INCEPTIO (Roma Nova #1) by Alison Morton A truly gripping story with all the elements of a modern classic saga. The action is narrated by Karen Brown, the protagonist, a device which always provides tension and immediacy. Stuck in a dull job with a small advertising agency, Karen's main pleasure is spending her free time in New York's Kew Park where she volunteers as park attendant. Stopping an assault on an old man by three drugged-up youths, she punches the leader, who turns out to be the son of the second most powerful man in the country. Instead of receiving a commendation, she is sacked in disgrace, her name is entered on a national security watch list and the Secret Service places her under active surveillance.
Meanwhile, an inventor from Roma Nova (where Karen's mother was born) travels to New York seeking commercial representation. Karen is singled out to deliver the all-important pitch, and her strong presentation impresses both the inventor and his interpreter, Conradus Tellus, a strikingly handsome but mysterious young man whose immense personal magnetism finds an easy target in Karen's lonely heart. Soon her New York life becomes unbearable and, after she narrowly survives a kidnap attempt, Conradus offers her an escape with her mother's family in fabled Roma Nova. But can she trust the enigmatic stranger and leave behind the only life she has known, in the land of the free? |
As a native of Rome myself, the Roman civilization has fascinated me from as far back as I can remember. And here is a tale where the historical and the fantastical blend and co-exist with such vividness that the re-invented Eastern United States and the wholly-fictional Roma Nova feel as real as the world outside my window. How could I resist being intrigued by this story?
Armed with impeccable research and clear-sighted vision, Alison Morton dares to imagine a different fate for the mighty, disintegrating Roman Empire. In her scenario a dozen prominent Roman families succeeded in fleeing the inevitable. With the cunning and persistence of true survivors, they travelled to a fictitious location (just inside Austria and above the border with Northern Italy), and regrouped, building a brave new nation ruled by women. Even marriage, though not an essential condition, confirms their superior role, with the husband taking on the wife's last name as he essentially joins her clan. Succession also falls to the nearest female heir and, while men are honoured and valued for their manifest worth, they play, at best, a supporting role to the Queen Bee of Nova Roma, the Empress. In this tough and egalitarian society, women are often found in traditionally male-dominated careers, such as police work and the military.
This is heady stuff and it would have been very easy for a female writer to overplay her hand and fall into the trap of sugar-coating a sort of aggressive feminist dialogue. To her credit, Alison Morton keeps a clear head and steers confidently around the pitfalls to deliver a totally believable alternate universe where women are effectively in control but never free from their inevitable dependence on men for some gender-specific tasks, such as reproduction.
Although her characters are supremely well drawn and expertly deployed throughout the story, the cast of this epic is so large that I am thankful to the author for the list of Dramatis Personae at the beginning of the book. Karen herself is a tough young woman, not yet 25, hardened by a mother-less childhood and unloving upbringing by her dead father's cousin in Nebraska. Despite her practical and unsentimental veneer, she is vulnerable to her emotions and when she falls in love, it happens in slow motion and despite her better judgement, as her self-defence mechanism senses a danger she cannot categorize. The main male lead is a fascinating and enigmatic personality, in many ways an anti-hero, but compelling in his strong physical and psychological presence. Karen is instantly attracted to him but distrusts him. She will have ample opportunity to discover why. Karen's life-altering adventure results in satisfying self-growth but the threat to her life manifests itself again and again, even when she feels safe at last, both physically and mentally ready to defend herself. But she is being targeted beyond the remit of the original incident in the park. Her pursuer will stop at nothing to achieve her destruction and the danger always comes right out of the blue.
There is so much action and so many sub-plots that it's clear the author is only warming up her typing fingers. INCEPTIO, however complex a story, is but the first of a series of books drawing the reader into this unsettlingly plausible world. What I found fascinating is the combination of the down-to-earth, practical aptitudes of the ancient Romans, their pagan values, and the technological talent and innate survival skills of their contemporary descendants, giving Roma Nova a unique world standing well in excess of its minute size. Not unlike Switzerland, San Marino or Luxembourg.
