The book has many conincedences to make the plot work but as usual Ian Watson fires off ideas and concepts to keep the mind racing.

I particularly enjoyed the wrong assumptions that the security forces and terrorists made in trying to understand the Centurion's angle.

The ending seemed like a sequel was in the offing.  I have yet to see it.

A good read.

When Tom Ryan stops his car late at night on a dark road for a man dressed
as a centurion, his first thought is that he's picked up one of those amateur re-enactors...
but the man, Marcus Appius Silvanus, appears to speak only Latin.
He insists the year is AD60 and that the British Queen is Boudicca -
and that he and his men of the Fourteenth Gemina are in hot pursuit of her.

So reads the back cover blurb of this book. Enough to entice anyone to read it.


Eagerly anticipating reading about the meeting described, I turned the pages...


Now what are the chances of a timeslipped Roman meeting someone on a dark and stormy night
in twentieth century England who just happens to understand and speak Latin ?


How can I possibly suspend my disbelief at the application of such a 'coincidence' ?


Now the scene switches to Toms sister. Who has connections to the Irish Republican Army.


Another coincidence, and another required to make the story work.

The book has the feel of one where a good idea has been subverted by the need to get it into
print all too soon. Shortcuts have been taken with the plotting to make it all happen together
rather than letting the gestation period take the length of time that it needs to work out all
the details in a satisfactory manner.

Having said that, it is an OK book to read. In fact some parts are even funny.
I just hope they were intended to be.
Visit the author of this review