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The Roman Quests #4
Return to Rome
Fourth in a new historical adventure series from million copy selling Caroline Lawrence, set in Roman Britain during the reign of the evil Emperor Domitian.
Britania. On the furthest frontier of the Roman Empire. A land of druids and barbarians.
AD 96, British orphan Bouda has been helping Juba and his sister hide from the Roman Emperor in Britania for nearly two years. When they discover information that could destroy the Emperor, Bouda agrees to return to Rome with the siblings. But is it ever right to kill a tyrant?
Britania. On the furthest frontier of the Roman Empire. A land of druids and barbarians.
AD 96, British orphan Bouda has been helping Juba and his sister hide from the Roman Emperor in Britania for nearly two years. When they discover information that could destroy the Emperor, Bouda agrees to return to Rome with the siblings. But is it ever right to kill a tyrant?
- GenresHistorical Fiction
208 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2018
6 people are currently reading
55 people want to read
About the author
Caroline Lawrence
81 books321 followersCaroline Lawrence won a scholarship to Cambridge to read Classical Archaeology, then did a degree in Hebrew and Jewish studies at University College London. She now lives in London with her English husband and teaches Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Art and French to children.
Series:
* Roman Mysteries
Western Mysteries
Series:
* Roman Mysteries
Western Mysteries
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 16, 2020
Danke an Netgalley und den Verlag für das Rezensionsexemplar!
Idee:
Mir gefiel die Aufmachung des Buches von Anfang an schon, da hat sich der Verlag etwas wirklich Tolles ausgedacht: Die Kapitelüberschriften sind alle passend zur Geschichte auf Latein und am Ende des Buches für den Leser noch einmal erklärt. Die Idee fand ich gut, um so den Leser auch etwas in die lateinische Sprache einzuführen.
Des Weiteren hat mir gut an der Idee gefallen, dass die Geschichte so erzählt ist, dass der Leser eine schöne Geschichte zu bieten bekommt, doch es liegt auch ein gewisser Fokus auf dem Lerneffekt, den man erzielen kann. Der Leser wird in die römische Geschichte Schritt für Schritt eingeführt - was für mich als Fan der römischen Antike ein weiterer Pluspunkt war.
Schreibstil:
Die Geschichte wurde so geschrieben und auch übersetzt, dass auch das ungewöhnliche Setting mit all seinen Bezeichnungen, etc. leicht zu verstehen ist und der Leser unbewusst innerhalb der Story etwas lernt.
Außerdem lässt sich die Geschichte sehr flüssig lesen, weil die Autorin alles erklärt, was dem Leser vielleicht aus der Antike noch nicht so bekannt ist. So versteht man alles und kann sich voll und ganz auf die Geschichte konzentrieren.
Spannung:
Das ist für mich das Problem an der Geschichte, weshalb ich auch keine vollen fünf Sterne vergeben kann: Der Geschichte fehlte es meiner Meinung nach oft an Spannung. Es gab Phasen, da konnte ich gar nicht mehr weiterlesen, weil mir ein bisschen Spannung gefehlt hat. Das lässt sich definitiv noch ausbauen.
Logik:
Logisch war die Handlung der Charaktere an sich für mich schon, auch wenn ich mich an der ein oder anderen Stelle gefragt habe, ob das jetzt wirklich nötig war, weil es Szenen gab, die zwar logisch erschienen, gleichzeitig - für mich - aber ziemlich unnötig waren.
Charaktertiefe:
Durch verschiedenen Erzählperspektiven bekommt der Leser ein umfassenderes Bild der Charaktere, auch wenn es mir besser gefallen hätte, wenn man mehr über Domitian erfahren hätte, als er wirklich mitspielte und nicht nur über ihn erzählt wurde.
Fazit:
Eine nette Geschichte mit Lerneffekt, auch wenn es an Spannung etwas mangelt!
3,5 Sterne
Idee:
Mir gefiel die Aufmachung des Buches von Anfang an schon, da hat sich der Verlag etwas wirklich Tolles ausgedacht: Die Kapitelüberschriften sind alle passend zur Geschichte auf Latein und am Ende des Buches für den Leser noch einmal erklärt. Die Idee fand ich gut, um so den Leser auch etwas in die lateinische Sprache einzuführen.
Des Weiteren hat mir gut an der Idee gefallen, dass die Geschichte so erzählt ist, dass der Leser eine schöne Geschichte zu bieten bekommt, doch es liegt auch ein gewisser Fokus auf dem Lerneffekt, den man erzielen kann. Der Leser wird in die römische Geschichte Schritt für Schritt eingeführt - was für mich als Fan der römischen Antike ein weiterer Pluspunkt war.
