Valerio Massimo Manfredi is very popular in Hollywood at the moment. His fall of the Roman Empire epic, The Last Legion, has been filmed by Baz Luhrman and is out next year. We can expect to see big screen adaptations of Empire of the Dragons and probably the Alexander trilogy too. I rather enjoyed the Alexander books. They are large but light, busy but clear, and make for some great escapist fiction with no strings attached. My son absolutely loved them. We were looking forward to reading The Tower.