Although comparisons are always subjective, I was reminded of the best of Mary Stewart. You don't have to be a history buff, or even interested in ancient civilizations, to get thoroughly caught up in the flow of this well-structured, powerfully-narrated saga. Despite the strong themes, the narration remains fairly clean and suitable for the widest audience and I, personally, found it an absorbing and enjoyable read. I am more than ready for the next instalment.
Armed with impeccable research and clear-sighted vision, Alison Morton dares to imagine a different fate for the mighty, disintegrating Roman Empire. In her scenario a dozen prominent Roman families succeeded in fleeing the inevitable. With the cunning and persistence of true survivors, they travelled to a fictitious location (just inside Austria and above the border with Northern Italy), and regrouped, building a brave new nation ruled by women. Even marriage, though not an essential condition, confirms their superior role, with the husband taking on the wife's last name as he essentially joins her clan. Succession also falls to the nearest female heir and, while men are honoured and valued for their manifest worth, they play, at best, a supporting role to the Queen Bee of Nova Roma, the Empress. In this tough and egalitarian society, women are often found in traditionally male-dominated careers, such as police work and the military.
This is heady stuff and it would have been very easy for a female writer to overplay her hand and fall into the trap of sugar-coating a sort of aggressive feminist dialogue. To her credit, Alison Morton keeps a clear head and steers confidently around the pitfalls to deliver a totally believable alternate universe where women are effectively in control but never free from their inevitable dependence on men for some gender-specific tasks, such as reproduction.
Although her characters are supremely well drawn and expertly deployed throughout the story, the cast of this epic is so large that I am thankful to the author for the list of Dramatis Personae at the beginning of the book. Karen herself is a tough young woman, not yet 25, hardened by a mother-less childhood and unloving upbringing by her dead father's cousin in Nebraska. Despite her practical and unsentimental veneer, she is vulnerable to her emotions and when she falls in love, it happens in slow motion and despite her better judgement, as her self-defence mechanism senses a danger she cannot categorize. The main male lead is a fascinating and enigmatic personality, in many ways an anti-hero, but compelling in his strong physical and psychological presence. Karen is instantly attracted to him but distrusts him. She will have ample opportunity to discover why. Karen's life-altering adventure results in satisfying self-growth but the threat to her life manifests itself again and again, even when she feels safe at last, both physically and mentally ready to defend herself. But she is being targeted beyond the remit of the original incident in the park. Her pursuer will stop at nothing to achieve her destruction and the danger always comes right out of the blue.
There is so much action and so many sub-plots that it's clear the author is only warming up her typing fingers. INCEPTIO, however complex a story, is but the first of a series of books drawing the reader into this unsettlingly plausible world. What I found fascinating is the combination of the down-to-earth, practical aptitudes of the ancient Romans, their pagan values, and the technological talent and innate survival skills of their contemporary descendants, giving Roma Nova a unique world standing well in excess of its minute size. Not unlike Switzerland, San Marino or Luxembourg.
Although comparisons are always subjective, I was reminded of the best of Mary Stewart. You don't have to be a history buff, or even interested in ancient civilizations, to get thoroughly caught up in the flow of this well-structured, powerfully-narrated saga. Despite the strong themes, the narration remains fairly clean and suitable for the widest audience and I, personally, found it an absorbing and enjoyable read. I am more than ready for the next instalment.
An unusual double story, whose many threads eventually converge in an action-packed finish. The story is very complex but not all that unlikely. Solid research and a strong grasp on reality ensure that the narrative is both plausible and believable. Even when reading fiction, my mind needs to be satisfied by a coherent set of events and this book passes the test beautifully. The story moves along at a steady pace, with plenty of events and incidents, some red herrings and a large cast of supporting characters who are just as well depicted as the protagonists.
