Prince of the Clouds

By Gianni Riotta

Book Overview

A Bestseller in Italy, Prince of the Clouds is a compelling tale that blends romance and military strategy, often to delightful, sometimes comic effect. Military scholar Carlo Terzo is exiled to... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312420153
• ISBN13: 9780312420154
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Picador USA
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.8" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

A superb and enthralling novel

Prince of the Clouds follows the life of Colonel Carlo Terzo, a brilliant military strategist who has never seen action. His life is utterly changed by the arrival of Emma, a Russian aristocratic, who may not be all that she appears, but who gives his humdrum life passion, meaning, purpose...and, inevitably, tragedy.This beautifully told and written (or translated?) story by Gianni Riotta had me spell-bound from the first to last page. It is populated by colourful and well-delineated characters who linger in the brain long after you have put the book down. I never thought that a novel which spends so much time describing battle strategies could be so engrossing, but Riotta manages to pull it off because he makes it concise and to-the-point, (there are no longueurs in the book) and makes it a key element to both the character of Colonel Carlo Terzo and to the plot. This is a superb book. Read it and enjoy. I can't wait for Riotta's second novel.

Has some flaws but worth it especially if you like Italy

I bought this book between flights because the jacket promised that "like Louis de Bernieres's Corelli's Mandolin, Gianni Riotta's charming and provocative romance explores large and small matters of love and war, shifting between the turbulence of post-war Sicily and the great battles of ancient and modern history." Corelli's Mandolin is one of my favorites as is Italy so I bought in and I'm not sorry I did.Like Corelli's Mandolin, this book has significant flaws made tolerable by vivid and loveable characters. Riotta takes a little too long to get things going, but once he does it's well worth it. The book's military strategy theme works well and is extremely interesting. Riotta makes strategy fun and enjoyable, reminding me of Ayn Rand's vocational architecture backdrop in the Fountainhead.My favorite Italian novel is Lampedusa's The Leopard. Prince of the Clouds provides another interesting view of the decline of Sicilian nobility and I think readers will appreciate either one more having read the other. Appropriately, Riotta acknowledges his debt to Lampedusa by having him make a brief appearance in the book.

A Wonderful reading experience

A tour de force. Blending history, romance and the examples and perplexities of battles over the centuries, from Alexander the Great's legendary conflicts to World War II. Our hero Terzo is very Italian ... .in all good ways. The other characters are memorable and its a book a reader will remember for a long time. Not to be missed!

Ideas of the heart

It is a story that engages your mind and your heart. It makes you think and it makes you cry. At the end of the book, I cried. For the loss of young people and what it might have been of them. But it is also a book of hope, in the good of people and their ideas. Above all, it is a great story. You cannot stop reading when it comes to the central episode of the book (a battle of poor, unarmed men, women and children against mafia killers). It makes you feel that each person counts, that you count. At the same time, history of mankind counts. Ancient and recent. There aren't many books like this!