Customer Reviews

Romanitas (Romanitas Trilogy 1)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

The main appeal of alternate history is the contrast between our known world and what might have been in whatever hypothetical scenario the author envisions. "The Alteration" by Kingsley Amis engagingly suggested a credible world where the Reformation had never taken place, and Robert Harris' "Fatherland" did the same for a Nazi victory. These and other successful alternative histories work because of the detail of the imagined world. "Romanitas" is really a potboiler airport thriller, despite its literary pretensions. For this book to be interesting and to live up to its cover illustration and tag-line, I want to know what the vehicles and buildings look like, how Roman society has survived for 2500 years, how this imaginary geopolitical system works. All the author has done is replace greek etymology with latin ("longdictor" instead of "telephone", "birota" for "bicycle"), and placed a rather formulaic chase plot into a lame, half-developed setting.

Set in an alternate reality where the Roman Empire never fell, Romanitas is the first in an upcoming trilogy which criss-crosses across the planet, telling the story of a time of great upheaval within the Empire.

The novel opens in a time roughly parallel with our own. The Roman Empire has expanded to encompass half the globe, reaching as far east as India and as far west as the centre of the North American continent. The slave-society still exists and crucifixions still take place (albeit with more advanced crosses).

We follow the stories of several characters as they deal with life in this alternate world, including the 16 year old Emperor-to-be Marcus Novia and Una, a young slave girl with telepathic powers.

I found the storytelling to be nicely worded, with some great imagery and concepts. (The descriptions of Una's abilities were especially potent) The narrative was interesting and compelling, with very little points of stagnation or lag.

My only two concerns were; a certain lack of logic in certain portions of this world and a deficiany in details that I craved. Why do slaves still exist when they would no longer be economically viable?

The detail wasn't nearly enough for me, I wanted to know more about the military of the Roman Empire, how did society work, and more elaboration on the history of this alternate world.

Overall the story was good, the writing effective and the characters interesting. I look forward to the next novel.

I picked this up mainly because the subject matter of a Roman Empire that never fell but survived into the modern time sounded very appealing. I still think that a good novel can be based on that premise.

"Romanitas", however, definitely ISN'T that novel. Instead, it's very long-winded, very cliched, and ultimately highly disappointed airport reading material.

The first of many problems is that the alternate setting simply isn't worked out very well. It's basically way too similar to the world as we know it, except for the fact that slavery and crucifixion are still common practice. Gruesome as that may be, it's just not enough for a convincing alternate reality.

Not that it really matters, since the alternate setting only serves as a very flimsy backdrop for a dime-a-dozen chase plot that could take place basically anywhere and any time. It's an extremely weak plot, with lots of cliches, a very predictable flow, and a lot of contrivances like two of the three protagoningts having (unexplained) supernatural powers.

To make things even worse, all of this is told in an incredibly heavy-handed way. It's not strictly badly written, but it takes itself way too seriously, and it's atrociously paced. Page after page are filled with the (predictable) thoughts of the main characters, while very little actually happens. Also, none of the characters came across as very believable, interesting, or even likeable. The girl protagonist was simply obnoxious.

Ultimately, you can safely save yourself the trouble of reading this book. It's long-winded, predictable, and doesn't do anything of interest with its admittedly intriguing premise.

* out of *****

What I liked best in this book of "alternative reality crime" was the people. Marcus, Una, Varius, Sullien and almost all the rest of the characters comes alive on the pages and jumps out and grabs at your heart and you keep thinking about them a long time after you've put down the book. There are some slow parts in the middle and then there's some unanswered questions (like Una and Sulliens talents - how did they get them?), but I hope the sequel (which I really look forward to) is going to answer those.

I thought the Roman society was mostly beleivable. Some odd details, but I didn't dwell on them though. About slaves still being there - well I think the reason is cheap labour.

I've always been interested in the Roman Empire and thought that this book might be interesting. Unfortunately it's not. Robert Silverberg does a much better job of imagining a future Roman Empire in "Roma Aeterna". Ms McDougall's extrapolation is almost totally illogical.

Very briefly, the story is about a future heir to the Empire who loses both his parents in a palace conspiracy and has to flee for his life to a remote part of the Empire where he joins forces with a group of escaped slaves. Eventually he regains his rightful place in the Roman aristocracy with their help.

The main points of the story that I found unbelievable were the mere existence of slaves in a technological society where they should be totally unnecessary and the continued existence of crucifixion as a method of execution (allbeit in a high-tech form). There are other areas where the nature of a present day Roman Empire seems to be poorly thought out too. I also found the story to be boring, overly long and poorly written. The book was hard to finish for me and I finished up skipping fairly rapidly through some of the later chapters.

I would have liked to be able to rate this book higher but can only give it one star. If you want to read a future history of the Roman Empire try "Roma Aeterna". It's much better but still not perfect.

