Book Review: Roma Eterna

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Roma Eterna     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Robert Silverberg
Class/Genre:   Science Fiction   Alternate History
Eos, June 2003, $25.95, 416 pp.

The Exodus failed to take the Jews from Egypt into the Promised Land. Thus Christianity never surfaces as the Jewish people remain enslaved in Egypt. Still Rome rises to defeat the neighboring Barbarians. The rest is history (at least alternative) as key global events fostered by ROMA ETERNA starting in A.U.C. 1203 (A.D. 405 our time) into the next fifteen centuries occur as the Roman Empire ebbs and grows.

Robert Silverberg rewrites several of his related short stories into an epic alternative historical novel that engages the reader with intriguing theories of how much different the world would be if one pivotal event (albeit Moses leading the Jews) had a different ending. Though entertaining and easily hooking the audience, the tale still feels more like a short story collection as none of the characters (over the fifteen hundred years) feel fully developed. Still sub-genre readers will relish this fascinating saga of a seemingly eternal Roman Empire as each subsequent chapter builds off of events that chronologically (and literally) preceded it.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner

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