deeden

This is a single post from deeden.co.uk made during the period May 2002 to April 2009. During a previous grand redesign I decided to make a break with the past and consign the old entries to history. This entry is from March 2006 and lives here forevermore.

Best New Reading of 2005: Romanitas

Romanitas could have been an awful book. The premise that the Roman Empire has survived and exists in modern times with modern technology is one which could have been abysmally handled. Thankfully Romanitas is well executed. Modern technology is integrated believably with the institutions of Rome and the whole setup is well executed.

The only way in which the book lets itself down is in the actual mechanics of the plot. Some of the characters are 2-dimensional and never really arouse much sympathy. Rather than dealing with a plot that will “shake the foundations of the Empire” (TM), it would have been better to have a simple plot merely set in a modern Roman Empire.

Obviously, despite my misgivings, I still enjoyed the book. It was a good read and managed to avoid the pitfalls that usually catch books of this kind. I will read the sequels and look forward to them too.