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Sol Limitis
367 AD - A battle-hardened soldier is sent to the frozen north of Britannia on a personal mission from the Emperor. Conducting a desperate investigation from a hostile garrison on the crumbling frontier of Hadrian’s Wall, Atellus must struggle to survive in a wild and lawless land torn apart by the death throes of an over-stretched empire.
Set in Roman Britain in 367 AD – a time when the far provinces are sliding out of the Empire’s control, and the division between ‘Roman’ and ‘Barbarian’ is almost non-existent – Sol Limitis (‘Sun of the Frontier’) is the prelude to a series of events which led to the historical ‘Barbarian Incursion.’
Atellus - a troubled campaign veteran and close friend of the emperor Valentinian - is sent to Britannia to investigate the disappearance of children from Aesica, a garrison fort on Hadrian’s Wall. Arriving in the midst of a frozen winter to a hostile reception, Atellus uncovers a plot that threatens the already-fragile foundations of the entire province. With the help of Calidus ,the Governor’s wayward nephew, and Aurelia, one of the Emperor’s senior spies in Britannia, Atellus must use all his skill and resilience to survive and help to thwart treachery and murder at the very limits of the empire.
A raw and uncompromising novel of action and intrigue in Roman Britain, Sol Limitis is a unique and immersive work set in a well-crafted and brutally realistic vision of the past.
Set in Roman Britain in 367 AD – a time when the far provinces are sliding out of the Empire’s control, and the division between ‘Roman’ and ‘Barbarian’ is almost non-existent – Sol Limitis (‘Sun of the Frontier’) is the prelude to a series of events which led to the historical ‘Barbarian Incursion.’
Atellus - a troubled campaign veteran and close friend of the emperor Valentinian - is sent to Britannia to investigate the disappearance of children from Aesica, a garrison fort on Hadrian’s Wall. Arriving in the midst of a frozen winter to a hostile reception, Atellus uncovers a plot that threatens the already-fragile foundations of the entire province. With the help of Calidus ,the Governor’s wayward nephew, and Aurelia, one of the Emperor’s senior spies in Britannia, Atellus must use all his skill and resilience to survive and help to thwart treachery and murder at the very limits of the empire.
A raw and uncompromising novel of action and intrigue in Roman Britain, Sol Limitis is a unique and immersive work set in a well-crafted and brutally realistic vision of the past.
560 pages, ebook
Published February 8, 2016
1 person is currently reading
6 people want to read
About the author
James Collins
1 book10 followersJames Collins is an author, editor, freelance journalist and recovering archaeologist. Born in Stoke on Trent in 1979, he studied archaeology at the University of Nottingham and went on to work as an archaeologist in the UK and abroad. Tired of wallowing in muddy holes for a living, he survived various unsavoury menial jobs before catching his breath in the construction and renewables industries for more years than was healthy. He is currently working towards being self-employed and to be able to get paid for doing what he loves: writing. James also plays and teaches classical guitar and spends most of his spare time studying the Daoist arts.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 19, 2016
Sol Limitis is not the sort of book that I would normally pick up and read. I’m all for historical fiction but this is definitely what I would categorise as a ‘boy book’, full of action and violence, soldiers and battles, gory, graphic descriptions of scenarios you would certainly never wish to find yourself in. But I thought I would give it a go. And I was most pleasantly surprised.
This is not to say that this novel does not encompass all of the aspects I have just bemoaned above – don’t be put off, boys! – but it is so well written that all is forgiven. From the plot to the characters and the settings to the descriptive language, it is very readable and very consuming.
Every sentence is beautifully thought out. It is poetically descriptive, whether of a character or their actions or of a place and includes sounds and smells that bring the story to life. I felt the characters’ pain and their struggles as if I was the one battling against the enemy or through the cold. For someone whose eyes glaze over at the battle scenes in the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies, I found that my attention was held. To me, it is a written equivalent of the ‘road movie’, taking the reader on many long and gruelling journeys through cold and unforgiving landscapes. But it never becomes repetitive. I found myself going along willingly for the ride - or even the brutally long walks with very little sustenance and with danger at every turn. It keeps moving and keeps the reader moving too.
My favourite thing about Sol Limitis, though, is the development of the characters and the highly convincing and moving bonds that form between them. They are very real and rich with depth of personality. The ‘heroes’, Atellus and Calidus among them, are flawed in ways that make them all the more endearing and even the characters that would appear at first glance to be completely unlovable – whoremongers Rodius and Vassu in particular - won my affections.
