What a lovely series. I've found that this author's works are very calming and inoffensive; I always read these when I can't stomach anything else. This story matches the pace of real life much better than whatever else I've read: no emotional rollercoaster, no cheap drama to elicit false sympathy; no long drawn out shouting matches of feelings and relationships; no over-narration; no gratuitous violence, sex, sticky feelings, come to think of it, a good analogy is Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun, but for adults with more politics and fewer gender jokes. If you like Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun but also like politics, you will like this.

Eumenes is the main character, he's mostly a realistic version of a nice, normal guy who is pretty smart, lucky, with a good memory and good hand-eye coordination. Thank god for a character that isn't made into a puppet of an morality argument or a cripple of a damaged backstory. We see his life, nothing's obviously over-exaggerated, thank god, except maybe how quickly girls fall in love with him, but that's ok because the author is trying to draw a parallel between the Illiad and this work. I loved the Illiad, if you love the Illiad, you will like this.

Wow, you must be thinking, this sounds like a godawful bore of a series. That is where you are wrong! Because the author doles out drugs to the reader in moderation, the parts of the story that do have feelings pack a poignant punch. But what does that do? It means the story actually feels meaningful. Surprise! I cried when I read this, just a little bit.

Also, little Eumenes is a friggin' psychopath, man. So there's that.

By the way, personally Historie > Parasyte because it's less in-your-face didactic and more history. This author tends to flounder and run around in circles once in a while, but with the crutch of actual history to fall back on, I think he will write really interesting work.