A fun idea (What if ancient Rome's best and brightest, and most cold-resistant, maintained their Empire via cryonics?) marred by its execution. First half (Roman and medieval times) is largely prelude and wordy back story. Second half, in the (now-not-too-distant) future, is strongly reminiscent of "Snow Crash," although Stephenson does it better. The Centurion himself is stoic, honorable, wooden, adaptable, dull. His Roman/medieval supporting cast are forgettable, with the exception of an Ice Keeper or two. The 21st century women are Lara Croft-esque ciphers. Dialogue can be clunky ("Such cruelty, such evil...it hangs over this place like a cloud, chilling me though the sun shines brightly"). Narrative likewise is at times hokey ("...he took five days to reach the fort. Had he hastened and made it in three, the course of history would have been changed" and "...she had also been working for herself, and to an agenda that nobody could have suspected.") Diverse plots and betrayals in support of a single, prosaic goal are by turns confusing, improbable, and then facile (David Mamet meets Dan Brown at Ellis Peters' place; later, William Gibson stops by). The value is in its assertion that time travelers from the past could have as much (or more?) to teach their descendants (emphasis on manners, good governance, military strategy, and courtly love) as those from the future would their ancestors. This is a theme for which I have much sympathy (as do many others, if "Downton Abbey" is anything to go by). Also touches on cryoethics and questions of autonomy and personality. Put it down with a renewed interest in Latin and a thought of sampling the author's Greatwinter trilogy, which appears to have received better notices.
I started this book in high school and remembered it being much more exciting than it was. I must not have finished it then, because I didn't remember anything about the ending when I read it this time around. As a concept, the book is absolutely fantastic - I love the idea of seeing a citizen of the Roman empire suddenly thrust into the 21st century - but the execution for this novel was difficult for me to read. The pacing made the exciting portions unexpected and confusing, and I had trouble figuring out the reasons for everyone's double- and triple-motives with regards to the centurion. By the time I finally made it to the end, I began expecting chaos to ensue not because it made sense for the plot, but because it had been nothing but unexplained chaos up until that point.