While the premise is interesting and the cover art gets you in the book itself fails to deliver anything. The characters are wooden and uninteresting, the mysterious powers of the siblings are never explained, not even in the sequel (which seems to downplay Una's power, probably because the author realised that it would ruin the entire plot of the second book if Una could just read Drusus' mind and know that he was plotting against marcus, again.). Marcus is dull and useless and the other side characters are just as underwhelming. The pacing is pretty awful as well, it plods from one uninteresting crisis to the next without really engaging the reader in worrying if the characters live or die. Not that the characters were actually appealing enough to care about anyway. The logic of the setting is non-existant as other reviewers have already mentioned. I finished this book as an act of endurance, skipping page after page, ignoring the turgid dialogue and pointless passages of descriptive. I am sad to say that i read Rome Burning, the second book, and it is just as bad, if not worse. Throw in an international crisis and an affair between una and marcus and you get the picture. I am so glad that i got these out of the library and didn't waste money on them. Aviod, avoid like the plague.

Always an interesting idea with fiction - the alternative history setting. McDougall initially does well easing the reader into the new Rome milieu with an interesting background and enough details to pique the interest of the reader. However once the chase begins - which dominates the book, the plot and writing falters, and the nature of the characters comes through as thin and in need of firmer writing. A good editor would have made this a shorter book, with a stronger cast and the result would have been a better book, and ultimately created a greater bond of sympathy between the reader and the characters. The final pages set up the next in the series and are quite disappointing, and so I won't read the sequels, even though the premise is one I find particularly interesting

Two thousand, seven hundred and fifty-seven years after its founding, the city of Rome sits at the heart of an empire that covers more than half of the globe. From the coast of California and the western edge of Hudson Bay to the Himalayas, the Roman Empire rules supreme. It has become technologically advanced, arming its legions with jet aircraft and tanks, but at heart it is still rules through the application of power and capital punishment. Immense mechanical crosses on the banks of the Tiber and the Thames slowly execute those who have defied the will of the people, and the Empire's economy is still based on the toil of slavery. The Empire needs to be strong as its greatest rival, the island-empire of Nionia, expands its power and influence on the Asian mainland and begins to amass troops in its holdings in North America.

When the Emperor's youngest brother and heir Leo dies, a great state funeral is held, but his son Marcus learns that the death was an assassination. Leo's oft-mentioned plans to reform the Empire and abolish slavery were deeply resented by some in Roman society, possibly within the imperial house itself. Marcus vows to fulfil his father's plans, but another assassination attempt soon puts him on the run, and he flees into Gaul. At the same time, two young slaves, Una and Sulien, are forced to escape from London when Sulien is falsely accused of rape. Meeting in Gaul, the three runaways learn of the existence of a secret refuge in Spain, where they can find succor, but Marcus knows he must eventually return home and expose the conspiracy that threatens the Empire.

I'm a sucker for a high concept, and Romanitas' premise is decent. Basically, the Roman Empire never fell. Instead it expanded to cover much of the globe, with only the rise of the Chinese and Japanese empires in Asia managing to successfully stave off its advances. There is a lot wrong with this theory, not least the fact that if Rome never fell the Dark Ages probably wouldn't have happened and human technology could well be four or five centuries ahead of where it is now. Instead McDougall paints the world pretty much as it is now in terms of science and technology, which is rather conservative to say the least. But I'm guessing she wanted to simply have our world with the Roman Empire overlaid on it, so I'm willing to swallow a bit of disbelief to have that work.

The story rattles along pretty well for a debut novel and it covers a fair bit of ground. The writing is a bit stodgy in places, and it's clearly the work of a relatively inexperienced author (it was McDougall's debut novel). For all of that, it's a decent read. Some of the imagery, such as the great mechanical crosses on the banks of the Thames slowly tearing people apart, is incredibly vivid. The use of a modern media society in a Roman context also works quite well: the newspapers are state-controlled, obviously, but the government allows them free reign in gossiping on the imperial family's scandals to distract the people from the more serious matters of government. The unfairness and ruthlessness of slavery is also well-depicted (although, again, sociological development over the intervening centuries would probably have seen slavery abolished at least several centuries earlier, but we can live with that) and the characters are, if not huge compelling, able to carry the story reasonably well.

On the minus side, the writing isn't always as strong or focused as it could be and whilst some elements leap off the page, others don't. The substitution of 'longdictor' and 'longvision' for telephone and television is also quite irritating. Other modern words are used, so why those aren't as well, I don't know. Also annoying is the revelation that several of the main characters are telepaths, which comes out of nowhere. So rather than just being an alternate history, Romanitas also has other SF elements. This would be fine, if there was a solid story reason why telepathy is in the plot. Whilst this may come out in the sequels, in the first volume it feels like it's a plot device solely there to get the characters out of dangerous situations that the author couldn't deal with any other way. It's also a bit of a head-scratcher, as the novel's blurb states that, "This is the Roman Empire. Now." Well, it should read, "This is the Roman Empire. Now. With added psi-powers!" The concept seems a bit out of keeping with the rest of the book.

