Thank you for the opportunity to read Sargassa.
Roman Empire, great world building and more. A gripping story that I really enjoyed.

I very much appreciate being gifted this copy of Sargassa, and the opportunity to read & review it. Thanks to the publisher.

Well plotted, gripping, and solid alt-history novel set in a world where Roman Empire never fell but it maintains the right level of political intrigue and palace conspiracies.
Excellent world building, fleshed out characters, good storytelling
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I just finished Sargassa by Sophie Burnham, and I really enjoyed it. It’s a mix of political intrigue, queer romance, and revolution, set in an alternate history where the Roman Empire never fell. The story follows multiple characters, starting with Selah Kleios, who unexpectedly inherits the role of Imperial Historian after her father’s assassination. While going through his things, she finds an old atlas of unknown places and a mysterious artifact called the Iveroa Stone—both of which quickly draw dangerous attention. Then there’s Theo Nix, a spy working for the rebel group known as the Revenants while posing as an assistant to a powerful senator. Their latest mission puts them in the orbit of Arran Alexander, a soldier just back from war who also happens to be Selah’s low-caste half-brother. As Arran gets pulled into the underground resistance, he has to figure out where his loyalties really lie.

The world-building in this book is incredible, and I loved how much thought went into the society and its power structures. It did take a little time to get used to the alternating perspectives and timeline jumps, but once things started clicking, I was completely hooked. The characters felt real and complex, especially in how they struggled with their roles in a crumbling empire. The political drama was gripping, and the queer romance felt natural and well-developed rather than just thrown in for representation.

The pacing is a bit slow in places, but it worked for me because it gave time to really dig into the characters and the world. If you’re into detailed world-building, character-driven stories, and high-stakes political intrigue, Sargassa is definitely worth a read. I’m really excited to see where the story goes next!

I hate to say this, but I was bored. I love a deep world building, but something about this couldn’t keep my attention. I think it was the way we were thrown right into the world building with no set up/lead up.

Selah Kelios is the new Imperial Historian in the distant colony city of Sargassa, far from the center of the Roman Empire but high in pride and strength. Her father has just died (honestly, assassinated) and so she has been thrust into his role as Imperial Historian at a young age. Her father has left some secrets (as well as the secret of who assassinated him and why) and as Selah tries to uncover them, it’s the social bonds, and the bonds of love and relationships that tangle Selah and those around her, that are all the more important.

All this is the story of Sargassa, by Sophie Burnham.

"Sargassa" was a beautiful book. not only did it have lots of queer representation, but it was also a queer STORY - one of love, one of unearthing what lies hidden from the world, of fighting for one's right to live dignified and freely, and of the sacrifices that the journey may require. we were presented with a diverse set of characters (Theo was my instant fav!) and each of the stories felt distinct and engaging, not having me waiting for "the better pov" (which I often find myself doing), so that's a big strength! the plot was also interesting and kept me hooked with twists and turns strategically scattered along the way.

however, there were a few things that kept me from fully enjoying the book. first of all, the language. while I appreciate the attempt at deepening the immersion and inventing a Latin slang, it did feel just a tad forced at times (the constant use of "bona fide"...). my second issue was with the romances - especially one of them, which was kinda insta-love - and the lack of chemistry in them. but as this is a debut, I'm more than willing to attribute both of these to that and hope for an improvement in the sequel, which, needless to say, I can't wait to read!

Enjoyable one. Sargassa by Sophie Burnham is a gripping alt-history science-fantasy that starts with an assassination and spirals into a revolution, seen through five diverse characters. With rich Roman-inspired worldbuilding and themes of queerness, oppression, and class struggle, it’s an interesting and immersive read .
Eager for next one of the series

This was an amazing debut novel! It wasn’t perfect writing but the plot was so great! And I cannot wait to get my hands on book 2!

