Return to Ancient Rome in "The Will of Augustus"

I have always had a fascination with history, but I must admit that I've spent far too little time exploring the period of Ancient Rome and particularly the transition from a true republic.  But after reading Karen Powell's fictional account The Will of Augustus I figure it is high time I return to the historical period of the ancients.

So hop into the time machine with me and let's travel back to the house of Emperor Augustus and explore the realm of a dying republic and the accompanying rise of a dynasty.

Book Blurb:
Rome, as her uncle Marcus Septimius always likes to say, is unpredictable…

When Gaius Aemilius Papus falls out of political favour, his daughter Aemelia is sent against her will to join the Vestal Virgins in the hope of placating the Emperor Augustus.

Aemilia Secunda, an exuberant, unbiddable ten year old, must relinquish all ties with her family and devote her life to keeping the eternal fire in the Temple of Vesta burning, the fire that represents the soul of Rome itself. She must also remain unmarried and chaste. A Vestal who fails to do so faces the most severe of punishments: burial alive.

As Aemelia grows she begins to understand the unique power the Vestals wield. They move in the very highest circle of Roman society, can become financially secure through gifts and, unlike the rest of Roman women, are completely independent.

But just as Aemelia comes to accept her role as a Vestal, she finds herself enmeshed in a plot which is perilously close to the very heart of Roman politics and the issue of Imperial succession, where her very survival hangs in the balance.

My Review:
First thing I will say, it is important to understand some of the oddities of the Roman lifestyle prior to beginning this novel.  The period was an almost "anything goes" attitude, where incestuous relationships were commonplace and children were considered marriageable by the age of thirteen/fourteen, multiple partners of either sex, any age, and status - you name it, they did it.  Now before I scare you off, please note that these references are only hinted at or touched on briefly in very few scenes among The Will of Augustus.  I only mention this because this novel offers a somewhat accurate representation of those attitudes between the lines - but don't let it keep you from considering this interesting read.

Our story opens with a young girl, Aemelia Secunda, attending the funeral of her beloved father.  But she does not stand with her mother, older married sister and children, or her ever-loving uncle.  She must remain apart, unmoved on the surface as the funeral pyre dissolves the features of the man she once called papa - for she is no longer merely a member of a single family unit but a representative of the people before the great goddess Vesta.  Therefore, she must withhold the appearance of favoritism from any and all who claim lineage with her.

Not difficult to do with her cold and heartless mother, who never forgave her youngest daughter for living when Aemelia's twin brother died at birth.  But her mother's own twin, Aemelia's uncle Marcus Septimius, is another matter entirely - especially when he notices the developing beauty peeking around Aemelia's childhood visage.

Leap back several years prior.  Aemelia is a reckless youngster living a privileged life among the lesser of Roman nobility, unstained by the pressures of the world around her or by the political wheel threatening her family life.  Her mother barely tolerates her presence, but her sister, Marcia, father and uncle more than make up for the love denied her - until the political factions press in too close and disrupt her carefree life.

In order to appease Emperor Augustus and secure higher rank in the government, Aemelia's father - under duress - marries off fourteen-year-old Marcia to a young man whose family has strong ties to the emperor.  However, within a year or two, guards are again on their doorstep and escorting her father away to the emperor to answer for questionable associations.  Aemelia's mother once again steps in and through her own machinations, forces Aemelia into accepting a covetous honor - to be named as a Vestal Virgin and spend her life chaste and unmarried while serving as the people's representative in the house of the goddess.  Over the next ten years, Aemelia's forced servitude becomes both a blessing and a curse - and what she sees and experiences changes her in ways she could never foresee.

As far as the overall story goes, I enjoyed reading The Will of Augustus, seeing the daily life of a Roman citizen through the eyes of a child who grows into a woman, the government machinations, family dynamics, and how the smallest steps and decisions can alter so many lives.  There was a period between about 55% and 83%, however, where the story lagged and bogged down with very little of significance happening until picking up and speeding to the end.  The ending also makes it feel as if there is more of the story to be told and makes me wonder if a series is planned (though there is no reference to that possibility).  If it were to become a series, I'd be willing to consider reading the next offering just to see what happens with Aemelia and how she copes with the changes resulting from the trauma.  I really wish the last 17% of the book had been extended and more fleshed out and the slow and uneventful period in the middle condensed.  Perhaps it would've helped the ending not feel quite so abrupt.

