Roma Eterna, by Robert Silverberg

Roma Eterna is a collection of short stories all set in a universe where the Roman Empire does not fall. Starting from stories about early emperors set around 300AD it follows moments in the story of the empire such as the rise of significant emperors, the discovery of the Americas and the fallout from bloody revolution.

This was a very good book on several levels. Firstly on a pure storywriting level, this an enjoyable collection of short stories which fit nicely together - the world in consistent between the stories, and the end of one is often referred to later in the history of another although they are self contained and could mostly be read in almost any order. They are decent, well written and thoughtful stories. I also like the fact they're often not told from the standpoint of the main character, but from a minor character who observes the action from a distance.

But there are other things that stand out; the world itself is interesting and well considered; the number of historical changes is minimal (although it is interesting that the author has chosen as one of the most significant the lack of christianity in the empire). So, lot of the events have happened as in history, such as the splitting of the empire into eastern and western parts, and most of the early historical emprerors of note such as Augustus, Nero, Caligula and Constantine. This gives the book a very good founding in fact and helps the world, ultimately, feel realistic.

There is one of my niggles with this point. Although the author has used real Roman events in the back story behind the world, there are several characters that are parallels of more recent stories - the story of Magellan is there, and there is a retelling of the story of the last Tsar of Russia; and I feel that this just doesnt really work all that well, the stories are more retellings of existing stories rather than genuninely roman takes on them. This isn't true of all of these stories - the story of the conquest of the Latin America is very much more in context and in my mind a far better story than the two mentioned above.

But this really is a niggle. The vast majority of the stories are good and even the ones I found derivative were enjoyable. The book is also thought provoking; it's interesting to think how different things would be if the Roman empire had not fallen; would things stagnate, or change? How would people in Britain or Egypt feel after centuries of domination? Can one city ever hold sway over so much land?

All in all, this is an excellent book. It's very well written, it has an unusual and interesting concept and it does make you think. What more could you want?

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