This novel is a lively sword and sandal and sorcery story set in the Rome of Claudius and Messalina. It is a "team-up" adventure with Tierney's Simon of Gitta (i.e. the Samaritan Simon Magus) and Rahman's Rufus Hibernicus (a.k.a. Dunlaing MacSamthainn), although Simon plays the larger part. It's a fast-paced adventure story throughout, with some quasi-esoteric details drawn from the Cthulhu mythos.

The co-authors of this fiction have collaborated to good effect. I enjoyed Tierney's Simon stories collected in The Scroll of Thoth, and The Gardens of Lucullus measures up to them nicely. I might seek out Rahman's Rufus novel Heir of Darkness on the strength of this read.

The Gardens of Lucullus, by Richard Tierney and Glenn Rahman, is a trade paperback published by Sidecar Preservation Society in 2001. It lists for $15.95. I was able to find a copy with diligent scouring of the internet; my copy was signed by the authors. It is a handsome production. There is a nice painting of a Roman court on the front; unfortunately I couldn't figure out who did it. The book was printed "xerographically." Page count was 275. Although it is a good production I am not so sure about the long term durability of the materials. My copy must have been sitting on Shockline's shelves since the original printing and I found a very faint beginning of yellowing around the edges; the same thing is happening to my copy of Dead But Dreaming. The introduction is by the ubiquitous Robert Price. Mostly it is OK, although as usual he managed to really irritate me, this time by writing that this novel is "much better than it needs to be." What, Bob? Are the authors a pair of hacks, or will the fans lap up any old junk? (...well, *I* will, but that doesn't mean we *all* will...)

Moving on, this is a Simon of Gitta book. I have a copy of Chaosium's The Scroll of Thoth by Tierney somewhere, although I only ever read a few of the stories in it. There is a character who is a Hibernian gladiator, Rufus Hibernicus. I think he is the creation of Glenn Rahman, and the two authors must have collaborated to bring their characters together in imperial Rome.

The novel reads like a superior Sword and Sorcery work, with obvious antecedents in Robert E. Howard. What is different is the setting, in ancient Rome during the rule of Claudius and Messalina. The historical detail and accuracy are very rich and really add to the attractiveness of this novel. (At least, I think the detail is accurate. My vague understanding of ancient Rome comes from movies like The Robe, 5 years of high school Latin and watching I, Claudius and the HBO series, Rome.). The city comes alive under the authors' pens. The saga is fast paced with some nice action sequences and some magical duels. Best of all is the scheming, plotting and intriguing, which are well thought out. In the end, of course, for all the involving historical tapestry, this is a S&S novel, so there is a certain lack of depth and a bit of deus ex machina in the plotting, and particularly the ending.

So how does this appeal to the Cthulhu mythos fan? Well, it turns out that Messalina and some crafty Vestals are acutally priestesses of Magna Mater, and Magna Mater is actually an entity from beyond our space/dimension. She has many names, one of which is Shupnikkurat. Her idol is represented as a black male goat head with the torso of a termite queen. She/it is using human servitors to open a way for her/it or her/its spawn to cross into our world. At one point Simon is matching wits with her servitors and invokes Nodens. So Nodens confronts Shub Niggurath; how much more mythos can it be? This is where the deus ex machina comes in; the only story where an HPL protagonist was able to be rescued from an outre entity with an incantation was The Dunwich Horror. However this sort of thing happens all the time in Conan-esque stories. These eldritch things transcend gender, but Shub Niggurath is almost always represented as a female (I actually found Neil Gaiman's I, Cthulhu, to be the coolest concept of how Great Old Ones reproduce, speaking of gender) so using this as a manifestation of the Magna Mater was perfectly justified. So the plot is basically Messalina and her cronies using magic to control Claudius, while trying to invoke the Magna Mater's entry into our world. Fortuitously for the world, Simon and Rufus get drawn into the plot, and Simon has sufficient training in sorcery to recognize the dangers.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and recommend to all fans of the REH tradition. If you like Conan I can't imagine you won't like The Gardens of Lucullus. It is an attractive book, well written, well plotted and thoroughly researched, attractively priced. However, I must say it is a light, frothy confection. Those of you who are fans of HPL instead and prefer a stronger brew can safely pass it by. It did not have the same sense of otherness or horror, the realization by the protagonist (or reader) of the insignificance of humans, the brooding influence of malevolent or indifferent aliens that characterizes the mythos for me. The use of entities with mythosian names, while not inappropirate, struck me as incidental. Tierney and Rahman could easily have substituted any other malevolent Roman, Greek, Egyptian, whatever spirit as the focal point, and would have lost nothing.

Well worth the money if you can track it down.

Addendum: Many years later I am reading Tierney's magnum opus The Drums of Chaos and I now realize that the author's short stories and novels are all linked in terms of timeline and thematic concept. The most assiduous fan would be advised to read all of Tierney's works in appropriate chronological order to appreciate this; the rest of us will just have to muddle along. ( )