Discussion What do you all think of Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

Well I don't usually read historic fics like this but since I do like Greek mythology, I decided to give it a try and so far I am glad that I did. I don't really know the history of the plot but the author explains stuff so it was easy to get into.

So what do you all think of this and are there any more novels like this?
I did see grand master strategist but Chinese historic fics bore me so I would like something more western.

Also I would like to know what you think of the romance aspect of the story. I personally prefer it to be in the background with it having no major consequences in the story.

Oh here's the link :https://www.novelupdates.com/series/mediterranean-hegemon-of-ancient-greece/

P.S I regret choosing my username.....

 

Is this polygamy?

I'm still hesitating to read this novel though

Maybe you can give some insight

 

no its not polygamy atleast till now and romance is not the focus which I like. Do give it a try as its a really good book. Mc is not op and has no cheat but uses his wit mostly to survive and even thrive.

 

How did they handle the religion and culture parts? Iirc Ancient Greece was rather unique in this aspect

 

It is a great novel. The author is pretty knowledgeable about Greek history. I’m curious about what he have in store about the ripple effects that the MC cause. Aka his own take given the events.

But what I really enjoy about the novel is his own take on the issue of immigrants, warfare, and philosophy. I’m surprise but can say that the author really seriously study the philosophy of Socrates and Plato. Heck, he even established own his vision of what an aristocratic republic looks like in action. It looks pretty good, similar to how Plato suggested in his republic.

Don’t kill me on this but: funny how a chinese is more knowledgeable about democracy than most American today....

 

I agree as its well detailed and its more show than tell.
And as for chinese mc knowing more about democracy, it is hilarious and I am really really glad he's not like I want to go back to China. He was just sad that he lost his family and all that and quickly moved on and only choosing to keep the parts that help him in the future.

 

It was pretty interesting and unique, but I feel like there was nothing that tried to invite me in and give me an urge to make me continue reading it.

 

I too felt the same since I didn't know the history but now it's a decent read that I read as it updates. It's not lotm level where I wait like an addict for the next Ch but it is one where the check for updates occasionally after reading other books.

 

I had a similar idea for a story with all of the mythical creatures and heroes being cultivators of one of the 6 Star Gladiator paths. The novel would be called Star Gladiator.
The MC starts in a spartan like academy gets it rough , has to steal food to survive , gets beaten up every day by older trainees. There's also an element of typical xanxia where each person has some genetic grade so they get treated differently based on their grade, MC is B grade.
Remus and Romulus appear in the story and they're both S grades and childhood friends of the mc(orphans). Eventually they set out to make names for themselves in wars , find treasures , battle acient monsters, eventually they venture out into the galaxy to find the gods of the Parthenon to resurrect one of the dead comrades... bla bla bla
I mean it's all great, but I suck at writing sooooooo nobody will ever get to see it.

 

That's a really good premise and you should try writing it though if there's no politics it might be just be your typical xianxia.
It seems good and you should try it. You could get an editor or something to help you.
I was too scared to write too but I gathered my courage and wrote two fanfics which are not the worst I have seen....

 

I haven't read this book but I have read books like it. As it happens, history and historical novels are popular in China. Most novels are naturally set in Imperial China, but there are quite a few set in other places and times as well. I'm reading one right now about the Balkans in the late 19th century, and the best World War II novel I've ever read was written by a Chinese web novelist. Sadly, most of these aren't translated so it's not all that useful unless you can read Chinese.

Also, I wouldn't blame anyone who dislikes "Grandmaster Strategist". The book isn't nearly as good as it's cracked up to be. There are Chinese historical novels (about actual history at that) which are much better. It's too bad that they mostly stay untranslated as well.

I don't find this surprising at all. Any Chinese writer tackling historical facts has to know their stuff. They have readers who are familiar with this material and these readers will spot any mistakes and hammer the writer for making them. I suspect that this is why so many writers write fake historical novels instead. They can still sort of talk about history but they don't have to worry as much about getting it wrong!

One problem I see from Chinese writers is that there seems to be a tendency to attribute the success or failure of a civilization to the qualities of its people. This can lead to lots of racist conclusions.