The story was told in Aemelia's point-of-view and it was nice to see her thought processes grow from childhood to adulthood.  Good telling instead of showing for the most part kept us following along by her side throughout the story.  However, editing and formatting need some desperate attention.  There was a constant appearance of missing words like 'to, and, but, was,' etc., or duplicate words like 'let them let' and the like.  Also a few tense shifts occurred as if scenes were originally written in present tense then changed to past tense and back again yet not catching all of the necessary wording changes to correct the tense shift.  In regard to formatting, continual pages popped up where the left-hand margin pressed in to the middle of the page and left huge areas of white space along my Kindle.  Sometimes it was only a paragraph or two while others were page after page of this problem.  Extra spacing between paragraphs and hard returns in the middle of a sentence revealed themselves on occasion as well.

If not for the editing and formatting issues, I'd have given four stars to The Will of Augustus for the mostly interesting storyline, but with these issues I'll have to settle with three stars.

If Ancient Rome tickles your fancy, pick up a copy through Amazon US or Amazon UK.

Author Bio:

Author of 2 contemporary novels, 'Catching the Light', 'If Susie Said Jump', both published by Harbour Books. This is my first foray into historical fiction. Educated Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge University. Work at York Minster.

Connect with her at https://www.facebook.com/karenpowell.author

Thumbs Up For "The London Project"

The novel I have to review for you today is fascinating, a bit creepy, and eerily all too real in it's futuristic endeavors.  Mark Maxwell's "The London Project" takes the not-too-distant future possibilities and transports us there in the here and now.  Cars today have the ability to warn you of an impending fender bender.  A robot arm can respond to nerve/brain impulses from a human.  Tech experts say in the next thirty years the possibility of transferring human consciousness into the digital universe is a definite reality. 

But what if we took these seemingly sci-fi elements just a teensy bit further? We'd have "The London Project" - join me in exploring tomorrow, today.

Book Blurb:

Portal has transformed the lives of London's residents. The tech giant's centralised network is ubiquitous, its free services utilised by Londoners for everything from communications to entertainment, transport to health care. As a consequence Portal harvests the minutiae of its users' daily lives. 

On the eve of the network’s expansion throughout the UK, Detective Sergeant Louisa Bennett investigates the death of a young girl. Her body covered in lacerations, the victim’s autopsy reveals an unidentifiable cellular structure permeating her brain. The case is further complicated when no trace of the girl can be found on Portal. It’s as if she simply doesn’t exist. 

There’s something about the young victim that draws Louisa in and holds her tight. An innocence surrounds the girl, even in death. But with the autopsy recording an open verdict, Louisa fears it won’t be long before the case is shunted from her homicide unit. 

Following an attack on Portal’s network, private data is leaked on all its users. In the ensuing chaos, three high-ranking members of a criminal syndicate are assassinated. It becomes clear to Louisa that the perpetrators have used Portal’s systems to coordinate the killings. When she uncovers a connection between her case and the Portal breach, Louisa becomes a target herself. 

To save her own life Louisa must uncover the truth behind the girl’s death—a truth that leads her deep into the heart of The London Project.

My Review:

I'll say from the get-go - I really, really liked "The London Project", and I'm no technology expert (as regular readers well know).  Mark Maxwell has created a very realistic sci-fi world that is still grounded in elements of the reality we live in at present.  

Today people are connected every moment of every day through their smart phones, smart TV's, etc., etc., etc.  Facebook, Twitter, texting - you name it - wherever you go there's a profile and that's how you connect with friends and loved ones.  In the novel, this is all done through devices called 'terminals'.  Cash rarely changes hands in today's society.  From debit cards, to online banking and bank transfers through your phone, we're living in a virtually cashless realm already.  In the novel, all you have to do is click a button on your terminal and funds are immediately transferred from your bank account to the merchant.  Don't have time to run to the grocery store?  No problem - your terminal automatically orders and has groceries delivered when you need them based upon what you've purchased in the past and what you've utilized from your fridge and pantry for the week (hello - hear of the drone program Amazon has been implementing?).  Schools don't have physical textbooks (ever hear of ebooks and etextbooks) and all schoolwork is completed and handed in through your terminal.  And your terminal knows you - the biometric imprint will shut the terminal down if someone other than the owner picks it up.

