Great story! The writing is wonderful! The characters are believable and the book shows how much time and effort was put into the research! A great book!

2 ⭐️⭐️

Thank you so much to Head of Zeus and NetGalley for an e-arc of this book.

Ugh.

I really wanted to like this. Unfortunately it just falls so, so, so very flat.

The author clearly knows their stuff-and I really appreciated the knowledge that went into this.

Regrettably the story telling and characterisation just weren’t there. The story plodded along, and the prose felt amateurish at best.

Roman emperor are usually complex characters and some are more complex and crazy than others. Domitian is not one of the worst but he surely was different from the other emperors of his family.
This a well researched and compelling book, a fascinating portrait of the last of the Flavian dinasty featuring some very interesting characters like the other members of this dinasty and Nervia.
I like S.J.A. Turney style of writing and loved this one.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine

Domitian by Simon Turney

Domitian was, through many of his formative years, the heir and spare to an ambitious general, a sometime challenger to the imperial throne and then the emperor himself, Vespasian. It wasn’t easy living through, in one piece, the reigns of Nero and the subsequent conveyor belt of ill-equipped and doomed emperors, and Domitian suffered as much as anyone, seeing family members murdered. But Domitian survived because he turned his seeming unimportance into a talent, creating a spy network that would see him out of all sorts of trouble and push his family ever upwards. He was an observer of everyone while being observed by none, except by his noble friend and political tutor Nerva, who takes some time out, in the aftermath of it all, to tell us all about it. You won’t want to turn away.

Domitian is one of the most famous of the infamous Roman Emperors and a suitable subject for Simon Turney’s Damned Emperors series, or Naughty Emperors, as I like to call them. Domitian is the third (after Caligula and Commodus), and the only one not to begin with C. As with the other books, we largely see the subject through the eyes of others, sometimes, as with Nerva, the eyes are wise, and my quite good knowledge of Rome has me very intrigued about Nerva’s role in all of this.

While the novel itself tells of a dramatic sequence of events, they occur over many years and that makes for a saga feel to the story. It isn’t rushed. We’re expected to get to know Domitian and Nerva and to get a feeling for what this Rome of theirs was like. In this Rome, reaching the purple heights of the throne was no guarantee of security or longevity – danger comes from every direction, and also from within. This is a novel with numberless conspirators whispering in the shadows. Now and again they get hauled out onto the stage to be cut up into pieces but there is always someone to replace them. Domitian is more aware of this than anyone. But he has his friends, just a few, and he keeps them close and loyal. But there is also the inner Domitian, what he keeps hidden, and what escapes from him, terrifyingly.

I do enjoy the ambiguity of these novels – they don’t make bad people good but they do make you question assumptions about a person gleefully written off by Suetonius, while also enjoying those famous and scandalous traits preserved to history.

In other guises, Simon Turney (aka S.J.A. Turney) writes some excellent Roman military fiction. In this series, we move from the battlefield to the no less deadly arena of Roman politics and its popular venue for murder and mayhem – the imperial banquet.

Domitian is a thoroughly entertaining, very well written imperial biography while also being full of facts and details about Roman life for the rich and entitled in the second half of the 1st century AD. It is a fine time in which to set a novel, especially one as good as this; a less fine time in which to have actually been around.

Domitian by S J A Turney is an engrossing story of political shenanigans in first-century AD Rome.

I'm not hugely well-read on Roman history, but through reading Turney's books, I've come to appreciate just what a rich tapestry there is to weave tales of corruption, war and politics. And cor, doesn't Domitian have it all? The narrative starts during the reign of Nero, and takes us through the year of the four emperors, when Vespasian comes out on top, through the brief rule of his son, and then onto Domitian. It's not quite as whistlestop as it sounds, but the viewpoint Turney adopts, through the eyes of Nerva, allows the reader to stand back and watch it all happen, perhaps, like me, with an increasingly open mouth of disbelief.

This isn't a fast read, as perhaps others of Turney's more martial Roman stories might be, but it is absorbing. There isn't a cast of thousands, but there are still many men who rise and fall (not so many women, but they are still included in the story), and events that we all might know more about, such as the eruption of Vesuvius and the continuing invasion of Britannia under Agricola (I see what you did there Mr Turney:)).

