Roma Eterna by Robert Silverberg

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Roma Eterna by Robert Silverberg
pub: Gollancz. 385 page enlarged paperback. Price: £10.99 (UK). ISBN: 0-575-07354-3

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.

Roma Eterna by Robert Silverberg 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

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