Hannibal's Children [Kindle Edition]

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.

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.