check
out website: www.orionbooks.co.uk
This book envisages a Roman Empire
that never fell and explores over fifteen hundred years of Roman history
through the stories of eleven people who lived it.
Power in this empire flows between the twin capitals in Rome and
Constantinopolis.
 Many
of the stories centre on the rivalries and intrigues that this twin
capital system generates, told from the point of view of various
officials or aristocrats of the Roman Empire.
This book isn't really a novel. The
stories have nothing tying them together beyond the fact they are all set in this
alternate Roman Empire. There are no family dynasties to follow or central
storyline described from different positions in society; just a lot of random
individuals, none of whom really overlap.
The book feels much more like a
short story collection rather than a novel and suffers from the same trouble a
lot of short stories have: You're not with each character long enough to develop
any particular empathy with them. That together with the fact that the
stories are completely unrelated to each other meant that although each story
rolled along quite nicely when I finished one, I wasn't burning to start the next.
The writing is good, the court intrigues, etc are portrayed well and it's
a decent book, but I don't really think I've taken anything from it.
Also
considering that Silverburg is a Science Fiction writer, the whole 'march of technological
progress' aspect felt quite neglected.
Rachel Broome
|
