Hannibal: A Novel

The Carthage Trilogy #1

by Ross Leckie

"A battle is like lust. The frenzy passes. Consequence remains." Such are the observations made and ill-gotten lessons learned in this fictional autobiographical narrative of breathtaking range and power. Ross Leckie not only presents a vivid re-creation of the great struggle of the Punic wars and the profoundly bloody battle for Rome, but also succeeds in bringing the almost mythical figure of Hannibal to life. Introspective, educated on the Greeks, Hannibal has never been presented quite like this. Written from Hannibal's perspective, this riveting, unique historical novel charts the rise and fall of the great Carthaginian general who came so close to bringing down Rome. A tragic chronicle of love and hate, heroism and cruelty, Hannibal is a dramatic and ultimately nourishing exploration of the inner life and epic consequences of one of humanity's greatest adventurers and most bloodthirsty leaders.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, War, Italy, Ancient History, Roman History

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Since reading Classics at Oxford, Ross Leckie has worked variously as a farm labourer, roughneck, schoolmaster, and insurance broker. He is best known for his Carthage trilogy.

He is now a full time writer living in Edinburgh.

Reviews

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the problems with historical fiction is that the reader is likely to have a fairly clear idea of what happens. This is particularly the case when the fiction deals with the illustrious dead. Novels about Napoleon and Marie Antoinette and Henry VIII may have a lot of incidental stuff to tell us, but the essential tension of fiction – will he die in exile? will she live? will he get married? – is necessarily absent.

There are ways around this, of course. The writer can take a leaf from Robert Graves’ Claudius novels, choosing a relatively minor figure and dividing the life into two. Alternatively, the book can portray the famous, about whom pretty much all is known, through the eyes of the real protagonists, as Mary Renault does in her wonderful novels about the adult Alexander and the Athens of Socrates and Plato. Other less scrupulous historical novelists have simply invented love affairs, illegitimate children, mysterious deaths, in an effort to sex the whole thing up.

Ross Leckie, in Hannibal (Canongate, 2008), has chosen a more difficult option. There can be few readers who don’t already know that Hannibal tried to conquer Rome by leading his army, complete with elephants, across the Alps in winter, and that he failed. And, really, that’s all there is to it. So it’s a pleasure to be able to say that Leckie, with great skill, has taken this basic story – the Carthaginian leader’s campaign against the Roman empire – and created a novel that works not only as a picture of an unutterably foreign world and time but also as a page-turner.

You can find the rest of my review a href="http://charles.lambert.blogspot.com&q...

[Bryn Hammond · Rating 1 out of 5]

Abandoned p.38
We know there is hyper-violent HF out there; to go by the first 38 pages, this is one of the worst examples. Nothing else has happened but grisly deaths by torture. The guy doesn't only gouge out the eyes, he bites through the eye-strings. (I've tried to visualise this ever since. I hope he's done his anatomical homework).

I direct your attention to a wonderful novel on Hannibal, Pride of Carthage. Nobody bites eye-strings.

[Olethros · Rating 3 out of 5]

-Tonos crepusculares muy intensos.-

Género. Novela histórica.

Lo que nos cuenta. Aníbal Barca sabe que está cerca de la muerte y mira atrás con serenidad para recordar cómo vivió su vida, en qué acertó y qué errores cometió, tanto desde la perspectiva del hombre como desde la del general que puso a la Antigua Roma contra las cuerdas. Primer libro de la Trilogía de Cartago.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com....

[Graeme · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the life story of the near legendary Carthaginian general who, very nearly, brought down the Roman Empire. Told from the perspective of Hannibal at the end of his life, it is a sad tale full of bitterness and regret.

