Review

This is book four in the excellent Twilight of Rome series a series that focuses on a very much ignored part of the rich and varied Roman history (4th Century), I’ve always been surprised that there are not more books based around this transitional period. Constantine and his tenure is such a rich tapestry of events, a new religion, vast changes in the empire and the armies that control those huge tracts of land, This is a time when the Auxiliaries are the army, the empire is the sum of its parts rather than the sum of its core.

Our Core character Castus has come a long way from the bruiser on the frontline. Over the course of this series his bravery and his dependable honest character has won him Imperial Patronage. This while a personality that has won him renown with the Emperor doesn’t win him many friends at court, the roman court is after all filled with greed, envy and treachery, none of this is set to make Castus’s task of of intermediary to the Germanic people an easy role.

As with all of this series i find the books initially a slow burn, even knowing the characters well as i now do, Ian takes his time to build you back into the Roman world, to acclimate you to the time period and the situation, and then he starts to turn the screw and ratchet up the pace. By the time he hits the last quarter of the book it is at a pace that makes the book very hard to put down, as Castus world turns to crap very quickly, his life seems to be a parallel for the story of the empire at the time.

As with this whole series the research is exemplary (well to my untrained eye), the attention to detail is first class, and yet not thrust down the readers neck, its subtle and yet intricate, and the battles are a joy to read.

Another absolute winner…

(Parm)

Series
Twilight of Empire
1. War At the Edge of the World (2015)
2. Swords Around the Throne (2015)
3. The Battle for Rome (2015)
4. The Mask of Command (2016)
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