Customer Reviews

Hannibal's Children

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Alternate history is such a strange beast, full of windy unresolvable what might have beens. Ancient Rome has attracted its share of modern writers, speculating about its nemeses. And of these, none came closer to destroying Rome than Carthage. (With the exception of Rome's ultimate collapse in the 5th century to the Huns.) In the first and second Punic Wars, Rome was locked in a death dance with Carthage, whose greatest leader, Hannibal is remembered to this day. Several years ago, Poul Anderson wrote a novelette, "Delenda Est", invoking time travelling terrorists who use ray guns to put Carthage victorious. The result is an Earth utterly unlike ours.

John Maddox Roberts chooses a different tack. Through the vagaries of the second Punic War, Hannibal crushes the Romans and forces them to migrate north. Hannibal's victory is not implausible. That war was a close run thing, to those who have read of it.

All this is the prelude to the novel, set a century later. The Romans have conquered in central Europe, and are pushing back into Italy, thirsting for revenge. Some of you science fiction readers may notice the resemblance thus far to S M Stirling's "The Chosen". In that, a warlike people get defeated and forced into exile. But generations later, they have rearmed and are back for a rematch.

The contrasts are interesting. Stirling's Chosen are the bad fellows (proto-Draka), while Roberts' Romans are our heroes. The Chosen and the Romans have a better military, and chalk up many successes. But somehow this novel plods. Technically each section of a chapter is ok. But something is missing. The Carthaginians seem more foolish than bad. The Romans effortlessly outthink and outfight their opponents, who are not actually Carthaginians in this novel, but Egyptians. The protagonists are almost cartoonish cardboards. Very little nuancing here.

Clearly, a sequel is planned. Perhaps it will be more compelling.

Once again John Maddox Roberts displays his extensive knowledge of ancient Rome (like in the SPQR series), and in this book Carthage as well. In this alternate Earth, unlike our own, Hannibal gets assistance from Philip V of Macedon during the Second Punic War and forces Rome to conditionally surrender. Rome's leaders agree to emigrate north out of Italy into the Roman province of Noricum: comprising most of present day Austria and bits of Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia.

The plot is revenge. After 115 years of forced exile the descendants of the Romans feel the time is right to send an expedition into the Italian penisula and down to Rome. The leader of the expedition is Marcus Cornelius Scipio, whose ancestor Scipio Africanus ultimately defeated Hannibal in actual history. The Roman party then visits the cities of Carthage and Alexandria and partakes in a war between the Carthaginian Empire and Ptolemaic Egypt.

This book is very interesting and I found it quite a page-turner. Maddox gives eloquent descriptions of the gods of the Roman pantheon, as well as those of many Eastern religions (Carthage and Egypt's). The reader is also given thorough explanations of Roman military tactics and warfare in general from that era. In all, the book is quite informative.

My only problems with this historical fiction novel are the development of the protagonist (M. Scipio) and the antagonist Titus Norbanus. Titus is descended from a Germanic tribe that is absorbed into the population of Roma Noricum. The Norbanus family is one of the "new" patrician families in the Senate who are at odds with the "old" patrician families that migrated from Rome, such as the Scipios. The author grants Marcus Scipio with all the virtues that Romans were noted for, while Titus is an incidious compilation of Marius, Sulla, and Caesar. I found these two characters simliar to John Maddox Robert's "Islander" fantasy series in that: the good guy is too good to be true, and the villain is so obnoxious that the reader (this one anyway) wishes that somebody would simply strangle the antagonist and remove him from the story. Further, I found the authority that the Senate gives Titus Norbanus not to be credible in the slightest degree. The author knows that Romans during the Republic were required to serve two magisterial positions and have some actual military experience before they are given the command that Titus gets, no matter how influential his family is. John Maddox Roberts glosses over this problem by saying that these were extraordinary circumstances, but that is poor justification in my opinion.

All in all, I highly recommend this book and will definitely read the next book in the series.