This is a story of politics, spies and corruption; of men who don't want to fall into the same traps as those who went before. It is a fabulous story, and I highly, highly recommend it.

My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my review copy.

Domitian is a good read with enough historical research and accuracy to make the time well spent. For this third in the series, we see through the eyes of Marcus Nerva - the man who would help raise and then eventually succeed Domitian as emperor. Domitian is represented as a precocious and almost fey child who is preternaturally observant but also implacable. He comes to power in the year of four emperors - all of whom we see perish through the eyes of Nerva. The read is easy though in keeping with historical accuracy, the pacing can be choppy and disenfranchising owing to large time skips.

Story: Young Marcus Nerve returns home from being oversees to find his family had fallen out of favor and were subsequently murdered by the imperial house. Taken under the wing of the Flavius clan, he grows up under the mentorship of Sabinus and Vespasian - and acts as an older brother to the youngest child of the Flavii, Domitian. They will see Claudius, Nero, Vespasian, and then Domitian's brother Titus all fall, leading to Domitian's very unlikely and unexpected rise to power.

This was a very interesting time in Rome since it saw the end of the Julio-Claudian dynasty (which included Caligula, Claudius, and of course, the founding and first emperor Augustus). It also features the incredibly ugly battles between Agrippina - mother of one emperor and wife to another - as she sought to control the men in her life. Nerva and Domitian were young when she was pulling the strings but both had experienced losses at her hand.

The author chose to focus on known points in the lives of the characters. As such, a time period of some 50 years is covered quickly and in chunks. From Nerva returning to the slaughter of his family, then coming under the wing of the Flavii, and finally becoming entangled with the raising of a motherless Domitian (while Domitian's older brother Titus is away winning battles). We get to experience life in Rome, great civil wars and upheavals, and even travel abroad as Domitian makes a name for himself.

At its heart, this is a novel about betrayals and politics. Most especially, the viciousness in the Senate and military - and the power shift and balance an emperor created and maintained. One wrong step and a family found themselves all executed in their homes by the praetorian guards (even emperors weren't excluded from this fate).

In all, I did enjoy this fictional biography of Nerva and appreciate that it flowed easily and wasn't bland or slavish to the history. Yes, it can seem like time passes too fast and it can be hard to reconcile a Nerve that is now 60 from the Nerva of 30. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided from the publisher.

Seen through the eyes of Marcus Cocceius Nerva, we are told the story of Domitian - from a boy to Roman emperor. A life of a very intelligent and paranoid man.
This novel takes you through his early life and the fated year of the four Emperor’s. From the downfall of the Julio-Claudian dynasty to the most incredible rise of the Flavian family and it’s dramatic demise .
This is a novel that is sensitively written and has a real in-depth insight into one of the lesser talked about Emperors of Rome.
A highly intriguing and compelling piece of literature, this is as good as any book I’ve read about the Roman Empire.
I’ve read all three of The Damned-Emperor books and crave more. A truly outstanding book and one I highly recommend.

Thank you to Netgalley and Canelo for the ARC. The opinions expressed are my own. AD 52 in Rome- the third in the Damned Emperor's series. The Empire is in extreme chaos as Claudius then Nero fall. The Flavii family emerges with Vespasian as Emperor, with his sons Titus and Domitian following. There is of course much violence, politics, natural disasters, wars and intrigues. This book is clearly well researched and written. It's interesting, engaging and clever. I'm a big fan of Roman history and this book, this author, does not disappoint.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with this book in exchange for an honest review.

The book is about the rise Domitian under the care of Nerva. It’s a book focused on what kneads and influences an emperor but with a fictional story interwoven.

This is the first book I’ve ever read by this author so I can’t compare it to his other novels.

The good: It’s well written, easy to follow and the characters are believable. It’s also clear that the author does a lot of historical research. Passages of the book are useful to use in class.

The bad: I wish the pacing was a bit faster. The overall storyline wasn’t my cup of tea!

Definitely worth a read if you’re into this genre!

Book 3 in author SJ Turkey’s series about Roman emperors, this is a hugely compelling piece of historical fiction that takes the reader deep into the intrigues of Roman noble life. As tricky and compelling as something like House of Cards, combined with violence and pulse racing action