"The Seven Hills"
by John Maddox Roberts
by John Maddox Roberts
Hannibal's armies were victorious and the defeated Romans were given a choice: Fight to the death or national exile. And so the people of Rome were driven to the far north to build a new nation amidst the barbarians there.
Now, over a century later, they're back to reclaim their city and destroy Carthage.
Already their legions have captured Italy and are making inroads into Sicily. Meanwhile, four of their legions are making an epic march around the entire Mediterranean, as one of Rome's brightest commanders is in Egypt, forming alliances with its Queen and fomenting a scientific and engineering renaissance...
This is a sequel (and middle book of at least a trilogy) to his Hannibal's Children. In the first book, Rome was kicked out of, well, Rome and after forming a new nation in the Germanic north, returned to confront Carthage. Through a mixture of guile and sharp pointy things, they managed to take Italy back from almost under Carthage's nose, while sending commanders and legions - ostensibly as "mercenaries" to scout out Carthage itself.
That book ended with Rome openly at war with Carthage, four of their legions "trapped" in Egypt under the extremely ambitious Titus Norbanus and the book's main hero - Marcus Cornelius Scipio - wooing both Egypt's queen and a school of philosophy at the Alexandrian Library that believes they should actually do things (like build and experiment) rather than just think about them.
This book has Titus leading his legions around the entire edge of the Eastern Mediterranean on a trip back to Rome that's more one big pirate raid than simple march home. He plans to come back to Rome with enough money - and loyal enough legions - that he can write his own ticket to power.
Marcus, meanwhile, is busily worrying that all this success (and money) is going to destroy the fabric of Roman culture. He's also busily encouraging his philosophers to come up with (militarily) useful inventions to fight Carthage.
Like submarines...and hang gliders...and armored paddle-wheelers...and steam engines so that those paddle-wheelers won't have to be human-powered for long...and...
...yeah. My disbelief-suspenders went *POING* too.
What's odd about this is most of the rest of the story is good. Titus is obviously trying to head towards a Caesar-like future - and that he can points out the very real problems Rome's structure had. Roberts likes stories set in Roman times (he's got several books in them) and has obviously researched them quite a bit.
So no one else in the story is inventing like crazy, or upending the entire fabric of ancient-world thought, but Roberts has his main character basically jump-starting a couple of thousand years worth of scientific and engineering advancement and I don't know why. Compare this to what I said in my review of "Rivers of War" - read at about the same time - and you'll see why this annoyed me so.
Still, it's a good enough read and I'll probably pick up the third book when it comes out...though I strongly expect airships by the end of that one...
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