Romanitas (***) is a solid enough read which never seems to really get to grips with the full possibilities of the premise. As an action-adventure novel, it's enjoyable enough and there's certainly enough about the concept to make me want to read the sequel, Rome Burning, which I hope to get to in the next couple of weeks.

We bought this book on holiday in Denmark on a whim.

The book is a very good read. The story is catching and interesting. The story deals with growing up as well as high level politics. To top that off there is a real "who's done it" thread through the book.

My only negative comment was the start. It just took too long to become fantastic. The first 30 odd pages are a drag that could have done with some real hard editing.

Having said all that I am so looking forward to the second part of the trilogy. Wish I had it now

Romanitas takes place in a world where the Roman Empire never fell. The Romans don't quite span the entire world (damn Nionians), but they're certainly doing their very best, and it makes for an entertaining sort of background - North America is pretty much a continent-wide DMZ!

While there's been an impressive amount of scientific progress (zippy trains, helicopters ("spiras"), television, a sort of telegraph/video-phone) a few of the familiar Roman institutions are still in place. That is, it is an Empire, complete with Emperor, and slavery is still thriving. Gladiatorial combat, crucifixition, togas, olives... all your standard Roman fare, but with the niceties of the 21st century. Imagine a world with both orgies and dental care.

The reader troops through the world from both the top and the bottom of the social hierarchy. Sulien and Una, two of the protagonists, are both slaves. They are siblings - abaonded by their mother and passed through a succession of miserable owners. Una disappears from the picture for most of her youth, a nice trick, as the reader's imagination can probably insert all the awful dangers that would an attractive young slave girl has to face while growing up.

Sulien has more ups and downs - he evidences a rare (supernatural) healing talent which earns the attention of Rome's leading physician. He's swept up from poverty and treated almost as a son - boundaries that become painfully obvious when he shacks up with the boss's daughter and soon finds himself accused (and convicted) of rape. Una reappears to save him, and the two hit the road. Escaped slaves (and convicted felons) have a short lifespan in the Empire, so they need to find safety and keep a low profile.

Marcus Novius, the book's other protagonist, also craves a low profile. Marcus is the Emperor's nephew, and the de facto heir to the Imperial Throne. At the start of Romanitas, Marcus is attending his parents' funeral. They've both died in an accident (a mysterious one) and the shell-shocked Marcus is thrown into the deep end of Imperial politics. The Emperor himself is more Claudian than Augustan - he's adamantly turning a blind eye to the shenanigans of his family. He has bigger and better things to ignore. Marcus soon realises that his life is at risk as well and he also runs away.

It doesn't take long for the three fugitives to unite in an uneasy alliance. Marcus is out for justice, Una for freedom and Sulien for comfort. If Marcus regains his stature and defeats his shadowy enemies, he can pardon Una and Sulien and maybe even do something about slavery as an institution. Sulien's had a taste of the good life and would like it back (plus, he's not so keen on being crucified). Una is more skeptical, but as jaded as she is, she's secretly optimistic enough to give it a shot. Plus, the inevitable romantic frisson begins to sparkle.

Normally, a fantasy is about the stableboy falling for the high princess and spending a trilogy proving himself worthy. In Romanitas, Marcus is the slightly-useless high princess and Una is the stableboy. Any hereditary nobility in her is purely the result of owners fiddling with possessions over the years. Impressively, they both know their romance is doomed and they act like real people. Marcus and Una do a bit of stealthy leering, a bit of agonizing and a lot of concentrating-on-the-fact-that-the-entire-Roman-Empire-is-out-to-kill-them. I applaud their priorities.

Romanitas' other strong point is an broader extension of the first. This is a character-driven novel. We learn a lot about our three heroes - not biographically, but emotionally. The bulk of Romanitas isn't solving the mystery (Ms. McDougall isn't shy about saying whoddunnit) or slaying enemies (rather charmingly, our protagonists lose every fight), it is about three lost people trying to come to terms with with world around them. They all know what they're running from, but they're not sure where they're going. Ostensibly, all three of them have a goal in mind - be it "far away", "home" or "anywhere but here", but as the panic wears off and they get a chance to think, they each begin to question themselves and and what they stand for. There are no sudden epiphanies, just three very real, very flawed people wrestling with their own values.

Ms. McDougall has clearly spent a huge amount of time imagining a lavish alternate history, and then she doesn't actually talk about it. In the six years since its first publication, this is the bit of Romanitas that has driven some readers completely batty. The setting is just that - the background for the story. Alt-Rome is plenty intriguing, but it isn't actually the point of the book. The characters aren't the only ones that need to be congratulated on their priorities.

Anyone that picks up Romanitas purely for the joy of quibbling with another person's speculatively historical "what ifs" will be disappointed - they'd be better off playing Civilization. Romanitas is character-driven sf. Despite the wildly-imaginative setting, this is the simple story of three very different people all trying to work out their problems like real human beings (that is, clumsily). There's the occasional murder and crucifixion, but that's almost beside the point. And the sequel is even better.