Rome's rise from a tiny group of clans to a vast empire that endured for centuries has something inexorable about it. So it seemed to the Romans themselves when Virgil talked of destiny, to the Christians when Augustine proclaimed the empire divinely ordained, and to the barbarians who encircled and attacked it, yet always desired it. However you interpret Rome's history, the City's survival was on a knife's edge more than once. If the Etruscans had conquered the new Republic or Alexander the Great had turned west to Italy or Hannibal had led Carthage to victory, all of subsequent history would have been different. Or maybe it wouldn't have been? What if the Romans were exiled after the second war with Carthage and sent into exile, still a nation? That's the premise of Roberts' novel. The book is fun, fast paced, backed up with lots of historical knowledge and some interesting characters. I'd like to see a deeper sense of contingency and human imperfection in the sequel, with Roman soldiers who are not so perfect and undefeatable and with two main antagonists who are not so completely Good Guy vs. Bad Guy. But mainly I want to see how Roberts works things out. Will history resume along the lines we know, making the Mediterranean a Roman lake and the Hellenistic kingdoms Roman provinces? This book is good summer entertainment.

I'm not sure what some of the other reviewers expect, 800 pages of character development and dialogue or far more of the focus on the Carthaginians when the Romans are really the focus of the story. Extremely well researched and the research is presented in a meaningful, interesting way that develops the tale (rather than just "see all the facts I learned today about Rome!". It's actually a richer plot and story with better character development than most speculative or historical fiction so I'm not sure what paragons or perhaps other genres are being used as a yardstick here. Readers who enjoy Harry Turtledove, David Drake, S.M. Stirling, and Eric Flint will enjoy this author as well. It makes you think, it makes you wonder, and most important of all it keeps you always asking "what's next?"
Let's hope for a couple of sequels.

HIstory tells us that Hannibal got to the gates of Rome in the Second Punic War, threw a spear over the Colline gate, then headed south into Campagnia.
In this retelling JMR has Hannibal ready to destroy Rome but offers a third option - national exile.
Fabius Maximus - who seems to argue both sides at one point, rather confusingly - and the Senate agree and Rome leaves the fabled Seven Hills (the forthcoming title of the very necessary sequel to this excellent novel) heading north to Transalpine Gaul to found Roma Noricum.
The novel moves forward just over a hundred years (Hannibal's arrival at Rome was around 205 B.C.), focusing on the efforts of one Marcus Cornelius Scipio (tag on the Africanus and you get the son/grandson of the original victor of the Third Punic War in true history) who is dictated to lead a delegation south towards Carthage to ascertain the ease with which the new Spartan-ethic Roman legions can reclaim the Seven Hills and launch an attack on Carthage itself.
History has now truly diverged and Scipio finds himself and his band of merry men heading to Carthage as guest of governor Hamilcar to meet the Shofet and his Tanit-priestess sister. At this point we get diversion into the customary love interest with both her and then later, the Queen of Eygpt, Selene. Throw in a bitterly ambitious second-in-command, Norbanus (from the Noricum nobility opposed to Scipio's old Rome patrician nobility), who then surprises everyone with his military ability, some familiar figures from history - Archimedes being the most prominent in name, though not in presence - and you get a rip-roaring move through North Africa under the Cathaginian Empire. Which in itself rather resembles an exotic version of the later Roman empire in real history. Nevertheless, Carthage attacks Alexandria, Scipio gets to use some great new weapons (the Alexandrian philosophers get very agitated at this - echoing SQPR III), the Romans get to really see the miltary might of Carthage and in the meantime recapture both Italy and Sicily.
The novel concludes with the kingly ambition of Norbanus developed ready to range through North Africa with four legions - echoes of Pompey - , Scipio in Alexandria being propositioned to become a king by Selene - echoes of Marc Anthony - and the Romans back in Rome. All of which neatly sets up the next novel.
You can't help comparing this to that great alternative historical novelist - S M Stirling, but, on the whole, this is a fine reinterpretation. I'll definitely read the next one.

There's an enormous amount of popular fiction being published today that's set in ancient Rome, and no one knows his Rome like John Maddox Roberts. His SPQR mystery series is the classical equivalent of Lawrence Sanders's McNally novels --- light, humorous, but dramatically absorbing.