Schreibstil:
Die Geschichte wurde so geschrieben und auch übersetzt, dass auch das ungewöhnliche Setting mit all seinen Bezeichnungen, etc. leicht zu verstehen ist und der Leser unbewusst innerhalb der Story etwas lernt.
Außerdem lässt sich die Geschichte sehr flüssig lesen, weil die Autorin alles erklärt, was dem Leser vielleicht aus der Antike noch nicht so bekannt ist. So versteht man alles und kann sich voll und ganz auf die Geschichte konzentrieren.
Spannung:
Das ist für mich das Problem an der Geschichte, weshalb ich auch keine vollen fünf Sterne vergeben kann: Der Geschichte fehlte es meiner Meinung nach oft an Spannung. Es gab Phasen, da konnte ich gar nicht mehr weiterlesen, weil mir ein bisschen Spannung gefehlt hat. Das lässt sich definitiv noch ausbauen.
Logik:
Logisch war die Handlung der Charaktere an sich für mich schon, auch wenn ich mich an der ein oder anderen Stelle gefragt habe, ob das jetzt wirklich nötig war, weil es Szenen gab, die zwar logisch erschienen, gleichzeitig - für mich - aber ziemlich unnötig waren.
Charaktertiefe:
Durch verschiedenen Erzählperspektiven bekommt der Leser ein umfassenderes Bild der Charaktere, auch wenn es mir besser gefallen hätte, wenn man mehr über Domitian erfahren hätte, als er wirklich mitspielte und nicht nur über ihn erzählt wurde.
Fazit:
Eine nette Geschichte mit Lerneffekt, auch wenn es an Spannung etwas mangelt!
3,5 Sterne
January 12, 2018
First, two confessions:
1. When I was at high school, I voluntarily studied Latin until matriculation (graduation) and enjoyed it immensely. While I did not continue with Latin studies at University, I continued to use my knowledge of Latin while I studied Roman and Medieval history.
2. At the same time, my favourite relaxation reading included the historical novels of English authors such as Rosemary Sutcliffe, Cynthia Harnett, Geoffrey Trease, Henry Treece, C. Walter Hodges and Barbara Willard. I have continued to reread these works since then and have kept an eye open for more recent additions to this genre.
Therefore, I approached Caroline Lawrence's works positively disposed towards them as a genre. I am also very aware of the difficulties that face the writer of historical fiction for juveniles. These works must be good history and good fiction and, at the same time, be addressed in a meaningful way to readers who may not be predisposed to find fictional stories set in the past interesting or relevant to them.
The best works of this genre achieve this balance successfully. They involve characters that young adult readers identify with and care about, involve them in real historical events in a way that introduces those events to the reader without obviously "teaching", allows those characters to have meaningful and active roles in the historical events without distorting the historical record and awaken historical awareness in those readers. The last point needs some elaboration - as with all of the features that I have just listed, this involves a Scylla and Charybdis dilemma. On the one hand, the author must make the characters (both historical and fictional) behave in ways which are understandable to modern juvenile readers and express some of the readers’ own desires and interests; on the other hand, the very real differences not only in the physical world but also in the psychology and mentality of that world need to be explored and explained (again without "teaching").
The first of the Flavia Gemina works were more mysteries set in a past context than historical fiction. This allowed Ms Lawrence to introduce Roman culture, daily life, psychology and mentality to late childhood readers without involving the known historical record in more than a tangential way. A reader who begins at the beginning of these 17 works comes to understand the Roman world as it affected "ordinary" citizens and non-citizens before being introduced to historical characters and events. The first characters and events are also uncontroversial - natural phenomena like the eruption of Vesuvius or interesting bit players such as Pliny, uncle and nephew.
It is only in later books in that series that issues concerning historical characters and historical events of some controversy are dealt with and even then that is reduced to a relatively small focus by restricting the historical canvas to the two years of the reign of Titus.
However, the Roman Quests are different. These 4 books deal with the very controversial last years of the Emperor Domitian and the circumstances leading to his assassination and the accession of Nerva and Trajan. The fictional juvenile characters are victims of Domitian's programme of expropriation of property and the corrupt use of informers and denouncers that flourished in Domitian's reign.
Although the four works in this series are published separately, I rather feel that they are actually one integrated story and the four are best read together and in order as one work.
Viewed that way, Return to Rome is the climax and denouement of the story Juba and his family and deals specifically with the assassination of Domitian. It provides our principal characters (Juba and Bouda) with important supporting roles in the assassination plot without requiring either of them to personally perform any act for which we have historical evidence relating to that plot. Over the two year period covered by the four books, Juba, his brother Fronto and sister Ursula, as well as Bouda and the other young characters experience the terrors of loneliness and persecution and the comforts of friendship and patronage (from the now matronly Flavia Gemina) as well as going on very real emotional and spiritual journeys as they enter early adulthood. These personal issues are examined by Ms Lawrence in a sensible and realistic way, as is the potential for ordinary people to be involved in extraordinary events. The love interest which grows between Juba and Bouda is treated seriously without being schmaltzy and the personal motivations of the characters are put within the context of a Roman world and yet are believable to a modern reader.