I wasn't able to finish this book, but what I read of it I thought was promising. I think the world building is interesting, I thought the characters were well defined and I was interested, but it was a bit too dense for me. I want to come back to it when I'm ready, but I can safely say that what I was able to read (about 20%?) was enough to keep me wondering what was next. I'd say it's worth a try if you're up for a dense fantasy.

Fascinating alt-history worldbuilding, well-drawn characters, and a plot rich in queer fury, this is a banger of a series starter. Can't wait to see where Burnham goes next.

Sargassa is the first novel in the Ex Romana trilogy, an alt-history science-fantasy written by Sophie Burnham, and published by DAW Books. A choral story rooted in a thought experiment, which takes the opportunity of using a worldbuilding worthy of the best fantasy novels to discuss many themes that are more relevant than ever, such as sexuality, gender, and oppression, all in the context of a revolution against an empire.

The assassination of the Imperial Historian will play as the first stone that will pave the way used to explore its amazing plot through the eyes of five characters; Burnham picks across the different social classes, weaving them together through a common one. While the story starts being set as a murder mystery, the author is not afraid to mutate the plot into something bigger, which can be overwhelming at the start (especially if you take into account the jumps across the POVs), but just trust the process.

Sargassa is an ambitious novel, and its worldbuilding is a reflection of it; we can appreciate the influence of the Roman Empire on this society, with many figures that are recognisable for the history lovers, but the author also introduces her own layer of modernity, adapting this world to the hypothetic different world development. Choosing characters from different social classes also allows the portray of the different struggles of each one, from the high ones such as Selah, to those on more modest positions, such as Tair. Using them, Burnham introduces many questions on nowadays burning themes such as queerness, the "slavery" of the working class under the establishment, introducing also the feelings and beliefs of her cast of characters.

Personally, I think the pacing is a bit slow at the start, as a big chunk of the pages are using for setting the stage; the pay-off is worth-it, but sometimes it can be confusing and difficult to follow for the reader. The prose is precise, and you end being fully immersed in this alternative world.

Sargassa is an excellent novel, a science-fantasy proposal that will be loved equally by Roman Empire enthusiasts and people that want their speculative fiction to be thought provoking. An incredible debut, and, definitely, a big reason to continue reading the Ex Romana series.

OMG why aren't more people talking about this book? It was so good and the plot twist at the end? I didn't see any of this coming. This book is so well written and a great look as to why we need to pay attention to what is going on in this world.

Excellent book, loved it! Looking forward to more from this author! Apologies for the lateness of my review

LOVED THIS. Sophie made me finally start thinking about the Roman Empire. This is such a well thought out world and creative take on alternative history. The characters were so rich and defined, and I was rooting for each of them (Except Darius) the whole time. If you're a fan of political, character driven fantasy, then you will love this. I'm still impressed by the way Burnham was able to deftly craft together so many various POVs without it feeling clunky nor blurred together. Each voice is so distinct and flawed in their own way.

I'm having trouble getting into this book right now, and I think it may just be that I am struggling to follow the plot and the characters of this book. I think I will come back to this later on however. 3/5 for what I read so far.

An adult take on that staple of YA alt history: what if the Roman Empire never fell? Sargassa, set in a post-apocalyptic North America, presents an unvarnished critique of caste-based societies that mask oligarchy with false meritocracy. This murder mystery / political intrigue is told by 5 characters located in different positions within the Imperium power structure — from a patrician (noble) heiress to a nonbinary runaway-serva (slave) spying for the rebellion. It is these achingly-realistic perspectives on an all too familiar social dynamic (to those of us living in the United States at least) that made this debut novel shine.