"Hannibal's Children" is something different. Roberts's detailed knowledge of Roman culture, particularly its famed military science, is presented with a wealth of detail that occasionally overwhelms the story. In the SPQR series, Roberts masterfully interweaves the historical information into the plot, but he is less successful here, perhaps because this is so clearly the first part of a series rather than a stand-alone novel. It is less tightly plotted than the SPQR books, and is also less wry and cynical.

However, the reader does get taken on a tour of the ancient world, from Carthage to Egypt, with a battle scene that is interesting if not rousing. (I usually find battle scenes boring, even the ones in "War and Peace", so it's not faint praise for me to call this "interesting.") There could be more in the way of character development; the hero Marcus Scipio lacks definition.

I'm looking forward to the next book, although I will probably wait for the paperback. Ideally, Roman fiction should inform as well as entertain; most of the books on the market today are strong on plot and romance but weaker on historical detail. Roberts has a better grasp of the facts than anyone else I've read (except for Steven Saylor, who's about equal), so with tighter plotting and more character development he may have a masterpiece on his hands.

I suppose I could do without the submarines, though. That seemed more like a gimmick than a genuine plot device ... but maybe Roberts has some surprises up his sleeve.

The Second Punic War went on for over a decade, yet here Hannibal prevails, and within a very short period of time Romans emigrate and reestablish themselves elsewhere. Within a century, the Romans are back, having mobilized a vast army from the hinterlands with which to recapture their beloved Seven Hills and exact revenge on Carthage.

I liked this book overall, and will recommend it for fans of alternate history and ancient history. Despite a quick set-up, Roberts does go in to great detail in describing this Carthaginian/Roman world; after the conquest of Rome, Hannibal's Carthage grew magnificently, but also decadently. Roberts draws a very believable picture; one can imagine Carthage among the other ancient wonders of the world.

The Romans, on the other hand, have maintained their martial culture, and it is this culture that has allowed them to remain cohesive in the wilderness. The detail here is also very satisfying, if somewhat brief. Young Scipio, descendant of the famous general, will lead armies against Hanno, descendant of Hannibal. From the standpoint of story, our minds superimpose these new characters with their famous ancestors: it is as if Scipio and Hannibal were being given another shot at it--an alternate, alternate history, if you will.

But the book ends much too quickly, with a rushed final battle. A sequel is necessary. I would have preferred a much larger book, one that told the finale in much greater detail.

Hannibal defeats Rome and drives her people into exile but they make a MacArthur-style vow. 115 years later the Romans send an exploration party to their ancestral lands and things start to happen.

Alternative history usually prefers to play with scenarios much closer to our present time, so it is an interesting idea to go back 2200 years and then go fast forward again. Now all the events of the civil war between Marius and Sulla, but also between Caesar and Pompeius, the third Punic war, the Roman expansion in the east,... can be packed into one generation and one set of protagonists.

Part of the fun for the reader is to guess which particular event is played out a little bit different now. This could become a series with the potential for much fun. If the SPQR-series is a yard-stick then there is much to look forward to.
I just hope that Roberts can rein in his enthusiasm for Alexandrian inventions. There is no need for submarines in ancient times to make a story more interesting.

I enjoyed this book very much. JMR is impressively knowledgeable about Roman military/history and presents it in an excellent alternate history.

I agree with the reviewer from Knoxville- I wish there had been a little more humanitty in the characters, but assume that will come with the succeeding books (I can't wait!!) The character Marcus Scipio reminds me of Decius (SPQR series) minus the tongue in cheek humour and the awareness of human imperfection.

All in all, Mr. Maddox brings to life a world dead two and a half milennia and invests the characters with so much humanity that we feel a connection to Scipio and Norbanus as well as the centurions and the "boys".

Excellent!!

I read the two books in tandem (Hannibal's Children and The Seven Hills) and thought the second especially drifted. Submarines, flying soldiers, very far-fetched...but what really irks me is the third book is nowhere in sight! It seems like after 4 years one could read the conclusion...but the author has chosen to leave the readership dangling after happily cashing our proverbial checks...if you are looking for good alternative history, stick with turtledove, flint...who give some resolution or at least a next book...