We first meet Hannibal as a three-year-old boy being taught languages, philosophy and history by Greek tutors while his father Hamilcar is away in Sicily fighting a defensive war against the Romans. Following his defeat, Hamilcar returns to Carthage bringing his army of mercenaries with him. He then leaves the city to visit his estates. In Hamilcar's absence the mercenaries revolt, having received no payment due to the cost of the war virtually bankrupting Carthage. The young Hannibal witnesses many atrocities at the mercenaries' hands, and still more upon his father's return and liberation of the city.
Its power waning due to its defeat at the hands of Rome, Carthage seeks to expand westward into Iberia. Hamilcar, intent on having vengeance against Rome, leads the expedition and takes his sons with him. It is here, over the next decade, that he teaches Hannibal how to fight and how to lead. But it is not at the hands of Romans that Hamilcar meets his end. He is killed in a minor skirmish against Iberian rebels. Hannibal witnesses this and pledges to his dying father that he will not rest until Rome falls.
Some years of peace follow during which Hannibal falls in love with and marries Similce. After a time she falls pregnant but then the Romans seek to take lands for themselves in Iberia. This is the excuse Hannibal has been waiting for and he marches east, towards Rome.
The journey is harsh. Many battles are fought (not least against the winter cold in his crossing of the Alps) and many of Hannibal's friends and family are killed. Driven on by his hatred of all things Roman, and his desire for revenge, Hannibal wins victory after victory until only the city of Rome itself remains. But there is one obstacle which stands in the way of Hannibal's ultimate victory: the rulers of Carthage...

This is an excellent portrayal of the harsh and cruel world in the third century BCE. The Romans regard the Cathaginians as savages and the Carthaginians see Rome in the same light. Yet, to modern eyes, both sides are barbaric.
Leckie does not sweeten his story by glossing over any unpleasantness. From start to finish the pages are full of violence and bloodshed, as indeed the Punic Wars were. That may not go down well with some, but for me this was excellent writing (although animal cruelty was also on display, which I did not enjoy).
The main theme of the tale was that of revenge. It is hatred, "justice" and vengeance which motivate Hannibal. Though, by perusing them, he commits worse acts than those he has suffered and ultimately loses himself.
A brilliant historical novel which brings this character and his world back to life.

[Tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

This first book in a trilogy about the ancient Carthaginian empire covers the life of the legendary general Hannibal, who famously crossed the Alps with elephants to attack Rome. Of course, Rome eventually destroyed Carthage, and as ever, the victors wrote the history -- so the classical sources didn't leave a ton for the author to draw upon for this historical fiction. That said, the early parts of the book, covering his childhood years as the son of a powerful and wealthy general, are highly effective at portraying the ruling elite of Carthage, and the cosmopolitan nature of his education. He was raised by his father Hamilcar to hate the Roman Empire -- whose appetite for Mediterranean domination inevitably led to conflict with Carthage.

The next part of the book follows the father and son's years conquering territories in Spain. Hannibal emerges as a thoughtful and relatively restrained leader, learning from his father and then taking over when he is killed (the classical sources vary on whether he died in battle or drowned, and Leckie rightly choses to go with the more dramatic option). Navigating a tricky relationship with the venal governor Hasdrubal (portrayed here as a figure of outsized base appetites and shrewd instincts), Hanibal consolidates his power and falls in love with a local princess who becomes an implausibly important supporting character.

As Hannibal and his army make their way across Spain and through to the alps, his monomania overwhelms his humanity, driving him to extreme measures that effectively undercut his army's strength. The book starts to stagger a bit at this point, as the premise of the need of a son to fulfill his father's dream is a thin one at best. And by the time he gets to Italy, it's all somewhat anticlimactic, as the latter twenty years of his life pass by in a scant few pages.

The writing has the feel of mythic figures, rather than actual human characters -- and, as such, it never really clicked for me. There's obviously a ton of research behind it, but it's weighted  to delving into the political machinations, military campaigns, and battle tactics. Indeed, the book is full of battles, which are given much attention to detail, from the large scale tactics to zooming in on pitched hand-to-hand combat. It's definitely not for the faint of heart, as there are graphic descriptions of mutilation, torture, rape, and more. All in all, it generally held my interest, but not enough for me to want to seek out the other two books in the Carthage trilogy.

[Noah Nguyen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book surprised me.

I was trying to find something to read after I cleared out the last part of my reading list. Everything else was unavailable or inaccessible for one reason or another. Some time around Christmas I had downloaded a free promotional copy of Hannibal on the Apple Bookstore. I was interested in reading something new and dug a little to see what consensus had developed regarding the book over the last 26 years.

