Ambitious and carefully constructed but also outdated in terms of what I think readers want to see in the Fantasy/Speculative Fiction space.

It’s tough to blame the book for the dusty vibes it gives off, as it was written some time ago and is only “new” in audio format. Still, I don’t think the style has aged well. Or perhaps this just wasn’t to my taste.

It reads a bit like Sci-fi despite not meeting the criteria for or that in terms of subject matter, but that may be part of why I struggled to engage with this.

The world building is very thorough, which I appreciated, though I’m not sure I’d call it appealing. I think the research that went into this was really sound, but I wish it had more to teach the reader about Ancient Rome, which I think might have redeemed some of the more generic plot threads.

If you like this sort of old fashioned style of Fantasy, this is probably worth a read, as a lot of what I didn’t care for was connected to taste issues. That said; I’m huge into Ancient Rome in fiction, and this didn’t do it for me on the basis of that alone.

This was a really interesting book but it was slow and some of the information was repeated. I have never learnt alot about Romans and emprerors so it was very interesting

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.
3.5

This is so far out of my normal. However I did find it interesting. The writing prose was good.
Honestly, this book made me feel like I'm not smart enough.
It's a collection of stories that dive into the lives of Roman Empire elites, and it's pretty fascinating. The last tale was a highlight, reimaging the Israelites' Exodus from Egypt. But, there are some inconsistencies and plot holes.
For me the book raises more questions than it answers, but it's still engaging. I was invested in the Roman Empire's evolution, and it's clear that the Empire's resilience is its greatest strength.