The book is divided into three parts. We meet our first narrator, Abbey, a life-hardened orphan. The second part is narrated by Sam, an attractive and intelligent young woman, recently married to her high school sweetheart. Part 3 consists of chapters where Abbey and Sam alternate in advancing their own story. The two girls, although of similar ages, are very different in temperament but equally likeable, and have individual voices that are easy to distinguish. I enjoyed the challenge and complexity of the alternating chapters and found the dramatic ending both satisfying and unexpected. |
The narration is tight and compelling, with many dialogue-driven scenes and some breathtaking descriptions of the spectacular attractions Abbey gets to visit, so that the travelogue aspect adds a new dimension to an essentially action-based mystery. Style, language and a lack of explicit or offensive content make this book suitable for the widest audience.
INSURRECTIO (Roma Nova #5) by Alison Morton
The fifth book in Alison Morton's Roma Nova saga, and the second part of the Aurelia prequel. If you have already had the pleasure of losing yourself in the alternate reality world of Roma Nova, this grim but gripping new instalment will be electrifying, and it will answer most of those burning questions we all had while following Carina's adventures. But if this is your first taste of this amazing series, you are in for a treat. Get yourself a copy of AURELIA and start at the beginning. You can then return to INSURRECTIO with the heady prospect of Books #1, 2 and 3 to follow in chronological order.
For a modern-day Roman like myself, this reinventing of the fate of my ancestors is truly fascinating, and I am amazed once again at how the author keeps getting better. Writing a prequel is a daunting task, but Alison Morton has succeeded with aplomb. There was so much hinted at, but still left untold, that it was a relief to finally get stuck into the guts and gore of a monumental chapter in the history of Roma Nova. All the great things about the previous books are here, if possible even more polished and refined. Characterization is excellent. Pacing and plot are breathless. Inventiveness with plausibility is flawless. The character of this daring creation is perfectly retained. Everything that you have come to expect from this author is here ... and more. |
For those new to it, Alison Morton has postulated an unbroken continuation of the ancient Roman civilization through the heroic escape of a few hundred citizens, belonging to twelve leading families, who were able to flee the persecution of Theodosius and regroup in a fictitious location wedged between modern-day Italy and Austria. Roma Nova is small in size but comparatively large in wealth and influence, thanks to rich natural silver resources and world-leading technological development. Throughout Roma Nova's long struggle to establish and defend itself, women have organically assumed command and participate in every aspect of public life, even fighting alongside their men in an orderly but tradition-bound society where service to the state and high personal values are expected of the leaders, political appointees and the military, as well as of anyone of their citizens.
However, not all men are happy in this faintly outdated matriarchal regime. A cruel and cunning member of a powerful family organizes a large group of dissidents into a lethal secret movement that seeks to overthrow the imperatrix and the whole Roma Novan way of life. Aurelia Mitela, head of the senior of the Twelve Families, serving Foreign Minister, and official advisor in perpetuum to the weak and capricious imperatrix, is under attack again and, suddenly, it is impossible to know who to trust.
If you have read Books #1, 2 and 3, you already know some of the outcome, however, you will be amazed at how thrilling this story is. I completely forgot what I knew, as I was carried away by possibly the most dazzling story-telling this author has unleashed to date. I'm only waiting for the TV dramatization that must surely happen soon, and shake in my boots fearing poor casting choices and arbitrary plot revisions. Meanwhile, we can enjoy this tale, entirely deserving of the thriller designation. Some violent and disturbing content but no gratuitous gore.
I was one of the lucky readers who was offered a copy of the ARC. This book kept me happily engrossed for a couple of weeks, as I read slowly. My advice is, take your time and enjoy all the majesty and intrigue of this masterpiece of invention. I don't usually gush, but to me this series fully justifies the use of superlatives.
However, not all men are happy in this faintly outdated matriarchal regime. A cruel and cunning member of a powerful family organizes a large group of dissidents into a lethal secret movement that seeks to overthrow the imperatrix and the whole Roma Novan way of life. Aurelia Mitela, head of the senior of the Twelve Families, serving Foreign Minister, and official advisor in perpetuum to the weak and capricious imperatrix, is under attack again and, suddenly, it is impossible to know who to trust.
