Medici: Ascendancy

Medici Chronicles, Book 1

By: Matteo Strukul

Narrated by: Saul Reichlin

Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

Shrewd bankers, astute politicians, godfathers of the Renaissance, glittering dukes...how history remembers Florence's most notorious family. But the Medici and their bloody path to power was built on murder, intrigue and conspiracies that stretched across three centuries.

Florence, 1429. Giovanni de Medici, the family patriarch, has been poisoned. In their quest for political power, the Medici have made bitter enemies in every corner of the republic. And now Giovanni's sons, Cosimo and Lorenzo, have become the hereditary dukes of a city where loyalty can always be bought. While Lorenzo hunts for their father's killer, Cosimo petitions their remaining allies as Italy heads towards civil war. But the Medici will need more than alliances to survive, otherwise their beloved Florence - and their dynasty - will drown in blood....

©2019 Matteo Strukul (P)2019 Head of Zeus

A weak narrative made even worse by the reader

I thought this would be an historical story of the Medici; it’s actually weak fiction around a few historical facts. It’s poorly written, with fictional seduction scenes and the author’s constant use of unnecessary, bad, metaphors (“his horse ran so fast he felt he was on some mythological beast”) are laughable...but wait until you hear the performance - the narrator over-dramatizes every word and even tries different voices for different characters; his ‘female’ voices are straight out of Xmas pantomime shows...wait until you hear his ‘female’ character during the seduction scenes....it’s cringe-inducing. Overall this feels like it’s written and produced by middle school kids who have yet to learn nuance and subtlety.