HISTORICAL FICTION REVIEW: The Damned Emperor's 2: Commodus - Simon Turney

Release Date: 05/03/20

Publisher: Orion Books

SYNOPSIS:

Rome is enjoying a period of stability and prosperity. The Empire's borders are growing, and there are two sons in the imperial succession for the first time in Rome's history. But all is not as it appears. Cracks are beginning to show. Two decades of war have taken their toll, and there are whispers of a sickness in the East. The Empire stands on the brink of true disaster, an age of gold giving way to one of iron and rust, a time of reason and strength sliding into hunger and pain. The decline may yet be halted, though. One man tries to hold the fracturing empire together. To Rome, he is their emperor, their Hercules, their Commodus. But Commodus is breaking up himself, and when the darkness grips, only one woman can hold him together. To Rome she was nothing. The plaything of the emperor. To Commodus, she was everything. She was Marcia. 

 

REVIEW:

Apart from the big named emperors this is one that I do know a little about prior to reading and whilst most are familiar with the name due the gladiator film with Russell Crowe where Joaquin Phoenix played the aforementioned emperor many others draw a blank when asked as to whom he is. 

 

This title by Simon takes the reader on a journey through the eyes of a female acquaintance of Commodus through the years of growing up and one who has to learn to live in a dangerous time of Rome where one wrong word would have repercussions either through the point of a knife or more subtle means. 

 

 Its well written, really takes you into the world of ancient Rome and above all else allows you to get to know the players with in the tale so much so that you care about their fates. Back this up with solid prose, dialogue that leaps off the page and of course a story that really does draw you in all round makes this second title in Simon's Damned Emperor series a hard title to put down. I can't wait to see what Simon hits back with next, especially as at the end of this period we're about to hit the year of the five emperors, a really twisted time where no one knows where they stood and ideal fertile historical fiction material.