Herod’s Eyes – Preface
Posted on: December 31, 2025
I was reading Lew Wallace’s Ben Hur, a novel rather different than its renowned (plus or minus) movie versions. It was while reading it and making the mental conjunction of film versus novel that I realized that the dialogue in some noted historical stories was not the way people talk, especially among themselves.
When I started to develop a story which became “Herod’s Eyes,” I decided to write in a way that kings and ministers, priests and followers, and even street people and peasants spoke with mutual understanding and with a casual lilt. The problem with all historical novels is that neither the author nor the reader lives swaddled in the culture of the characters in the book. What music did they hear? What did they note and apply to memory, a vision that we can never know, lost at death? I hope that I give you enough background to place you in the scene 2,000 years ago.
As for characters; there are many, but all have one thing in common. The communality is that their actions and words define them. The main antagonist, Nissim, is a shrewd observer of those around him and he only writes what he hears or knows. Therefore, there are very few overt descriptions of the characters. (In my experience, it is the mind of the reader that crafts the character. Elaborate descriptions of characters and their outfits and hairdos are quickly forgotten so the readers can get back to THEIR vision of them.)
The Roman world and its outliers were marked by violence. In this novel, the violence is political and ranges from assassinations to major battles. There is none of the glitzy plot devices surrounding fighting in the arena, although gladiators, as human beings, are important to the story. There are also no chariot races. Yet, human nature is what it is, and there is love, and, ultimately a hope for peace.
And redemption.