EDIT: One thing I forgot to mention is that it's also a big bonus that Chinese writers tend to be immune to a lot of historical misconceptions that are common to the West. One example here is that people worshiping the Spartans is pretty common but I wouldn't expect a Chinese writer to do the same thing.

 

I greatly appreciate this thread and post since I'm on the fence reading this- my main concern being historical accuracy vs storytelling. Like sure I get that it's a work of fiction, and there's a lot of room for creative liberty, but a nerd worries if they're just going to get a butchering of world history to glorify the MC

 

I think that it depends on what you want to get out of a historical setting. Generally speaking the writers of this kind of book enjoy the historical time period quite a lot so even if they change things a lot of elements, like the historical figures, the technology in use, and the cultural and political situations all feel authentic. There still tends to be a power fantasy aspect to these stories, and how far it goes out of hand really depends on the writer's intentions.

On the lower end of the scale is the World War II story I mentioned earlier: the protagonist applies knowledge of modern combat to the battlefield (all the way to vice command of an entire Army Front) and rises quite rapidly in rank and wins a lot more victories than in the historical record, and manages to introduce a fair number of military technologies and innovations in the process. The end result? She manages to capture Berlin early - but only by two months! As it happens, unless you're a top general from the very beginning, World War II is simply too large an event for a single person to change by much and one of the things I liked about this book is that it acknowledges that.

On the other end of the scale, I read (and am reading) a book where the protagonist builds an empire in Northern Germany and manages to build up enough wealth and power to set up colonies in Central and North America, trade missions to India and China, and secretly overthrows the Pope and the English throne; and all this circa. 1500. But even all this still plays fairly close to historical facts. Sure, Pope Pius III gets assassinated, but he gets replaced by Julius II as happened historically, Maximillian I is still the Holy Roman Emperor, the Hanseatic League still clashes with Denmark in the Baltic Sea trade, and France is still trying to expand its influence and territory into Italy. It's only dreck like "Battle of the Third Reich" that doesn't have any respect for historical events. I'd say that even the more extreme power fantasies will do a better job with historical detail than you'd normally see in English-language historical novels.

I find that one way to tell what is a more authentic historical novels is the language it uses. Most Chinese authors only have enough writing skill to write in modern Chinese. So the end result are ostensibly Early Modern Europeans who use idiom and speech like modern Chinese people. They still mostly have the correct attitudes and personalities of the period, but the way they communicate feels all wrong. On the extreme, there are books where all the characters speak the way you'd expect Stalinist era Soviets to. This isn't easy to do, even for ye olde Chinese, and the writers who take the effort to accomplish this are going to put more effort into their care for real history. Unfortunately this is hard to convey in a translation and you'd probably have to know a bit about how Chinese works in order to tell the difference. The sheer lack of translated proper historical novels makes this a bit of a moot point though.

 

you give me hope with all these interesting books you talk about but sadly these are not translated...
could you give me the links for them and can we request a tl to pick it up?

 

It's not going to help that much, but sure:

燃烧的莫斯科
I read this book before it got banned and it's a fantastic take on World War II.

King of Mercenaries
This is the book and its sequel is about Early Modern Holy Roman Empire. The translator dropped it very early though.

地中海霸主之路
I'm reading this book right now and it's about the Balkans in the late 19th century.

I can't recommend the latter two unless you love the subject matter though. They bring up some pretty good ideas but their books are lacking in a lot of other areas.

Also, I'd highly recommend Yue Guan's historical novels. Sure they're all based on Chinese history, but they're so detailed, so fascinating, and come with so many great characters that I'd recommend them to any ones. Sadly, any translator with the chops to translate his books already know who he is, and understand how painful they are to translate. There's a reason only one attempt has been made, and why the translator gave up after just a few chapters.

 

thanks a lot I might mtl them if my poor brain can handle it..

 

Good luck! I think that the books written in relatively modern language wouldn't be that bad, but the ones written in ye olde Chinese are going to be painful.

 

So I’ve spent a couple of years learning how to read Asian languages... and then Realized: Fawk

A) my cultural knowledge is shet, not getting the reference
B) my idioms in the language is also shet
C) somehow misunderstanding stuff