If you have read Books #1, 2 and 3, you already know some of the outcome, however, you will be amazed at how thrilling this story is. I completely forgot what I knew, as I was carried away by possibly the most dazzling story-telling this author has unleashed to date. I'm only waiting for the TV dramatization that must surely happen soon, and shake in my boots fearing poor casting choices and arbitrary plot revisions. Meanwhile, we can enjoy this tale, entirely deserving of the thriller designation. Some violent and disturbing content but no gratuitous gore.
I was one of the lucky readers who was offered a copy of the ARC. This book kept me happily engrossed for a couple of weeks, as I read slowly. My advice is, take your time and enjoy all the majesty and intrigue of this masterpiece of invention. I don't usually gush, but to me this series fully justifies the use of superlatives.
An unusual story with an unsettling undercurrent of doubt and ambivalence which kept me guessing right to the end. Bruce Bracken immerses the reader in a bleak, hopeless world predicated on the premise that people are divided into two very distinct types: visibles and invisibles. Our protagonist, we are told, was born invisible and has remained so throughout a painfully ordinary life marked by lack of recognition and singularly devoid of loving connections.
At 29, Campbell Hayden lives alone in a barrio in Albuquerque, New Mexico, toiling in a menial janitorial job in a school, despite possessing a well-documented high IQ, intellectual tastes in literature and a mature, self-sufficient outlook. Having escaped New York and a brief but devastating love affair, Campbell lives a life of quiet desperation finding a degree of personal satisfaction in doing anonymous (invisible) good deeds and indulging an unusual passion for the Japanese art of miniature gardening. Campbell carries a lot of baggage from an unhappy childhood where the only relatives who ever showed any love for the quiet, introverted child were Campbell's paternal grandparents and, to a very limited extent, father. A terrifying event shatters the uneasy quiet of our protagonist's new life and throws Campbell in a frenzy of self-appraisal, culminating in the inescapable decision to become “visible”. The consequences of this life-changing determination are both exhilarating and unstoppable. |
The story is narrated in the first person by Campbell who is a sympathetic, if slightly irritating, protagonist, whose quirks and obsessions clearly illustrate the skewed perspective of the extreme introvert. Bruce Bracken's prose is well paced and engaging, with some unusual imagery, soulful observations and lyrical passages. There is good balance between action and description, however, sometimes the frequent flashbacks felt like an annoying interruption rather than a suspenseful device and the author risked being a little too clever. Also the recurring motif of the destiny of the “invisibles” became quite tedious and overdone. Although not overtly graphic, the book contains a protracted scene of violence whose intensity might disturb young or sensitive readers.
Plot-wise, this book has been so cleverly crafted that I did not see the twist until the very end, despite an abundance of clues and red herrings which signalled the underlying deception, however, as a reader, I felt somewhat cheated. I do not accept the fundamental initial premise that people starved of affection and recognition will jump at love indiscriminately; and, secondly, the author broke an implied contract with the reader by abruptly changing the rules of the game. A story brutally grounded in the bleakest everyday reality ends in a fanciful, quasi-supernatural way which fails to satisfy or convince and, ultimately, leaves a bitter taste.
On the positive side, once I got to the end, I had to go back and re-read some parts where the narrative's duplicity was founded, so you could say that the author succeeded in making the story so intriguing that it will prompt a second reading. If you enjoy psychological drama, a dispassionate exploration of human nature and being kept guessing, this book will hold your interest to the very end.
Plot-wise, this book has been so cleverly crafted that I did not see the twist until the very end, despite an abundance of clues and red herrings which signalled the underlying deception, however, as a reader, I felt somewhat cheated. I do not accept the fundamental initial premise that people starved of affection and recognition will jump at love indiscriminately; and, secondly, the author broke an implied contract with the reader by abruptly changing the rules of the game. A story brutally grounded in the bleakest everyday reality ends in a fanciful, quasi-supernatural way which fails to satisfy or convince and, ultimately, leaves a bitter taste.
On the positive side, once I got to the end, I had to go back and re-read some parts where the narrative's duplicity was founded, so you could say that the author succeeded in making the story so intriguing that it will prompt a second reading. If you enjoy psychological drama, a dispassionate exploration of human nature and being kept guessing, this book will hold your interest to the very end.