The Boat of Fate: An Historical Novel

by Keith Roberts

Book Overview

The Boat of Fate is a historical novel set in the late Roman Empire, specifically focusing on the period around the 4th century AD. The story follows the life of a young Roman officer named Marcus who... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0130777927
• ISBN13: 9780130777928
• Release Date: January 1974
• Publisher: Not Avail
• Length: 351 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Twilight of Glory

I am a dedicated reader of Roman historical fiction, and I have read the excellent, good, mediocre, poor, and junk. This definitely falls in with the excellent, comparable with Gore Vidal's "Julian", Rosemary Sutcliffe's "Three Legions" series, and Wallace Breem's "Eagle in the Snow". It is an intensely vivid and believable recreation of the Roman world in the early fifth century. We see peaceful Iberian towns remote from the impending chaos. We see a Rome that that is still carousing, still pounding with life, still dirty, and still glorious, although the veneer has now worn thin. We see a Gaul that has been comandeered by the Germans in Roman service, but whose nobles still pretend they call the shots. Finally, we see a Britain, helpless in her peril, watching as her legions depart, but still proud to be "Roman". The people in this book seem real, not like the "cartoon characters" described in other current Roman army fiction novels, however enjoyable they are. If you want to feel what it was like to live in the Roman twilight, read this book.