The biggest complaint was violence. Like, a lot of violence. 'No problem,' I thought, thinking my familiarity with grimdark settings would provide some kind of inoculation against disgust. I dove in and then immediately retched on, like, page ten. This book is -violent-.

But.

There's a purpose to the violence. I pushed on because I was intrigued, because maybe I'm a little less averse to reading such stomach-turning scenes, because the story was -good-. I was pleasantly surprised to learn this is a book about ideas. The violence is there because violence is so central to many of the ideas, so it's not purposeless. And, frankly, the worst of the violence is over by the first quarter of the book—until you get to a part where Hannibal personally loses a loved one to the same kind of mindless, brutal violence he has been meting out throughout the story. By that point you'll have a good feel for what Leckie is trying to say about violence, about war. About people.

For anyone who knows the story of Hannibal, you'll know it doesn't exactly climax at the end. Consequently the shape of the story is a little unconventional. Still, at around the 98% mark, after all the action has passed, being perfectly aware of how Hannibal's story ended in real life, I might as well have been biting my nails. By the time I closed out of my reading app, I felt like I had gained something and lost a friend.

That feeling is always my only real requisite for giving a story 5 stars, and Hannibal deserves every one of them.

[Alex Corradine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure why I chose this as my first read of 2024.

I don't really recommend anyone I know reads it as it is just traumatising from start to finish. Giving it 3 stars as I learnt about a period of history of which I knew nothing...although I'm starting to think that was preferable to the horrific impression I now have.

[Κωστής Χαϊμάνης · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,6/5

[Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leckie's writing makes this journey through Hannibal's life an immersive adventure like nothing else. His research is impeccable and even manages to bring joy to seasoned historians.

[Noah Overton · Rating 2 out of 5]

I won’t be reading a dramatised retelling of history again

[Hilary G · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ex Bookworm group review:

I am sorry, but I gave up reading this book on page 29, just after the fourth sickeningly violent episode. At one stomach-churning episode every 7.25 pages, and 241 pages to the book, I calculated that there might be 29 more such episodes and I was not up for that. I read for pleasure, not to induce a permanent state of nausea.

I also read for my own education, and had this been history, I might, just might, have persevered. But Leckie made it clear this was a novel, and novels are a form of entertainment. I am not entertained by violence. I don’t know what historical sources there might be for the novel, and I know these were violent, barbaric times, but I found the relish with which Leckie elaborated the incidents in graphic detail to be most unsavoury. At the very least, he could have given more background to why the Carthaginians and the Romans hated each other, but he couldn’t be bothered with that detail. They just did, now on to the ripping off of penises, putting out eyes, disembowelling guts etc. The depth of detail was not necessary to the telling of the story, so looked like gratuitous violence to me.

I would have been very interested to learn more about Hannibal because I (and, I suspect, many others) know nothing except he crossed the Alps with elephants. I think much could have been made of the pathos of hatred being passed from generation to generation and the young having no choice but to follow the same path as their fathers and forefathers without ever having the freedom to take their own path, but (in the first 29 pages at least) such potentially interesting themes are suffocated by Leckie’s apparent taste for barbarity.

While I am panning a book I have not read (unfair, I know), I will add that I wrote off Leckie as a competent writer on page 1, when he told us that “Through that last night he turned over such many things.” Such many? If it’s English, Jim, it’s not as we know it.

This is the second time in our history that I have failed to finish a book. But as you can see, I can review books whether I have read them or not!

[GUD Magazine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a nasty book. If you're expecting to read about Hannibal the famous general, Hannibal who crossed the Alps and gave the Romans the thrashing they deserved, forget it. This is Hannibal the man, one who doesn't care how many die in his pursuit of the revenge-wish he inherited from his father. He takes his wife and newborn baby through the alpine ice and snow, and then butchers some Roman women because the baby dies (the death is the Romans' fault--parse that one if you can).