Aurelia is a brilliantly strong female character in a world of men who see women as objects and treat them despicably. For me, the writer successfully dodges any accusations of misogyny, even while many of his characters display that trait. As a female reader, the scenes of graphic violence towards women and girls make for uncomfortable reading. However, there is no sense of endorsement of these actions in Collins’ tone – they are told baldly, without glamour or celebration - nor of disrespect for the female characters in question. These scenes come across as necessary to a realistic portrayal of the cruel and brutal times in which Britannia found itself at this point in Roman history.
If I must find fault with this novel, it would simply be the slight excess of typographical errors. But they did not take away from my enjoyment of the writing which is, after all, what counts. This writer knows how to write, how to bring the ideas and characters in his head to life, how to draw the reader in and how to reward them with a hugely satisfying ending (of part one, at least) for their travails and hardships along the journey that is Sol Limitis.
This is not to say that this novel does not encompass all of the aspects I have just bemoaned above – don’t be put off, boys! – but it is so well written that all is forgiven. From the plot to the characters and the settings to the descriptive language, it is very readable and very consuming.
Every sentence is beautifully thought out. It is poetically descriptive, whether of a character or their actions or of a place and includes sounds and smells that bring the story to life. I felt the characters’ pain and their struggles as if I was the one battling against the enemy or through the cold. For someone whose eyes glaze over at the battle scenes in the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies, I found that my attention was held. To me, it is a written equivalent of the ‘road movie’, taking the reader on many long and gruelling journeys through cold and unforgiving landscapes. But it never becomes repetitive. I found myself going along willingly for the ride - or even the brutally long walks with very little sustenance and with danger at every turn. It keeps moving and keeps the reader moving too.
My favourite thing about Sol Limitis, though, is the development of the characters and the highly convincing and moving bonds that form between them. They are very real and rich with depth of personality. The ‘heroes’, Atellus and Calidus among them, are flawed in ways that make them all the more endearing and even the characters that would appear at first glance to be completely unlovable – whoremongers Rodius and Vassu in particular - won my affections.
Aurelia is a brilliantly strong female character in a world of men who see women as objects and treat them despicably. For me, the writer successfully dodges any accusations of misogyny, even while many of his characters display that trait. As a female reader, the scenes of graphic violence towards women and girls make for uncomfortable reading. However, there is no sense of endorsement of these actions in Collins’ tone – they are told baldly, without glamour or celebration - nor of disrespect for the female characters in question. These scenes come across as necessary to a realistic portrayal of the cruel and brutal times in which Britannia found itself at this point in Roman history.
If I must find fault with this novel, it would simply be the slight excess of typographical errors. But they did not take away from my enjoyment of the writing which is, after all, what counts. This writer knows how to write, how to bring the ideas and characters in his head to life, how to draw the reader in and how to reward them with a hugely satisfying ending (of part one, at least) for their travails and hardships along the journey that is Sol Limitis.
February 1, 2016
Wow. Sol Limitis is one of those rare novels that engrosses you while reading and still lingers long after turning the final page. Is it an easy read? Absolutely not. It’s tough and brutal and relentless so that by the end you feel as exhausted as the main characters. But is it worth it? Absolutely.
So Limitis is set in late roman Britain at a time when the country is ravaged by lawlessness and most semblance of roman rule is long since departed. Most of the novel takes place on the frontier (the ‘limitis’ of the title) of hadrian’s wall, whose erosion (both literal and figurative) features as a dominant theme throughout the book. Atellus is an agent sent from the emperor to look into child abduction cases in a village near the wall. Although this key theme expands throughout the chapters, the novel mainly concerns itself with the struggle of life at the edge of empire and the threats that assail the inhabitants from all sides. Atellus plays largely witness to these events, having not much personal influence as to what happens around him. This futility (how much can one man do?) is key to the book, and is a part of the larger realism within the writing. The plot moves along at a good pace and the characters are well drawn and believeable. Aurelia, a key spy who is working for the emperor but falls on hard times throughout the book, stands out as a powerful and empowering female character who can show she is just as tough as the men and the times she lives in. Everyone is fair game throughout the book, everyone is just as susceptible to the whims of fate and cruelty be they man woman, boy or girl.
This leads me on to the language: this is a beautiful, jaw-dropping book: the language is atmospheric and descriptive, even to the point – when dealing with injuries or deaths or assaults – of being painful to read. You can feel every crunch of every weapon, and every injury or action has meaning – and the reader feels it. Which is how it should be. There is no sugar-coating here. The language is so vivid and deep that the reader is really sucked into the book – even if that is not a place they want to be!
