The Pillars of Rome

Republic, Book 1

De: Jack Ludlow

Narrado por: David Thorpe

Two boys appeal to the famed Roman oracle for a glimpse into their future, and the Sybil draws an omen of death. As they flee from the cave in fear, Aulus and Lucius make an oath of loyalty until death - one that will be tested in the years to come.

Thirty years on and Aulus, now Rome's most successful general, faces his toughest battle. Barbarian rebels have captured his wife and are demanding the withdrawal of Roman legions from their land. It is unthinkable for Aulus to agree, and he fears she must be forfeit for Rome. Meanwhile, Lucius has risen to high rank in the Senate; a position he abuses. But when Lucius is linked to a murder the foundations of the Republic are threatened. Lucius and Aulus soon find themselves on different sides of the conflict, the old prophecy hanging over them...

©2007 David Donachie writing as Jack Ludlow (P)2023 Soundings

Subverted expectations but in a silly way. Lots of modern cliches. Mediocre characters and storytelling. Bizarre.

The narration is decent, but the issues are too numerous for even a good narrator to overcome. The preview had me hooked, but the rest of the book doesn’t live up to it. The author develops a lot of scenes that don’t add anything to the narrative and are repetitive, but he neglects other moments which would have been far more interesting to explore. Some of the NSFW “romance” (I’m using a euphemism) and other stupid drama is described in an unnecessary level of detail. This is a very odd book with some incredibly bizarre plotlines. It begins with the kidnapping of a Roman general’s wife while she was accompanying him on campaign. This Mary Sue is clearly meant to be one of the novel’s heroes, but in reality she is very whiny and annoying. Her Roman servants and bodyguards were brutally violated and murdered in front of her, but she randomly falls in love with her captor Brennus and becomes pregnant with his “love child”. She then gets rescued by her Roman countrymen and leads them to believe she was violated against her will. The general Aulus decides to expose the newborn i.e. leave him to die in the cold, not unheard of in those times… In a twist of circumstances it’s found in the wilderness by a drunk whose wife begins raising this boy as her own. This half-Celtic boy “Aquila” is another Mary Sue that the author wants to set up as a hero but in reality he’s insufferable. He doesn’t appreciate his adoptive parents and essentially gets groomed by a Gallic shepherd into becoming an emo hater of the Romans (yawn). This novel is one of those pieces of modern media where the barbarians are the real heroes and the Romans are cartoon villains with no integrity whatsoever. The adoptive mother (another whiner) is obsessed with Aquila and treats her own husband like garbage (the modern feminist “men are useless” angle which makes any student of antique history groan). We are having a lot of modern tropes and cliches shoved down our throat here. She doesn’t care her husband gets scammed into serving in the legions in place of a rich farmer, but Aquila doesn’t care when she is dying either so I suppose it balances out. Aulus’ ending particularly made no sense, with him randomly realizing that Aquila was an alive “love child” and not a dead grape baby. The novel also follows another consular family whose patriarch Lucius is essentially a psycho that betrays his friends and only cares about power. These characters are too one-dimensional. It seems like the author is trying to set up a series but there isn’t enough here to build on. There’s more to say but need I go on?