Of course, there's also his good side--after his wife is brutally raped and killed by the Romans, he forbids his troops to rape. If you're thinking he's a mess of contradictions, then yes, he is--and it's not helped by the first person narrative giving the illusion of an insight into his motivations and character that isn't really there. Sometimes, Hannibal, who's writing this narrative as an old man in the expectation of imminent capture, feels the need to justify his actions. Othertimes, even such insufficient justification is lacking. The book would probably have worked better in third person, or with a different narrator, as it isn't able to get under Hannibal's skin and explain how his mind works.

At certain points in this book, I had to stop reading because what was portrayed was so viciously and needlessly cruel. In fiction it would be bad enough; in a novel based on true events, it's unbearable.

The book's well written, evokes the violence convincingly, is crammed with period detail, and has elephants. Excellent for those with strong stomachs. Not so good for sensitive souls.

[Beorn · Rating 1 out of 5]

A quite cold, clinical and often aloof interpretation of the story behind the most well known enemy of the Roman Empire, one of history's greatest military tacticians & warlords, Hannibal Barca.
Very little to launch yourself headlong into an engrossing epic or such like. In fact, at numerous times, it's quite frustrating and takes dedication to even keep reading.

While there's plenty of detail and information on things like the positioning of troops, war tactics etc, even though this sells itself as the story behind the great man himself, there is very little to make you immerse yourself in the story, empathise with any of the characters or make you feel a part of the tale.
This all adds together to give a very sterile read and, along with rather pretentious yet discordant phrasing, makes this a hard book to fall headlong into or get the same kind of appeal from as other, more immersive historical fiction.

Considering the previous fiction book I'd read was the far superior Hannibal: Enemy Of Rome by Ben Kane, I come out of this book wondering why I even bothered reading Leckie's version at all.

[Nicky · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved learning about the Punic Wars in my Classics classes, so I hoped for a lot from this book. Hannibal's an interesting figure, and the lessons never really made me understand him. Not, for example, in the way I understood what drove Alexander the Great. I hoped this book would help, but it ended up being, despite the first person narration, too superficial. I never really felt for Hannibal, through it, and it felt like a history lesson: a lot of dry figures, lists of what he learnt, and passionless descriptions of atrocities.

[Vasil · Rating 1 out of 5]

Слаб автор!!!
Много, много слаб!
Съжалявам, че така крайно се изказвам, но книгата е неразвита, така сбъркана...от началото до средата автора не успява да развие действието и запълва редовете си с едни безкрайни прилагателни, а след средата в стотина страници набързо разказва за около 50 год. от живота на Ханибал...ужасно, просто от много време не съм чел такъв адски несполучлив опит за писане на книга!

[Motorcycle · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was kind of monotone. It was full of big action, but all delivered in a dull tone. And the character didn't conform to my historical impression of him.

[Jason Waltz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll give this 4 stars, though it was a bear to begin. There's a long period of time between my initial handful of pages and my wanting to wrap this book up this week. some of it has to do with the writing style , which I understand was done in an attempt to match the era, and another, larger, part due to the horrendous number of tongue-twisting names. again, era specific, but when I typically skip over a single unpronounceable secondary character name, it makes reading and following who does what where extremely challenging and ultimately boring when there's a dozen+ such names. so if you don't regularly read stuff like this, it's daunting. basically, I said, full steam ahead and discarded all the secondary names and followed Hannibal alone. before mid-book, I inadvertantly had most of the characters down, though some have extremely similar names and roles, and by the last third I pretty much knew everyone, even if not by the name as typed on the page. it did help less were alive.

last half of the book, essentially from the death of Hannibal's father on, is rather rousing, deeply more psychological than anticipated, and filled with bloodshed and braggadocio. I read this because I despise the Rome that sacked and salted and stole the cultures and histories of Carthage and Greece and so many others, and wanted to read of Hannibal's victories again. it was an interesting novelization, poignant and brooding, filled with violence and the stuff of legend.