My sole issue with this book (it cannot be called a critique in hindsight) is a quirk of the world-building. If you are a historian like me, you will notice that the in-world timeline as conveyed by the characters makes no sense. Do not get massively frustrated with these discontinuities, as I did. Just run with it and all will be explained in time. ;)

Giving this one one a 3.5 out of 5 for wild awesome, queer-normative worldbuilding but a confusion narrative. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

In theory I loved this story. The world that Sophie Burnham has crafted is layered and nuanced and you can see where history as we know it has meshed with the fantasy. In some ways this story could be categorized as dystopian, because the story takes place in a society post world-ending apocalypse a la the Dark Ages on steroids, and reverts to a Roman Empire era governance mixed with a strict caste system. The terminology and slang used by some of the characters is tricky to follow and I kept going back to re-read sections to make sure I understood what was happening. I understand why the timeline was put at the end of the book, but I feel like putting a [Redacted} one at the start would do a world of wonders for understanding what was happening (also a map and character relationship web).

In some ways, there were too MANY POVs in the story. While I did appreciate being able to see what each character was thinking and learn the details of their motivations, especially when it came to the relationships between the characters, it became overwhelming to keep the characters straight. This on top of the complex societal worldbuilding was a lot to take in and things legitimately did not click for me until the last few chapters.

I'm definitely invested enough that I am already eagerly awaiting the second novel!

I have never read a book that would have so benefitted from placing a timeline of events at the start of the book instead of way back at the end (who made that decision!) like Sargassa does. Maybe the thinking was that it would spoil some twists towards the end, but it’s a funny one — I still think the timeline should have been placed first, because it clarified a whole damn lot of the plot and worldbuilding.

If anything, it would have tightened up the worldbuilding to know some context because, as it was, I spent a lot of time trying to work out if this book was science fiction, fantasy, an alternative world where Rome survived, while also seemingly being set in North America (Sargasso Sea), so it was an alternative universe where Rome became North America? It was, in fact, none of these options (and further I will not elaborate, because that’s spoilerish). I have no real objection to having aspects of worldbuilding obscured as the reader, because more often than not it’s on account of being a twist for the characters to experience, but something about how it was done here didn’t work that well. I think the issue was just how loose the worldbuilding felt without knowing that context. The best books will have such immaculately detailed worldbuilding that you don’t even question that there might be something more to discover. Sadly, this one did not.

In addition to this aspect of the worldbuilding, there was also the whole thorny issue of inventing curses and slang for characters to use. Some of the time this did work! But a lot of the time it didn’t. For example, a character tells someone to “ice”, and they respond they “will not ice”. It’s clearly the in-world way of telling someone to chill, but it just reads so awkwardly and it took me a moment to read the sentence “Ice, Mina” as “chill” because my first thought was this character was asking for ice. Maybe this is a YMMV point. As ever, my mileage is pretty short.

Two other points regard writing too: firstly that the romances feel very rushed throughout, and there also feels to be very little jeopardy in this. I think these are linked in a way, because it’s about building tension in both cases. The tension in the romances was almost nonexistent, except for what we were being told and the tension around the plot was also a damp squib. I never felt worried for the fates of the main characters because there was never any feeling that I needed to be.

As such, even though I did broadly like this book, it’s not one I feel compelled to read again, or a series I feel the need to continue. But, as ever, feel free to disregard this review in its entirety and read it anyway.

Gosh, Sagassa was fabulous! In fact, I am now epically sad because I am forced to wait for more. The only thing stopping me from giving it five full stars is that it did start out a little slow for me, and I was a wee bit confused. But please do not let that stop you, because it gets so good. And so twisty, and so freaking exciting! Look, I don't even know how to review it because there are so many mind-bending twists! You might think you know, but you have no idea. So I shall keep it purposefully brief.

I read a review (after I finished the book, thankfully!) that says not to even read the description, and that is spot on. Actually- don't even read the genre tags, because I feel like they spoil stuff too. Just. Okay- if you like complex characters, really high stakes action, incredible relationships, and ultimately just falling into a world wholly, then this is the book for you. There is political mayhem, survival, relevant commentary on both past and present society... this book legit has it all. If you can get through the little rocky first bit where you might be a tad confused (and I think you should!), this will be unputdownable.

Bottom Line: Need. Next. Book!