The book is not withouht its faults: sometimes the plot gets confusing, especially in some exposition towards the end, and the endless bleakness and violence can occasionally get tiring. And Atellus, though a charismatic and interesting protagonist, is not exactly likeable. But then this all contributes to the realism of the novel: sometimes ‘good’ people aren’t particulary ‘nice’ people. And whenever the bleakness gets too trying, there is always some fantastic prose around the corner to lift the reader up.
I look forward to the sequels. Highly recommended.
(I was given a pre-release copy of this book in exchange for a review).
So Limitis is set in late roman Britain at a time when the country is ravaged by lawlessness and most semblance of roman rule is long since departed. Most of the novel takes place on the frontier (the ‘limitis’ of the title) of hadrian’s wall, whose erosion (both literal and figurative) features as a dominant theme throughout the book. Atellus is an agent sent from the emperor to look into child abduction cases in a village near the wall. Although this key theme expands throughout the chapters, the novel mainly concerns itself with the struggle of life at the edge of empire and the threats that assail the inhabitants from all sides. Atellus plays largely witness to these events, having not much personal influence as to what happens around him. This futility (how much can one man do?) is key to the book, and is a part of the larger realism within the writing. The plot moves along at a good pace and the characters are well drawn and believeable. Aurelia, a key spy who is working for the emperor but falls on hard times throughout the book, stands out as a powerful and empowering female character who can show she is just as tough as the men and the times she lives in. Everyone is fair game throughout the book, everyone is just as susceptible to the whims of fate and cruelty be they man woman, boy or girl.
This leads me on to the language: this is a beautiful, jaw-dropping book: the language is atmospheric and descriptive, even to the point – when dealing with injuries or deaths or assaults – of being painful to read. You can feel every crunch of every weapon, and every injury or action has meaning – and the reader feels it. Which is how it should be. There is no sugar-coating here. The language is so vivid and deep that the reader is really sucked into the book – even if that is not a place they want to be!
The book is not withouht its faults: sometimes the plot gets confusing, especially in some exposition towards the end, and the endless bleakness and violence can occasionally get tiring. And Atellus, though a charismatic and interesting protagonist, is not exactly likeable. But then this all contributes to the realism of the novel: sometimes ‘good’ people aren’t particulary ‘nice’ people. And whenever the bleakness gets too trying, there is always some fantastic prose around the corner to lift the reader up.
I look forward to the sequels. Highly recommended.
(I was given a pre-release copy of this book in exchange for a review).
January 31, 2016
There is a series airing on PBS right now called “Filthy Cities of the World.” After watching a couple of installments and coming away with nothing but a few interesting historical facts and a queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach, I stopped watching. But there are some people who enjoy this sort of thing, and Sol Limitis is for them.
This novel is historical fiction. The hero, Atellus, is probably based on the representative the Emperor Valentinian sent to Britain to investigate the Great Conspiracy, an alliance of barbarian tribes that threatened Roman power in the whole island in 367 AD. The story chronicles his attempts to find out what is going on around Hadrian’s Wall, and to sort through the nets of treachery, perfidy, and treason that interlace the wintry countryside.
His main technique for accomplishing this aim is to get into innumerable fights, which he always loses. No matter how bloody the brawl and how many people are killed, he invariably ends up knocked unconscious. From which he awakens in the next chapter to stagger on into further treachery. And that pretty much sums up the plot.
The main strength of this author’s writing is in description and creation of atmosphere. Unfortunately, it is far too much of a good thing. As you read, you start with admiration at the depth and intensity of the mood. After you have endured several chapters of cold, snow, poverty, and violence, you begin to feel rather overwhelmed. When the cold, depravity, and filth continue for more chapters and very little happens except fights, brawls and rapes, you begin to wonder.
And after a long while, when you pass the fourth child freezing to death in the snow and wade once more through the filth and stench of yet another unrecognizable northern town, you realize that this writing is basically pornography of violence. Every element of the story: plot, characters, conflict, is there only as an excuse for the description of violence, depravity, treachery, poverty, filth, disease, (did I say cold?) rape, murder and innumerable coils of purple guts spewing across the snow.
Besides this great imbalance the writing is fairly strong, although it would benefit from one further proofread. I did find the use of Latin words and phrases to be a bit over the top, to the point of obscuring the meaning of the story at times. This writer has definitely done his research.
Recommended only for those who like their historical fiction hyper-realistic.
