Valerio Massimo Manfredi
 

I've read the first two books of his Alexander trilogy and then stopped. Perhaps it's the translation (it's written in Italian originally) but I genuinely can't say these books are very good. Style, characterization, it isn't doing anything for me. Alexander is one of my favorite historical characters but still I really have to force myself to finish the series and read book three.

A shame really, because I really like his subjects. The Last Legion is about Rome and Romain Britain, a bit of retelling of the Arthurian Legend with Merlin in as well. The Spartan too, looks good on the surface, as does his new book Talisman of Troy. But my bad experience with Alexander, coupled with a couple of negative reviews of the other books in which the same complaints arose, have put me off.

I bought 'Spartan' and couldn't finish it. I agree with Mith's criticisms, and it probably can be put down to translation problems, if we give Manfredi the benefit of the doubt.

Steven Pressfield's 'Gates of Fire' is an admirable alternative.

Re: Valerio Massimo Manfredi
 

Readers here are particularly fond of Manfredi, when his books hit the shelves his publisher already knows they're gonna sell a lot and get many reprints: his readers are usually the same who read Grisham, or Wilbur Smith, or Tom Clancy, people who maybe like action and good settings but aren't looking for science fiction or fantasy (and they're the most in Italy :( ).

Manfredi is a very good ancient times scholar for sure, he did teach in many universities, he still writes essays in the magazines, he's often host in some scientific popularization tv programmes (he even owns one all for himeself) and he's many more things: you're 100% sure to meet him anywhere there's a historical-related scent. But his range is too wide and his knowledge cannot be universal: in my opinion he writes a bit too much, he looks just for quantity to the detriment of quality. Indeed the impression you get from seeing and hearing him is he feels like a flesh&bone Indiana Jones.

As a result of this, since his increasing audience success he started believing his books are straightly historical: for instance, in "The last legion" he stresses its historical sources and thanks many other scholars for their help, as though he's trying to keep aloof from fantasy, but his works are fantasy (which instead was his good fortune: in a dry land to fantasy as Italy is, his works have been like a summer storm, rarely readers tasted something alike), not historical novels, he just exploits the settings in order to create whole new characters and situations. In my - and many others' - opinion Manfredi is a bit overrated, but is also very talented in spreading interest for the ancient times. The trouble is when people catch his words as they were the truth. ;)

Duraccione-

In english he comes across as extremely flowery in terms of his use of language, overly so, and this was one of the things that detracted from my opinion of him.

Is this also true of his writing in Italian? What effect do you think translation has on his work?

Yeah, he has to spread the story in three books... ;)
More seriously, the italian tongue is fit for a flowery language and very long sentences, by using many different words for the same meaning: Manfredi likes to use an higher language (synonym of knowledge) and therefore he's almost forced to lend color to his words the way you noticed.

The result of such a writing is usually nice and pleasant - though Manfredi sometimes tends to overdo - but I can imagine that in other languages the result can be a dull or too tiring book to read: in these cases you need a very skilled translator - just a talented one isn't enough - who's able to enliven the narration, by removing the slavish word-to-word translation and creating the same original text atmosphere in a style which is closer to the reader. But I can't judge the english translation both because my english knowledge (inadequate for this task) and because I haven't seen the english translation. :D

I remember I met your same problem by reading the translated edition of "The worm Ouroboros" (my word, that's a coincidence! :) ) by Erik Eddison, whose language - I'd say - is more or less as flowery as Manfredi's: the translator was very poor and the reading was so disappointing that after great efforts I had to give up.