As you probably know, I’ve taken a big step beyond the realm of pure Iron Game writing, and have written a short novel titled Horatius.
It’s an action-adventure set in Ancient Rome, and it’s based on an amazing true story that involves one of the most remarkable battles in history – where three men stood against 100,000 – with the fate of Rome hanging in the balance.
Jan Dellinger sent in a short review of Horatius. Jan is a big fan of action movies set in Ancient times, such as Gladiator, Troy, 300, and The Last Legion, so he really wanted to read the book – which moves as fast as any movie – and which really ought to be made into a movie.
By the way, Jan Dellinger is the former editor of Muscular development magazine back in the days when it was owned and published by the York barbell Company. He shared an office with the great John Grimek, and has plenty of great stories about Bob Hoffman, John Grimek, Steve Stanko and others of their era. You can see Jan’s work in The Dellinger Files, which are available at The Functional hand Strength website. They make great reading.
Anyhow, here’s Jan’s review of Horatius:
“Regarding your book Horatius, it is another excellent read: I found it to showcase a concise, focused and very intriguing storyline. Too often works of this nature traditionally go to laborious degrees to develop endless characters and scenarios and diversionary subplots. Put another way, a lot of acclaimed writers would have brought Horatius in at 300-400 pages; you got it done in fine fashion in 124. To be blunt about it, someone with Attention Deficit Disorder can stick with Horatius because of the format.
You do simplicity of plot very well and make it very relatable with highly recognizable themes and characters: shared enemies between father and son, prophecies, protective nationalism, swearing vengeance, the evil father/son combo who conspired with political deal making and outright cultural betrayal, the "face" champ v. the "heel" champ (Astur), multiple heroes ultimately (as opposed to just Horatius); in fact, a female champion in his wife, an animal champion in Wolf, and even minor champions in Lartius and Herminius. Triumph by the best of all God's creatures. Who doesn't love that?
Those in the Iron Game parade who actually read things beyond muscle magazines will enjoy it. I only hope Horatius gets exposed to a wider market. For me, it has all of the ingredients to make it appealing on a bigger screen.”
Thanks, Jan, for an excellent summary of Horatius – and to everyone reading this, please go to the Dinosaur Training website at www.brookskubik.com and check the little monster out. I know it’s something “different” from Dinosaur Training Headquarters, but it’s something very special – very enjoyable -- and very much fun.