Unless the unhackable becomes hackable.  

Louisa Bennett is a Detective Sergeant with the equivalent of the London police department (or MET, as it is known in the novel).  During a routine stakeout, the team loses the culprit they've been watching when his facial recognition profile falls off of London's digital grid.  That's impossible.  Sense strips blanket most of the metropolitan area and should track him with a 99% accuracy rate.  The only way they could've lost him is if he was using a forged profile, a highly illegal and expensive alternative for a lowly street urchin.  On a hunch, Louisa decides to turn off her terminal and instead utilize her God-given sight to locate their target.  Almost immediately she spies the man she's after and the hunt is back on.

But her boss doesn't want to hear about the possibility of a forged profile.  That will complicate his sorry existence and ruin his case closure rate.  Louisa is firm on what she saw and refuses to adjust her report.

Mere hours later, her life is further complicated by the dead body of a runaway reported nearly two years before.  The girl isn't even on the grid.  Her body is riddled with lacerations that appear to be some method of torture - and she has a bloodied hole near the base of her skull as if an animal took a bite out of her neck.  The puzzle pieces of the case are missing or scattered.  But somehow her two recent cases have a connection.

And Louisa needs to put the pieces together before her teenaged daughter becomes the next victim.

Like I said, this was a great thriller with very realistic sci-fi elements.  I was a teensy bit lost in the beginning as I tried to picture what all the techie stuff was about.  But very quickly that became a side issue as the action ramped up and never let go.  Mark Maxwell did a good job of building in the description of the futuristic elements within the storyline as it progressed instead of falling into the realm of info-dumping and description overload.  At times there actually was quite a lot of description but again, it never felt like overload because of the manner in which it was woven into the elements of action as they were happening.  Great use of showing instead of telling.

The characters were well-rounded, with plausible back-stories and problems within their everyday lives just like your average Joe - in this case Jane.  They had challenges, disappointments, and solid motivations for why they made the choices they did, at least for the main characters within the novel.  Louisa was a strong, nearing middle-aged woman with two kids attempting to juggle her life, stretch a paycheck, and deal with an ex-husband and his perky new wife.  She used her wits and yet questioned herself like most women do at times.  She took a lickin' and kept on tickin' when things got interesting on the job.  When a man expressed his interest, Louisa wasn't sure what to do about it or if she even had the time or energy to do something about it.  I could really relate to her on so many levels.

So maybe I did figure out where it was all heading, but I enjoyed the moments of questions, the heart-pumping action, and the creepy almost deja vu moments along the journey, feeling all the while that this could really be happening.  The visuals within the story were stunning (but I'd never wear a dress to work again if I had to ride a virtually invisible elevator).

The only issue I found with "The London Project" was the need for a bit more editing.  There were multiple times where it was 'he' instead of 'she' or vice versa.  When Louisa was talking to her ex-husband, John, a dialogue tag had the name of a different character who was not present in the scene.  There were also quite a few missing words or duplicate words the farther into the story I read.  Even so, the plot and pace kept me engaged to where these were mere nuisances.

A caution - there's not a ton of rough language in the novel, but there are a few brief uses of the f-word.  A couple of times it didn't feel right for the character or scene and seemed a tad gratuitous, while other times it worked (as in that great 80's movie Die Hard).  If a bit of rough language is something you can get past, then you'll thoroughly enjoy Mark Maxwell's novel.

Also we here in the U.S. have different vernacular and spelling for some words than across the pond (and quotations used are the singular ' instead of the double ") and is just something you'll need to accept if you should choose to purchase and read "The London Project" - and I recommend you do if you like a good thriller.  

This one gets thumbs up and four stars.

Purchase at Amazon or Amazon UK

Author Bio:

Mark was born in Northern Ireland and now lives in Dublin. He worked as a software developer for over 10 years. The London Project is his first novel.  Visit his website at http://markjmaxwell.com