3.9 AVERAGE

adventurous challenging emotional informative tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
dark emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

3 and a half stars.

Audiobook version, extremely well performed by Robert Glenister. I chose this audiobook for the narrator, and was open to the story. It's super violent yet somehow that didn't bother me (plus I increased the narration speed to 1.1 which always helps when I'm not 100% sold on a choice I've made). There is very little political correctness here, and it's fiction so I let go of resisting all the macho etc stuff in favour of a good story with lots of unacceptable behaviour happening throughout. It's like the news, but different.

My big takeaway? During the COVID-19 pandemic I sometimes wondered if humanity would get to the other side of it. We did, it's 2024 when I write this, and stories like "The Gates of Rome" mirror the concept that the end of a world is only the end of a particular iteration of that world. Rome was rebuilt many times.

While I wish humanity had internalised the big lessons we lived during the recent pandemic (e.g. kindness), and while I wish we would adopt some massive changes in response to the nightmares many of us lived through, these stories of survival are useful, somehow.

So I leave this odd (for me) book behind, refusing the many sequels that follow, with a renewed commitment to kindness and gentleness.
adventurous tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
adventurous informative medium-paced

A great start to a great story. The author kept me interested in the events of the main characters and the style is easy and engaging. On to the next one. 
adventurous dark informative tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
adventurous challenging emotional informative slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Superb.
Will definitely read the rest of the series.
Hearing a Greek speak with a Newcastle accent and Romans with cockney twangs was a bit odd.

Merged review:

Superb.
Will definitely read the rest of the series.
Hearing a Greek speak with a Newcastle accent and Romans with cockney twangs was a bit odd.