Rebellion in imperial Rome. Not the 3rd century but the 20th centuryCaius Tellus wants to seize power in Roma Nova. Founded at the collapse of the old Roman Empire fifteen hundred years ago the tiny state now faces meltdown. Aurelia Mitela, chief imperial councillor, vows to stop him. But Caius is also on a personal vendetta – to destroy Aurelia herself.But Roma Nova in the early 1980s is … in the early 1980s is paralysed by a ruler afraid to rule. Old laws are choking reform. Fear sparks riots only to be flamed and exploited by a rising nationalist movement.
Aurelia fights to combat increasing catastrophe engulfing Roma Nova, but is she too late?
Part political thriller, part deadly personal rivalry, INSURRECTIO is Roman fiction brought into the 20th century through an alternate history lens with a strong female protagonist with heart and courage leading the action.
A taut, fast-paced thriller and I enjoyed it enormously. Rome, guns and rebellion. Darkly gripping stuff.” – Conn Iggulden
– Historical Novel Society’s indie Editor’s Choice
– B.R.A.G. Medallion
– Chill with a Book Awards Book of the Month
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‘Sometimes we have to do undignified or dishonorable things for the best reasons. We can only make the choices available to us at the time.”
Aurilea Mitela: imperial councilor in Roma Nova, last province of the old Roman Empire, is frustrated at the ruler who is afraid to govern, and the rest of the ruling families for not stepping up to help, as if she was the only one who promised guidance. These cracks in the centuries old government allow for the inevitable overthrow as the bureaucracy is replaced with a nationalism headed by Aurilea’s nemesis: Casius Tellas; a man determined to humiliate her and the women-run government.
Marina,Aurelia’s daughter, is captured and tortured before she is secreted away from Roma Nova. Casius has Aurelia taken and abused in exchange for the safety of people she cares about. Forced into servitude under Casius, her honor in shambles, she knows she must escape this unstable tyrant. Who can she trust?
Although I have followed Alison Morton for years, this is the first book of hers I have actually read. Morton writes consist edge-of-your-seat thrillers deeply rooted in history and rebellion. Here’s to reading the rest of the series (I have actually just gotten the first book of Roma Nova recently). Highly recommended 5/5
[disclaimer: I received this book from the author who gifted it to me. I have chosen to read/review it. I also own an e-copy]
It’s always welcome to see and out-and out villain return in a new book and in her fifth Roman Nova novel, Insurrectio, Alison Morton brings back one of the most unpleasant scoundrels likely to be encountered anywhere. What makes the story so convincing – almost uncomfortably so – is that the loathsome Caius Tellus has had, and indeed has, so many counterparts in real life. “Convincing” is an adjective that has always applied to Ms. Morton’s alternate-universe creation of Roma Nova. The internal consistency of this world, and its development in technological terms in parallel with our own, makes it easy to accept it as real. Earlier books have dealt with smaller-scale crises but in Insurrectio the story concentrates on a vast nation-wide descent into tyranny and repression in the aftermath of a coup. For this reader at least, not the least of the merits of Ms. Morton’s writing is that she does not shy away from recognition that history is indeed made with blood and iron, and that power ultimately comes from the barrel of a gun. The crisis in Insurrectio stems from the reluctance of a well-meaning government to nip evil in the bud and the relative ease with which forces it is unwilling to confront effectively bring about its downfall is both frightening and realistic. The starkly-portrayed mobilisation of ignorance and prejudice in support of a new totalitarian regime has close analogies with events in our own time as well as in the 1930s. The sense of uncertainty as to what is actually happening during a coup, and of where it may lead, makes for marked realism – I have lived through two (one farcical) and my most abiding memory is of doubt and confusion as to what was actually happening. It’s always the sign of a good writer that they can arouse anger as well as sympathy. I was therefore struck by depiction of the moves made by this new regime against women and it brought back uncomfortable memories of seeing women marginalised and casually degraded in Iran in the early 1990s. Ms. Morton’s heroines and heroes are left in no doubt that the price of Liberty is the willingness to fight back with a ruthless efficiency equal or greater than that of its oppressors.
This is no comfortable story in which the cause of Freedom succeeds at little cost. Brutality, rape and terror are unflinchingly described. The story moves at a spanking pace and it would be unfair to reveal the ending – it is however one that makes one look forward eagerly for the next volume. As with previous books in the series there are witty touches that lighten the mood. I was especially amused by a popular newspaper being entitled the Sol Populi and the delicious observation “Bit too soft, the Prussians. They’re into rehabilitation and re-education.” Hoodwinked by a clever villain, it is this Prussian benevolence that triggers the tragedies to come. One suspects that in the alternate world of Roma Nova both Frederick the Great and Otto von Bismarck succumbed in infancy to illness!