Circus Maximus: Rider of the Storm
This, the last in Annelise Gray’s Circus Maximus trilogy, follows our heroine Dido, now back in Rome, intent on returning to professional chariot racing. At the same time, she must keep a wary eye on the Emperor Caligula, whose increasing instability threatens the safety of her family and her beloved horses. Being the emperor’s ‘favourite’, she discovers, is twice as dangerous as being his enemy.
The cast list is large: there are sixteen named humans, often characters from the previous two books, as well as ten horses and a dog. However, the book is a stand-alone, if the reader refreshes themselves regularly as to who is who, where we are, and takes on board the important bits of the backstory. On the way, we learn how to train horses and riders for the games, how to avoid the tricks and snares of our opponents, and that being Caligula’s favourite can turn in an instant to being his enemy, followed by a swift and painful death.
I loved this book; I liked the way that the horses, too, had strong preferences about who was a friend and who an enemy, and that the female riders each have their own experiences to guide them – often very different from a male character’s. For Dido, gaining her horses’ trust will always triumph over the savage use of the whip as used by the male charioteers. For Dido, her horses’ welfare always comes before her own comfort.
However, the heroine’s empathy is by no means a ‘soft’ option. I loved the way that the reader is taught exactly how to take a corner in the Circus Maximus, and how to prepare to overtake an opponent by a cunning piece of deception; both extremely dangerous procedures…
I’m looking forward to Annelise Gray’s next book.