Similarly, the culture of the world of the Flavian emperors is shown and gentlyu explained, as are some of the psychological differences between Romans of that period and modern people without making those people so different from the modern reader as to make the characters unsympathetic. In that regard, the use of the growth of the early Christian church, while perhaps more than slightly speculative, serves the useful function of providing a conceptual bridge between the Flavian Empire and the modern world by showing how different the message of Christ was to the prevailing Roman mentality.
Return to Rome is a welcome and recommended climax to be Roman Quests. It provides for the reader who enjoyed in late childhood the adventure the mystery adventures of Flavia Gemina a more sophisticated and historically challenging experience as they become young adults.
It probably doesn't need to be said but I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and recommend it to all who enjoy young adults' historical fiction.
1. When I was at high school, I voluntarily studied Latin until matriculation (graduation) and enjoyed it immensely. While I did not continue with Latin studies at University, I continued to use my knowledge of Latin while I studied Roman and Medieval history.
2. At the same time, my favourite relaxation reading included the historical novels of English authors such as Rosemary Sutcliffe, Cynthia Harnett, Geoffrey Trease, Henry Treece, C. Walter Hodges and Barbara Willard. I have continued to reread these works since then and have kept an eye open for more recent additions to this genre.
Therefore, I approached Caroline Lawrence's works positively disposed towards them as a genre. I am also very aware of the difficulties that face the writer of historical fiction for juveniles. These works must be good history and good fiction and, at the same time, be addressed in a meaningful way to readers who may not be predisposed to find fictional stories set in the past interesting or relevant to them.
The best works of this genre achieve this balance successfully. They involve characters that young adult readers identify with and care about, involve them in real historical events in a way that introduces those events to the reader without obviously "teaching", allows those characters to have meaningful and active roles in the historical events without distorting the historical record and awaken historical awareness in those readers. The last point needs some elaboration - as with all of the features that I have just listed, this involves a Scylla and Charybdis dilemma. On the one hand, the author must make the characters (both historical and fictional) behave in ways which are understandable to modern juvenile readers and express some of the readers’ own desires and interests; on the other hand, the very real differences not only in the physical world but also in the psychology and mentality of that world need to be explored and explained (again without "teaching").
The first of the Flavia Gemina works were more mysteries set in a past context than historical fiction. This allowed Ms Lawrence to introduce Roman culture, daily life, psychology and mentality to late childhood readers without involving the known historical record in more than a tangential way. A reader who begins at the beginning of these 17 works comes to understand the Roman world as it affected "ordinary" citizens and non-citizens before being introduced to historical characters and events. The first characters and events are also uncontroversial - natural phenomena like the eruption of Vesuvius or interesting bit players such as Pliny, uncle and nephew.
It is only in later books in that series that issues concerning historical characters and historical events of some controversy are dealt with and even then that is reduced to a relatively small focus by restricting the historical canvas to the two years of the reign of Titus.
However, the Roman Quests are different. These 4 books deal with the very controversial last years of the Emperor Domitian and the circumstances leading to his assassination and the accession of Nerva and Trajan. The fictional juvenile characters are victims of Domitian's programme of expropriation of property and the corrupt use of informers and denouncers that flourished in Domitian's reign.
Although the four works in this series are published separately, I rather feel that they are actually one integrated story and the four are best read together and in order as one work.
Viewed that way, Return to Rome is the climax and denouement of the story Juba and his family and deals specifically with the assassination of Domitian. It provides our principal characters (Juba and Bouda) with important supporting roles in the assassination plot without requiring either of them to personally perform any act for which we have historical evidence relating to that plot. Over the two year period covered by the four books, Juba, his brother Fronto and sister Ursula, as well as Bouda and the other young characters experience the terrors of loneliness and persecution and the comforts of friendship and patronage (from the now matronly Flavia Gemina) as well as going on very real emotional and spiritual journeys as they enter early adulthood. These personal issues are examined by Ms Lawrence in a sensible and realistic way, as is the potential for ordinary people to be involved in extraordinary events. The love interest which grows between Juba and Bouda is treated seriously without being schmaltzy and the personal motivations of the characters are put within the context of a Roman world and yet are believable to a modern reader.