This novel is historical fiction. The hero, Atellus, is probably based on the representative the Emperor Valentinian sent to Britain to investigate the Great Conspiracy, an alliance of barbarian tribes that threatened Roman power in the whole island in 367 AD. The story chronicles his attempts to find out what is going on around Hadrian’s Wall, and to sort through the nets of treachery, perfidy, and treason that interlace the wintry countryside.
His main technique for accomplishing this aim is to get into innumerable fights, which he always loses. No matter how bloody the brawl and how many people are killed, he invariably ends up knocked unconscious. From which he awakens in the next chapter to stagger on into further treachery. And that pretty much sums up the plot.
The main strength of this author’s writing is in description and creation of atmosphere. Unfortunately, it is far too much of a good thing. As you read, you start with admiration at the depth and intensity of the mood. After you have endured several chapters of cold, snow, poverty, and violence, you begin to feel rather overwhelmed. When the cold, depravity, and filth continue for more chapters and very little happens except fights, brawls and rapes, you begin to wonder.
And after a long while, when you pass the fourth child freezing to death in the snow and wade once more through the filth and stench of yet another unrecognizable northern town, you realize that this writing is basically pornography of violence. Every element of the story: plot, characters, conflict, is there only as an excuse for the description of violence, depravity, treachery, poverty, filth, disease, (did I say cold?) rape, murder and innumerable coils of purple guts spewing across the snow.
Besides this great imbalance the writing is fairly strong, although it would benefit from one further proofread. I did find the use of Latin words and phrases to be a bit over the top, to the point of obscuring the meaning of the story at times. This writer has definitely done his research.
Recommended only for those who like their historical fiction hyper-realistic.
December 13, 2018
Detailed, brutal, and authentic fictional account of a historical (non-fictional) event. “The Great Conspiracy” Roman Britain in the mid 4th century was the far distant edge of the civilized world, before the Angles and Saxons came en mass, before the Legions were pulled out of the island province and Western Roman Empire crumbled under its own weight, the signs of decay were apparent all throughout Briton.
You can tell the author is a historian and archaeologist from the little things that stick with you. The incredible poverty and chaos existing within spitting distance to the grandeur of the Roman administrative state. The once wealthy cities surrounded by the abandoned mansions of wealthy merchants long since departed.
The people are harsh and desperate, starving, crime is rampant, brigands of Roman Army deserters stalk the woods and ransack villages and farms in a frozen bitterly cold landscape. There is little justice, the weak are preyed upon constantly, grisly scenes come about in frightening regularity.
The military machine itself has devolved into something almost unrecognizable, no standard uniforms, the ranks filled with the same barbarians that they were supposedly holding the line against.
The story itself is interesting enough, told through the main character who is a high ranking military official from the far side of the empire, as he works on behalf of the emperor to find out if the rumors of conspiracy are true. The final destination being “The Wall”. The giant edifice built hundreds of years before by Hadrian. The Wall serves to represent the boundary between the civilized world and the frontier. The mood of the book works well to represent not just the chaos of the Great Conspiracy, but it also foreshadows the very near end of the world and the collapse of the Western Roman Empire into the darkness of the Early Middle Ages, that lie just a few years beyond the time of this story.
Sol Limitus is the first is a 3 book series, but I’m still looking for the follow up sequels to this gem.
You can tell the author is a historian and archaeologist from the little things that stick with you. The incredible poverty and chaos existing within spitting distance to the grandeur of the Roman administrative state. The once wealthy cities surrounded by the abandoned mansions of wealthy merchants long since departed.
The people are harsh and desperate, starving, crime is rampant, brigands of Roman Army deserters stalk the woods and ransack villages and farms in a frozen bitterly cold landscape. There is little justice, the weak are preyed upon constantly, grisly scenes come about in frightening regularity.
The military machine itself has devolved into something almost unrecognizable, no standard uniforms, the ranks filled with the same barbarians that they were supposedly holding the line against.
The story itself is interesting enough, told through the main character who is a high ranking military official from the far side of the empire, as he works on behalf of the emperor to find out if the rumors of conspiracy are true. The final destination being “The Wall”. The giant edifice built hundreds of years before by Hadrian. The Wall serves to represent the boundary between the civilized world and the frontier. The mood of the book works well to represent not just the chaos of the Great Conspiracy, but it also foreshadows the very near end of the world and the collapse of the Western Roman Empire into the darkness of the Early Middle Ages, that lie just a few years beyond the time of this story.
Sol Limitus is the first is a 3 book series, but I’m still looking for the follow up sequels to this gem.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews