Oh my, I love this book! I have fallen in love with Marcus and his development. And I know its bad but Nero has gone up in my eyes. This book is set in Rome years after Nero 'committed suicide' but plot twist what if he never died. Emperor Nero is back, along with his adopted son Marcus, and Rome is the center of plots and murders. We follow many characters for a few months and as each of there lives unfold we learn more about them and the world they are living in. I really enjoy books with multiple perspectives I find it adds a unique flavour to the characters by seeing them through others eyes. This book is set over two time periods roughly, going to the end of Nero's reign and his journey then ten years later to the 'present' day. This and the character switching can make it hard to know what's going on. Overall this is a great book and I highly recommend.

This novel is definitely fast paced. Each chapter is made up of several first person accounts so you're never in one place for more than a few pages. There are also two timelines which weave together by the end. This technique really worked in terms of pacing, and although it could be a little confusing at times (more through the sheer number of characters), once the main players were established I found this to not be a problem. The plot itself is also compelling - Roman politics with constant plots that threatened the lives of the main characters. What I didn't like so much was the style of the writing. I found the author a little inconsistent. It seemed like he'd done great research but then would throw in modern English terms (and several 'Americanisms') - someone acting 'cute' during an interrogation, a man wearing pants (rather than trousers) etc. There was also an annoying tendency to describe noises by lengthening words ('the rusty hinges screeeech') which seemed more like something I'd expect from a children's book, like the author didn't trust the reader to be able to imagine what a rusty hinge sounded like. My verdict: great entertainment but the language turned it into a theme park version of Ancient Rome.