Book Review: The Realms of God by Michael Livingston
Drawing together strands, plots, and conflicts from the first two novels, The Realms of God winningly completes Michael Livingston’s Shards of Heaven trilogy. In the Shards of Heaven series, Michael Livingston has been weaving the real-life history of the early Roman Empire with magic and myth in a potent combination. Starting with The Shards of Heaven and through The Gates of Hell, the author has been telling the story of the Shards, pieces of Divine power on Earth, and those trying to win control of them, mastery of them, and mastery of the world as a result. The series features both historical characters as well as (especially in The Gates of Hell) supernatural ones, telling stories that sit within the known history but do not contradict it or change it. They are good examples of Secret historical fantasy, eschewing any changes from our own world, but also grounding the novels in real events and real history.
Book Review: Wolf’s Empire: Gladiator by Claudia Christian and Morgan Grant Buchanan
My love and abiding interest of things revolving around Ancient Rome are absolutely no secret to anyone who knows me even to a slight degree. I’m that kind of person who took a long bus ride while in Rome just so I could get to a point on the Via Appia, the highway that connected Rome to points south in Italy, so I could stand on it, walk on it for a short bit, and imagine the history I had experienced, on top of all of the other ancient ruins I had already explored. I’ve been reading space opera since the earliest days of my genre reading, devouring the likes of DUNE and Cherryh’s Chanur novels through today’s space opera writers ranging from Alastair Reynolds to Rhonda Mason. This “peanut butter and chocolate” of my interests comes together in WOLF’S EMPIRE: GLADIATOR, the first novel in collaboration between Claudia Christian (who many readers may recognize as being a star of Babylon 5) and Morgan Grant Buchanan. As I mentioned in last week’s interview, both have collaborated before, notably on Ms. Christian’s memoir, but this marks a significant change in their literary ambitions.
Interview with Claudia Christian and Morgan Grant Buchanan about WOLF’S EMPIRE
I had the wonderful opportunity to read a review copy of WOLF’S EMPIRE: GLADIATOR, and to put questions to the authors, Claudia Christian and Morgan Grant Buchanan, about their collaboration. Given the premise of the novel, mixing space opera with the Roman Empire, and my fandom for Ms. Christian going back to the days of Babylon-5, I was delighted to have a chance to do both.
