Romanitas: Volume 1: v. 1 [Hardcover]

This is a reassuringly heavy book with a striking cover and intriguing premise. The Roman Empire didn't fall and instead spread its influence across most of the world. The opening pages of the book contain a world map which was a nice touch.

The story opens with two parallel threads. A London slave girl (Una) with an unusual "gift" attempts a daring rescue of her brother (Sullien) who awaits a spell on a horrific-sounding mechanical crucifix. Meanwhile, Marcus, the nephew of the Emperor, mourns his dead parents as the world watches the funeral on giant city-centre TV screens.
When Marcus later survives an attempt on his life, it is clear the death of his parents was no accident. He is forced to flee to the mountains for safety.
He crosses paths with the fugitives, Una and Sullien, and the trio form an uneasy alliance as they head for a slave sanctuary.

The characterisation is very good, and the reader develops a certain empathy with the main trio. The story is intriguing, if a little bit formulaic in places. The writing style of the author is unusual and at times a little bizarre. She sometimes uses metaphors that don't seem to fit the situation, and there is a number of meandering internal monologues that add little value for the reader.

My biggest disappointment was the missed opportunity. This book promised a story based in an alternative modern-day where the Roman Empire lives. I must disagree with other reviewers and say that I felt that the back-story was quite weak. The teaser talked of slaves building giant bridges across the Persian Gulf and great tunnels running beneath the seas, yet things like this were barely mentioned in the story. There was little explanation as to how the Roman Empire had survived and what had happened in the last 2000 years (other than a brief mention of an uprising in Africa). The teaser also said "but tensions with a rival Empire in the East escalate, the first rumblings of a world conflict are beginning to be felt." Other than occasional references to the "Sinoan" and "Nionian" Empires, there is virtually no mention of world politics or conflict other than the building of a great wall in America. The reader is certainly not given any sense of threat or urgency regarding the foreign empires; the story is focused so much on Marcus' plight.
Names of people and places (except London for some reason) were in Latin, slavery exists, and people get crucified. Modern day technology such as televisions, telephones, cars, guns and security cameras all exist (but some have slightly different names). Other than magnetic railways and mechanical crucifixes there is little else technologically to distance their world from ours. It's all disappointing because other than the slavery aspect, it takes very little imagination to picture their world. It's written too much like ours for you to become immersed; it just doesn't feel different enough to be a modern-day Roman Empire. The author should have avoided drawing so many technological and cultural comparisons with our world - it's fiction, let your imagination lose!
The strange this is that her imagination does run wild with the unusual "gifts" possessed by Una and Sullien; but in places this actually makea it seem more like a fantasy adventure than alternative history.

All in all it's a decent enough book, if a little difficult to read in places. I just hope that the next book in the series sheds a little more light into the alternative world, and doesn't try so hard to draw parallels with ours.

I was utterly smitten with the premise for this book: that the plot by the Praetorian Guard to assassinate Pertinax was discovered, and that the Roman Empire survived to the present day. South America is Roman: half of north America is also Roman, divided by a wall from the Nionian (Japanese) Empire's half of the continent to the west. For the first time in a long time I felt actually excited to be reading a new book. And what a disappointment it turned out to be.

The actual plot ought to be thrilling. The Emperor's brother and heir has been murdered, and Marcus, his son, fearing for his own life, has to abandon his life of luxury in Rome and attempt to hide out with a trafficker of escaped slaves. Two escaped slaves with strange psychic powers, also in danger of their lives if found, meet up with Marcus and the three travel awkwardly together. It ought to be riveting. But it's just not.

I feel as though having had her great idea about Rome surviving, she ran out of steam. Everyone is awkward, all the time: and while awkwardness is a function of the vast social gap between the Imperial family and escaped slaves, it just goes on for page after page and no one changes. There is no pace, no excitement, just a relentlessly damp narrative. The author has an absolute inability to create tension: I kept forgetting that these people were fleeing for their lives, and imagined them instead on a leisurely backpacking trip across Europe.

However, this small flaw is as nothing compared to Ms McDougall's total failure to write in actual English: here is an extreme but not atypical paragraph (it's about learning to drive, in case you can't tell):

"Now that Una and Dama were side by side again, it was very obvious that something, Dama, or more impersonally, the tension between them, had a chance here to jab out, to hector and punish Una. That this did not happen, the well-hidden effort that prevented it, was almost more draining. Dama was - for Una at least - a surprisingly good teacher, he was attentive, patient; everything he told her to do or not do was well judged. And Una responded well, too, the slight shaking or bucking of the car under her hands soon stopped. She was afraid of going fast, but Dama said, 'It's more dangerous here if you go slowly. You're not going to lose control of it,' and she pulled up to the right speed, trustfully, though turning pale. There were still good at this, at sharing work. Sulien saw this, and wanted to beg them, to beg Dama, to stop it. "

It. Makes. No. Sense.

Though the second half of the book, about Marcus trying to regain his position in the Imperial family, is much more interesting than the first half, about the slaves trying to avoid capture, it was too little and too late. Ms McDougall's Rome is lacking much grandeur and was not really worth saving from the barbarians.

The initial premise of a Roman Empire that never declined and fell caught my interest but I was somewhat disappointed that this really just seeemed to act as a setting for the story rather than being the central premise as is usual in the "alternate history" genre - this can be either a good or bad point depending on your viewpoint! The story itself was somewhat slow to get going, and as many reviewers have commented the writing style is at times clunky, but got more involving as it went on and I suspect is in many ways a very long scene setter for book 2. The plot line is very heavily dependent on the psychic abilities of the slaves who help out the lead character, Marcus, which I felt was a shame as I'd rather have seen much more development of the Roman premise; the author is in good company though as I have the same criticisms for Manda Scott's Boudica series and many of Valerio Massimo Manfredi's books, particularly his Alexander trilogy. All in all I did enjoy this and I will go on to read the next in the trilogy "Rome Burning".