Similarly, the culture of the world of the Flavian emperors is shown and gentlyu explained, as are some of the psychological differences between Romans of that period and modern people without making those people so different from the modern reader as to make the characters unsympathetic. In that regard, the use of the growth of the early Christian church, while perhaps more than slightly speculative, serves the useful function of providing a conceptual bridge between the Flavian Empire and the modern world by showing how different the message of Christ was to the prevailing Roman mentality.
Return to Rome is a welcome and recommended climax to be Roman Quests. It provides for the reader who enjoyed in late childhood the adventure the mystery adventures of Flavia Gemina a more sophisticated and historically challenging experience as they become young adults.
It probably doesn't need to be said but I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and recommend it to all who enjoy young adults' historical fiction.
September 12, 2020
How do I life knowing that I will never read new stories about all these characters? I am shook, I am happy, I have so many feelings. A fabulous end to the series. Onto the next adventure.
August 18, 2022
Die Geschichte kehrt zu ihrem Ausgangspunkt zurück – nach Rom. Die Geschwister sind älter geworden; für die römische Zeit zum Teil schon erwachsen. Und am Ende wird letztendlich alles gut.
Schade, irgendwie hatte ich mehr erwartet. Nachdem der dritte Teil schon ein wenig geschwächelt hatte fand ich den letzten Band in der Geschichte durch die Autorin zu konstruiert. Die Geschichte war zwar ganz nett, aber eben zu gestellt.
Da kam zum einen natürlich die sich bereits im Vorband angedeutete Liebesgeschichte zwischen Bouda und Juba zum Abschluss. Und die gesamte Familie wurde auch wieder zusammengeführt. Denn natürlich wurde die kleine Schwester, die sie als Säugling zu Beginn ihrer Reise zurücklassen mussten, nun als Kleinkind wiedergefunden. Und diese Zusammenführung musste dann auch unbedingt Aufhänger für den Showdown in Rom um die Ermordung Domitians zu tun haben. Für mich war das absolut zu dick aufgetragen, um ganz am Ende eine heile Welt auferstehen zu lassen, in der die Geschwister im Verlauf ihrer Abenteuer an sich selbst gewachsen und reifer geworden sind.
Nach wie vor schön fand ich die Vermittlung des römischen Zeitgeschehens und den immer noch sehr informativen Glossar am Ende des Buches.
Doch es ist, wie es ist. Die Reihe begann mit zwei sehr schönen Bänden und wurde dann irgendwie doch immer schwächer.
Schade, irgendwie hatte ich mehr erwartet. Nachdem der dritte Teil schon ein wenig geschwächelt hatte fand ich den letzten Band in der Geschichte durch die Autorin zu konstruiert. Die Geschichte war zwar ganz nett, aber eben zu gestellt.
Da kam zum einen natürlich die sich bereits im Vorband angedeutete Liebesgeschichte zwischen Bouda und Juba zum Abschluss. Und die gesamte Familie wurde auch wieder zusammengeführt. Denn natürlich wurde die kleine Schwester, die sie als Säugling zu Beginn ihrer Reise zurücklassen mussten, nun als Kleinkind wiedergefunden. Und diese Zusammenführung musste dann auch unbedingt Aufhänger für den Showdown in Rom um die Ermordung Domitians zu tun haben. Für mich war das absolut zu dick aufgetragen, um ganz am Ende eine heile Welt auferstehen zu lassen, in der die Geschwister im Verlauf ihrer Abenteuer an sich selbst gewachsen und reifer geworden sind.
Nach wie vor schön fand ich die Vermittlung des römischen Zeitgeschehens und den immer noch sehr informativen Glossar am Ende des Buches.
Doch es ist, wie es ist. Die Reihe begann mit zwei sehr schönen Bänden und wurde dann irgendwie doch immer schwächer.
April 25, 2018
I liked the description used for both the setting and the charcters. I really enjoyed how author Caroline Lawrence describes Bouda as if she were a goddess, fiercer than a lion. Just reding the first page of the prologue I knew I had to read on and find out what happens to Bouda. This is the first book of the series I’ve read and it’s made me want to read the whole series.
By Akshia
By Akshia
January 10, 2020
I really loved the ending to this book. How everything came together. I wasn't dissapointed in this last installment to the roman quests series and hope to see more from Caroline Lawrence in the future.
May 31, 2023
A fitting finish to the series
Laurence combines gripping stories, appealing characters, solid history into thoroughly enjoyable stories that I recommend to both children and adults. I am left satisfied, yet hoping she will give us another series in the future.
Laurence combines gripping stories, appealing characters, solid history into thoroughly enjoyable stories that I recommend to both children and adults. I am left satisfied, yet hoping she will give us another series in the future.
June 4, 2019
" Ubi tu gaius, ibi ego Gaia. Where you are Gaius, there will I be Gaia"
December 5, 2020
Ein sehr spannender Abschluss der Reihe.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews