her people. Of course, as a true heroine, she is a “super woman” – talented at all she does, not to mention gorgeous and gifted with prophetic visions.
Marcus Julianus Arrius is a Roman of the old Republican school. His steadfast morality puts him in danger from paranoid emperors such as Nero. Having experienced the life of the unfortunates as a child, he is the cat among the pigeons with his fellow aristocrats. The attraction between Arrius and Auriane is largely spiritual, both seeing the other as the one who fulfills a need hidden until that moment.
The Light Bearer weaves a strong picture of life in the first centuries. The captives’ reactions to Rome ring true. While they may feel cloying at times, there are plenty of details that give a feel for the coarse and glorious realities of the ancient Roman world. However, some of the details are not for the squeamish. Details? Who am I kidding? A great deal of the story is not for the squeamish, either. This is a read that improves with patience and speed-reading. Given that this a 1000+ page volume in narrow print, the reader should be aware that Auriane and Arrius do not meet until around page 620. Until then, I actually worried that another hero would appear out of the blue, since there was no interaction between the main characters, and many secondary characters I had come to know and love were killed out-of-hand along the way.
One problem is that once settled into speed-reading mode, wolfing down the time Auriane and Arrius spend together in Rome, the read is suddenly over. It left me feeling Is this all there is?, while, at the same time, I wouldn’t have wanted another 150 pages to straighten out the still-tangled threads. An alternative would have been pruning the story a little, for instance doing away with the reappearance of Auriane’s old enemy toward the end. Another quibble I had was the repeated comparisons to African animals made by the Chatti, animals they could hardly have heard of, given that their contact with the Romans was so limited.
I liked The Light Bearer for what it was. While Arrius is a nice guy, if you want to drool at a hunk of a hero and peek at luscious encounters, go read something that says romance on the spine. This is epic historical fiction, centering on one larger-than-life woman. I can recommend keeping it at hand when booking the next Transpacific flight or during a week at the beach.
Grade: B-
Book Type: Historical Fiction
Sensuality: Subtle
Review Date: 05/06/99
Publication Date: 1996
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Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.