“History – the words that seek to preserve the past – is nothing but a fortress built of smoke.”
—————————-
Ancient Rome and time travel… when I saw the premise of this novel, I was all in. The structure of how this story was written was a bit of a distraction for me. There are a lot of characters, all from different backgrounds who are eventually brought together in an interdisciplinary team to bring Julius Caesar back from the dead. The team works in secret with a plan to spend four days with the man learning from him. Things go awry pretty quickly and the story goes from an archaeology focused scifi novel to more of an action story.
I really loved the idea of this one. Getting a glimpse of the past through the eyes of one of its most infamous inhabitants was such a cool idea. The scenes with Caesar himself were fantastic, as a character he was really clever and engaging. The problem is, it took til halfway through the book to get to him. Then most of his time was on the run. I loved all the scenes of revelation about his own history and his charming interpretations of the modern world.
I didn’t love the action and spy drama like intrigue, although I could see that it would appeal to others. I also didn’t love that every able bodied male and female had to have some affair during the story. That seemed unnecessary to me.
Overall, it’s a very pacey, readable sci-fi novel with lots of love for the Latin language and ancient Roman history. ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Thanks to Netgalley for advanced access to this novel. All opinions above are my own.
If you could spend 4 days with one famous historical fiction, who would it be?
openmypages 