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Roma Eterna
No power on Earth can resist the might of Imperial Rome, so it has been and so it ever shall be. Through brute force, terror, and sheer indomitable will, her armies have enslaved a world. From the reign of Maximilianus the Great in A.U.C. 1203 onward through the ages -- into a new era of scientific advancement and astounding technologies -- countless upstarts and enemies
...moreMass Market Paperbound, 449 pages
Published
April 27th 2004
by Eos
(first published June 1st 2003)
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Fascinating Alternative Roman History From Robert Silverberg
"Roma Eterna" is a collection of 10 different short stories masquerading as a novel, that raises some tantalizing questions to answer the central, overarching question in this book: What if the Roman Empire never fell, but not only survived, but endured to the present as the foremost empire on the globe? It is not Silverberg's best work of fiction (His finest works include early novels such as "Shadrach in the...more
"Roma Eterna" is a collection of 10 different short stories masquerading as a novel, that raises some tantalizing questions to answer the central, overarching question in this book: What if the Roman Empire never fell, but not only survived, but endured to the present as the foremost empire on the globe? It is not Silverberg's best work of fiction (His finest works include early novels such as "Shadrach in the...more
This book was lent to me years ago by a friend at Uni because I was studying Ancient Rome. I’d been guiltily seeing it sit on my bookshelf for many years without picking it up and so decided that this trip would be the perfect opportunity to read it, as it’s always intrigued me (just ignore the fact that it means I would now never be able to return the book). As it happened, it sucked. It started out well as I lay on a deck chair by a pool in Kuta, Bali, vividly describing Ancient Roman life and...more
I tend to associate Silverberg with grand-scale world-building, and that works just as well in an alternate history as it does in far-future or entirely fictional worlds. Very thorough and very well thought out. In particular, relative to a lot of alternate histories Silverberg doesn't spend too much time belaboring the divergence with real history-- the book covers 1500 years, but the actual split is well before even the prologue. There's only one specific, recognizable personage from real hist...more
Et si l’Empire romain n’avait jamais disparu ?
Voici l’histoire parallèle d’un Empire romain qui a connu bien des vicissitudes, des guerres et des crises politiques mais qui n’a jamais cessé d’exister et de faire régner, avec quelques interludes sanglants, la Pax Romana.
Le christianisme y est inconnu, ne serait-ce que parce que les Juifs n’ont jamais réussi à quitter l’Egypte des pharaons. Quelques siècles plus tard, un envoyé spécial de l’Empereur élimine un prophète d’Ar...more
Voici l’histoire parallèle d’un Empire romain qui a connu bien des vicissitudes, des guerres et des crises politiques mais qui n’a jamais cessé d’exister et de faire régner, avec quelques interludes sanglants, la Pax Romana.
Le christianisme y est inconnu, ne serait-ce que parce que les Juifs n’ont jamais réussi à quitter l’Egypte des pharaons. Quelques siècles plus tard, un envoyé spécial de l’Empereur élimine un prophète d’Ar...more
Roma Eterna (Roma Aeternam in the french edition, which I find makes more sense) is an uchronia which is a hypothetical or fictional time-period of our world, in contrast to altogether fictional lands or worlds (thanks wikipédia because I wouldn't have been able to explain this properly in english... sometimes I just miss french ^^).
Silverberg just took the idea of an everlasting Roman Empire. Since I love everything from that period I was seduced by the idea, unfortunately, Silverberg sho...more
Silverberg just took the idea of an everlasting Roman Empire. Since I love everything from that period I was seduced by the idea, unfortunately, Silverberg sho...more
Reasonably original premise that the fate of the Roman Empire would have been changed by the failure of Moses' exodus. Interesting ideas about the Romans' discovery of the Americas and the relationship between east and west, but deeply dissatisfying in not really describing the development (or lack thereof) of technology believably. Why would the Romans have necessarily come up with exactly the same inventions as the real Europeans did and roughly at the same pace? Some chapters were more engagi...more
I'm not sure why I bought this book in the first place as I have never liked alternative history stories but I decided to give it a go anyway.
It is written with a different story for every chapter. Each chapter is a different time in a Roman Empire that never collapsed, starting at the beginning with one emperor and progressing through civil war and becoming a republic. The only continuation is the empire itself with each new chapter having new characters whether they are royal, common, s...more
It is written with a different story for every chapter. Each chapter is a different time in a Roman Empire that never collapsed, starting at the beginning with one emperor and progressing through civil war and becoming a republic. The only continuation is the empire itself with each new chapter having new characters whether they are royal, common, s...more
What if the Roman Empire never fell? In Silverberg's book, this was because the Hebrews never made it out of Egypt, and Christianity never began. Which is a good thing for middle-aged men in every age, as apparently that morality kept nubile young women from offering their bodies to them. There is a female astronaut in the last story, so women advance somewhat, but she is mostly there to arouse the old historian.
Each story jumps forward between 30-200 years. I liked the stories of ...more
Each story jumps forward between 30-200 years. I liked the stories of ...more
Michelle
rated it
This book is still at the top of my list of "books I hated when I read them and still hate now." The people are many and characters are few, and I don't like any of them. Just when you're getting used to a single person or setting, the book leaps ahead a hundred years or so, though it doesn't matter because culture hasn't changed a bit from age to age. I was waaaay too young when I read it; these are pagans, and we get a long look at a love affair.
