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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not as bad as everyone seems to make out, 27 Aug 2010
This review is from: Romanitas: Volume 1 (Romanitas Trilogy 1) (Paperback)
I picked this book up in the library, fed up with recycled plot lines and ideas that seem to be floating around at the moment and this was just what I was looking for. I think that alternative history fans might be a bit put off by the idea of the "superpower" aspect of a few of the characters, such as a girl who can surface read minds and a boy who can speed up healing but I think that if you stick with it, you stop noticing it as it isn't such a prominent part of the story line. Whilst the prose and story isn't perfect, it's still a good read with an interesting and original idea behind it. The characters are developed and relatively well constructed. A little bit slow to begin with but I think that's a demonstration of the authoress' interest in the setting and a requirement to introduce the reader to the new history and setting that she's created.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
I enjoyed it, 22 Jun 2010
This review is from: Romanitas: Volume 1 (Romanitas Trilogy 1) (Paperback)
I enjoyed 'Romanitas', though I can certainly understand the negative reviews it's gathered along with the positives. My own experience of the book fell into two parts. When I first bought it, I read the first chapter (rather dense; lots of scene-setting; not enthralling) and then laid the book aside for a little over a year. Then I went back to it last week and stayed with it all the way to the end. It's an odd book in many ways (though there's nothing necessarily wrong with odd). As well as being an alternative history with an admixture of sci-fi (or is it sci-fantasy?) the book is a sort of political thriller and, in places, almost a children's story as well. It doesn't really fit neatly into any clear genre. Unlike some readers, I was quite happy to have the neo-Roman aspects kept reasonably discreetly in the background - though it's obvious that a lot of detailed imagining went into constructing that background. For me, the book was primarily an adventure story, and it had the undescribable 'grip' factor that kept me wanting to read on. It's true there are fuzzy places in the narrative that could have been tightened up and, in my edition at least, there are a few appalling typos. Nevertheless, if you're in the right frame of mind for it, I really do think this is a good read.
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Historian's view, 4 Oct 2006
This review is from: Romanitas: Volume 1 (Romanitas Trilogy 1) (Paperback)
Ok, I've read through all the reviews below - and I can agree with parts of every one. This book was an impulse buy, I saw it, and being interested in the subject matter, picked it up. What I found a quite enjoyable if difficult read. I agree that the editor's pen should have been used more often, I too found myself 'skimming' and having to re-read the last paragraph. However, the denigrators should remember that this is the first of a trilogy. Many first of three books lend the whole script to establishing who is what and where. I loved the alternate atlas at the beginning of the book and the timeline at the end. Though I found that some of the places the author visited could be described more - London for example. I hope now that the first book has established the characters the second will expound on the coming global war between the Roman and Nionian Empires. And being a part-time military historian, I hope the next book will not let me down with having the military conflict in the background while focusing on the slaves. Don't we all want to see a 21st Century Roman Legion in action?
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