Recently I finished Sophia McDougall's novel Romanitas, the first in a trilogy about a modern world still dominated by The Roman Empire. I am a great fan of alternative history in any form so I was intrigued when I found out that this 2005 novel presented a modern tale of revenge and love against a backdrop of slaves, crucifixions and Praetorian guards. That being said, I can't help but come away from it more than a little disappointed, but more on that in a minute.
As the story opens there is a massive state funeral for the Emperor's brother and sister-in-law who recently died in a car crash leaving behind a teenage son, Marcus. Very soon after he is summoned to the villa of old family friends and told that they have reason to believe his parents were murdered. This sets off a series of events that force Marcus to flee for his life into the underground of the Empire. Meanwhile a young runaway slave named Una (who has mysterious mind-reading powers) rescues her brother Sulien from certain death before his crucifixion. Together our three heroes meet up in a secret camp for escaped slaves trying to survive without being found out.
As I said, I was disappointed with this novel. The writing showed a few flashes of brilliance during moments that otherwise would have been mundane. But other than that the idea of a modern Roman Empire is almost completely lost. Apart from large televisions that pop up along with the occasional car, there was little to remind me we are talking about a world circa 2005. Very little explanation is given to how the Empire operates internally or externally with its competing nations. Instead the novel focuses on Marcus, first his escape from danger then his quest for revenge. The descriptions of settings were clunky and much of the dialogue boring. It was almost like a short story had been stretched out when it should have been wrapped up much, much faster. I had a hard time remembering who all these characters were and for some reason, a very hard time finding out how old there were and then remembering that fact as well. That is partly my fault but you can only keep turning back pages hoping to find reminders before you simply give up.
I will say the last 40-50 pages were by far the best in the novel. The ending twists were surprising and since this is the first in a series of books the ending did leave me wanting to find out more. The explanations though fell a little flat and I can only hope they are explored further in the next book. Will I read the next book? Yes I will. But it won't be anytime soon.
Overall grade: C+ (the end saved it from being a C)
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