Reviews for Species coexistence

The average rating for Species coexistence based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-10-11 00:00:00 Charles Wheeler Why was Ovid, the most popular writer of his era, banished to the remote town of Tomis in the Black Sea from the seat of the Empire's power, Rome, and the side of his patron, Augustus? Why are merely two lines of Medea, widely touted as his most ardent and accomplished work, the only surviving remnant of this play? Between the historical facts of Ovid's life, his admission that a poem and a mistake were the pillars of his ruin, and these tantalising enigmas, Jane Alison has wrought a hauntingly romantic drama of psychological manipulation and sensual intrigue. Holidaying in the Black Sea on the outskirts of the Roman Empire and avoiding the potential displeasure of Augustus, Ovid chances upon an almost unearthly woman who epitomises the fantastical elements of his about-to-be published Metamorphoses. A delectable, desirable, alluring combination of mystic and witch, Xenia seems myth translated into life. Ovid is enchanted, obsessed, almost as a virgin youth experiencing his first love, he is brimming with inspiration: Xenia will be the muse for his pièce de résistance. But this time, he renders his subject seductively dark and twisted. When autumn arrives, Ovid tempts Xenia from her home on the coast of the Black Sea to Rome with the promise of immortality only an artist can bequeath. The ineluctable noose of ambition lures Ovid and he enters a Faustian contract, deceiving his muse and hurling them both towards a retribution he never imagined. As Ovid and Xenia become entangled in his art-inspiring-life conspiracy and the schemes of his patrons, so the reader is ensnared in this chilling yet enthralling re-telling of the events leading to Ovid's banishment. The Love Artist is an exotic, brilliant and utterly compelling meditation on love, genius, and the artist's (and his or her muse) unswerving quest for immortality. Ms Alison's prose is as bewitching as Xenia is described, as sensual and steamy as Ovid's The Art of Love, and as flawlessly complex and evocative of Ancient Rome as any cinematic poem scribed by the classical poets. Ms Alison foreshadows the events that will eventually engulf Ovid by opening her story with the journey of his exile to Tomis, but the story proper commences in the light and heat and smells of summer and the joy of the first stirrings of unexpected, overwhelming, infatuation. As the seasons fade into winter, so the menace of Ovid's plotting and the machinations of shadowy puppeteers shroud the protagonists until each is propelled along a path that can only result in a terrifying, profoundly disturbing conclusion. Readers of lusciously written character-driven prose, who enjoy fictional history of the ancient world, with breath-taking twists of plot and consequence, will not be disappointed with The Love-Artist.

Review # 2 was written on 2010-10-25 00:00:00 Xiong Lee Poetic Justice This intriguing, tightly woven tale grabbed me from the la prima pagina with its lush evocative prose and mercurial movement. Ovid was exiled from Rome… we know from history, but scholars continue to ponder and argue the reasons for and nature of this bitterly harsh banishment. The play that was to be his masterpiece "Medea" remains forever only a few lines of enigmatic prose. Springing from this enigma, the story of the magical Xenia ... Xenia, a foreigner, a baby left adrift, only to blossom into a very powerful enchanting female force, ablaze, untamable and capable of magical forces. Exotic and erotic, she yearns to acquire the quinta essentia, the substance of life! Possessing an ineffable feminine jouissance, Xenia's character is strongly sensual, yet softly childlike. The back-story that Ms. Allison weaves is a deeply wrought, yet finely tuned instrument …icy hot…mythically mad… and passionately portrayed! Within this duality of human nature, sex and power converge to excite and entice the reader to travel with Xenia and Ovid over the wild animals housed beneath the stones of Rome while feeling the electricity flowing between their very souls. I walked the stone streets and felt the marble statues; inhaled the fragrant herbs and felt the warmth of Roman baths wash over me…the prose was so radiantly rendered! My heart knew the twist that would close this journey, but it takes careful attention to the movement in this cleverly crafted novel to fully realize what Ms. Allison ultimately offers up! I hope to read more from this enchanting author!… I'd especially love to follow Xenia deeper into the Black Sea over the pebbles and back into that water where she came crashing up through the bubbles into the fresh air! Exhilarating! Highly recommended!