*Spoilers.* At the ...more
*Spoilers.* At the ...more
Rachael
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
only the loyalist of alternate history devotees
Shelves:
specualtive-fic
Roma Eterna begins with the idea that Rome never fell. The Empire was able to beat back the "barbarian" invaders and survived, apparently eternally. Every chapter in this book is a short story set in a different era of this perpetually Roman world. I knew all that going in and was therefore not expecting a novel with one central plot and extended character development so I wasn't surprised or disappointed on that front. Silverberg's take on Romans conquering the New World, circumna...more
I would have given this three stars but for the ending. Despite its dense prose and self-satisfied narrative, there was a lot to like about this. Alternate history is an extremely intriguing genre to me, and the premise here--that the Roman empire never collapsed and just continued to grow--was especially fascinating (considering I am in the middle of the second season of the HBO show about Rome!). Each chapter takes place in a different time period, explaining how this version of Rome differs f...more
I think the premise that the Roman empire does not collapse is a fascinating alternative history but the book had a lot of problems. The beginning is hardly connected to the end and the middle is not connected to anything. I also thought some of the alternative history motives are implausible, like decline of Latin vs. new languages. In a centralized state, all the minor languages become extinct. Overall a disappointing book for such a master as Silverberg.
A great set of stories describing an alternative relity in which the Roman Empire never perished. The book is a caleidoscope of glimpses into different time periods showing the long-term history of this fictional Power. The only draw-back of this book is a rather anti-climactic final chapter, which focuses too much on one aspect of the story instead of a bigger picture. It's written with a slight inclination toward one ethnic group, which probably will connect more with this book.
This a a very good book about what the world would be like if the Roman empire never fell. Silverberg has a good writingstyle, and tells an interessting story here.
Because this book cronicles a more than 1000 year period, the story is told in different short stories. And not all of them are equally good. Some of these stories have a main character that is just passivly witnessing the events and those stories are a bit less interessting. The real sorry part is that the first story i...more
Because this book cronicles a more than 1000 year period, the story is told in different short stories. And not all of them are equally good. Some of these stories have a main character that is just passivly witnessing the events and those stories are a bit less interessting. The real sorry part is that the first story i...more
This book promised a lot a delivered very little. There are a couple of stories which are ok, but much of this is boring lists of fake emperors, something like a national geographic illustrated timeline - but less interesting. It doesn't serious tackle the question of slavery, mentions the Chinese as yellow slant eyes, avoids dealing with the rights of women and the technology miraculously parallels that in our own space/time frame. It's a very childish reading of history, and makes for very stu...more
Kenny
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
alternate-history afficionados
Shelves:
fiction-scifi
A guilty pleasure, ROMA ETERNA is sci-fi godfather Silverberg's episodic unfolding of a world where Moses' people are stopped at the water's edge by Pharaoh and returned to Egypt. Hence the Jewish nation does not reach Canaan, they do not establish a theocracy there, there is no King David, Solomon, or Jesus Christ. The Jews remain a small subset of Egypt, eventually subsumed into the Roman Empire, which, without the rise of Christianity, remains in power for 2,500 years. An amazing look at how ...more
Don't really like the 'short story' format and don't really like alternate histories... that being said, the world building was interesting and some of the characters were fun. Wouldn't read it again and would only recommend for hardcore Silverberg fans.
This book presents a view of a history in which the Roman empire did not fall, and came to dominate most of the world. It is a series of short stories, each covering a small amount of time, from about 200 A.D. to about 1970, each about a crisis that threatens the empire or about an act that prevents future crises.
Some of the stories are interesting and some are not. All in all a disappointing book.
Some of the stories are interesting and some are not. All in all a disappointing book.
A really entertaining 'Alternate Reality' story. Takes up history in approximately A.D. 500 and moves forward with the Roman Empire remaining supreme (no Chrstianity, etc). The story ends at around 2020 A.D. Buy it & read it!
Very interesting premise, but the way the story was told (short stories set in different times with many years separating each one) dragged things down more than a bit.
This book had a clever concept, so it should have been better than it was. It had too many characters to keep straight and was rather a ponderous read.
Interesting premise, but the lack of real continuity between chapters probably contributed to my losing interest. Maybe I'll come back to this someday.
Rome goes on and on. Some real good stories, some just OK. A good book of shorts, but not Silverberg's best.
Found it well written and thought provoking alternative history. Have recommended it to other sci fi fans.
I'm not a alternative history fan, but this was a great set of stories. The change in history is that the Hebrews never left Egypt. No Israel, no Jesus. No Jesus, the empire lives forever. Nicely done, with plenty of nexus points where history might get on track again, but not quite.
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This sort of thing has been done a few times but Silverberg's is an interestingly broad canvas where he takes specific moments and twists them.
A very good contrafactual. The span of history is an astonishing two millenia, yet the story flow works beautifully. Most of all, the alternative history is plausible.
(добавено българско издание)
So many things wrong with this book!
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