[Tate · Rating 2 out of 5]

it was bad and i feel bad about not not-liking it

good:
• the prose was decent? lots of sentences that Just Happened to be in iambic pentameter
• events after cannae weren’t boring and some interesting (if unlikely) characterisation happened
• i guess the frequent quotes from ancient authors is fun. and the dialogue in latin. as far as i could tell the latin was actually good
• i genuinely love the uhhhhhh cover design :/

bad:
• Many Things Were Just Verifiably Wrong. i can’t even list them all. mago stays in spain from the outset and then just..... is never mentioned again?
• this guy just doesn’t know how to do names. some places have latin names and some have modern italian ones? maharbal is spanish? the character who has the role of hanno the great is called bomilcar? i could go on but i won’t
• the only named female character who does anything gets fridged, horribly
• i get the sense that the author just couldn’t be bothered to figure out Where Armies Were after cannae. which is reflected in how hannibal just doesn’t know what’s going on. it is also Very unclear how much time passes. like i get that those bits of livy are kinda boring but if you’re writing a whole novel you should probably read them!!!!!!

[Snow Redfox · Rating 4 out of 5]

É bem violento, mas cativante. Os personagens são bem interessantes e mesmo quando a história é contada no passado, da pra sentir a melancolia do Aníbal ao relatar os erros e as perdas que passou. Na minha edição teve alguns erros de impressão, mas não chega a ser um incômodo grande. O pior foram a organização de diálogos, as vezes o diálogo de um personagem estava na mesma linha que o diálogo de outro personagem e isso muitas vezes me deixou confuso, mas não sei se isso é apenas dessa edição. No fim, eu recomendo bastante e espero conseguir ler os dois livros que formam essa trilogia sobre Cartago.

[Maisie Khan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written, and decently abides by historical accuracy. When considering the non-roman perspective, this piece is incredibly important - it demonstrates the military superiority of Hannibal, as well as giving non-roman peoples humanity.

This was heavy. It achieved a lot in a shorter amount of words than most books, yet presented a full picture of battles with just words. Many people are talking of the extreme violence, but it serves a purpose, and it is successful.

The grief is so clear in the book - you come to love who Hannibal loves, and you grieve who he doesn't allow himself to grieve.

Truly a masterpiece.

[Alejandro López Capilla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Siempre me ha atraído este periodo histórico, Las Guerras Púnicas. La lucha por el poder entre Roma y Cartago.
Y aparte de las figuras de Aníbal y Escipión, el impacto que tuvo en el ejército cartaginés Amilcar Barca, el papi de Aníbal. Y en esta novela se trata bastante de Amilcar y sus enfrentamientos con mercenarios tanto en Sicilia como en África. Ya por eso vale la pena.
Y Leckie escribe chachi. El trasfondo histórico es veraz y las batallas bien relatadas.
No me quedará otra que leer la segunda parte.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing book that is very graphic and not for the weak hearted. This book accurately shows the horrors and the graphicness of pre-firearm warfare. It keeps the reader engaged with very little down time with the book full of twists and turns, and showing how Hannibal changed warfare forever even though he lost.

[Dinil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starts well, meanders half way through and ends tame. Does give some insight in to the battle tactics that Hannibal employed against Rome but after the first one or two encounters the rest are rushed as if the pages were running out so he had to conclude somehow. And yes, its violent but then so was the Ancient world and its battles isn't it. :)

[Barry Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read. Not what I expected but enjoyed the history lesson. The book covered the times of Hannibal and the wars of that period. It was not historical fiction, just historical. It is very detailed and perhaps dwells on the horrific slaughter a bit to much. Don’t need all those details and as such is not for every reader.

[Chuck Abdella · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like Mr. Leckie’s work on the History Channel’s “Engineering an Empire” and I have always loved the subject of Hannibal Barca, so I wanted to like this book. But I didn’t enjoy this fictionalized account of the great general’s life.

[Philip Morrow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Was a lot better than I expected really good read will be getting the other 2 books now . It is written well and keeps your attention .
Not sure why everyone is complaining about the violence its about war which tend to have blood and death.

[George Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good novelization, seems to paint Hannibal as quite the bloodthirsty barbarian. Would actually have liked a bit more history about Hannibal after the fall of Carthage.

[Louise Duckworth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mediocre

[John Ellis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Told from Hannibal in the first person. Interesting.

[Shawn Matteke · Rating 5 out of 5]

All around good.

Good book, engaging and entertaining all the way through! Tells the story from life to death of Hannibal, romance, war, revenge, this book has it all.