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Kaiserkrieger #4
The Emperor's Men 4: Uprising
The travellers from the future have barely gained a foothold in the Roman Empire, when their opponents already gather their forces and get in place for a counterattack. Troops are ready, campaigns are planned, and battles are prepared – the storm, which is about to rise, threatens to shake the Empire to its foundations. Everything the time-travellers wanted to change is in great danger. The uprising against everything Rheinberg and his followers have committed themselves to is imminent.
272 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 1, 2012
37 people are currently reading
10 people want to read
About the author
Dirk van den Boom
199 books41 followersDirk Andreas van den Boom is a German political scientist, science fiction writer and translator. He Professor Political Sciences at the University of Münster, Germany since 2012.
He published both reference books in the field of political science and SF books.
He published both reference books in the field of political science and SF books.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 15, 2021
Poor editing and translation
Truly horrible editing and translation continue to mar this series. Adventure, intrigue, politics, theology, revolution, romance and history could make for an interesting story but as is, it is difficult to read and enjoy. The author and publishers need to find someone to edit and translate the English volumes into real English.
Truly horrible editing and translation continue to mar this series. Adventure, intrigue, politics, theology, revolution, romance and history could make for an interesting story but as is, it is difficult to read and enjoy. The author and publishers need to find someone to edit and translate the English volumes into real English.
August 24, 2018
John Schettler and Harry Turtledove meet the Romans
Enjoying these books is a guilty pleasure, like eating chocolate when one is a diabetic. The theme of time travel involving a ship is one John Schettler has explored in more than 35 volumes of The Kirov series. The Kirov is conveniently nuclear powered. Mr van den Boom's 1914 German light cruiser Saarbrucken is coal fired. The Kirov spends most its time in 1908 and 1941-2: the Saarbrucken finds itself in 378AD, leaving Kiel jn July 1914 a few weeks before the outbreak of WW1 bound for the German colony of Cameroons.
Off the Portuguese coast the Saarbrucken enters an unusual fogbank, fog being uncommon off the coast of Portugal in mid summer. It emerges in the Adriatic in 378 and the opening scenes are quite enjoyable.
The writing is quite good. The characters are gradually developed through the books. The principal characters are the officers and crew of the Saarbrucken which are reinforced by a company of troops with as much extra gear as would fit on the ship. The plot is a mix of standard devices and some original ones.
The construction of the books remind me of Harry Turtledove, with the perspective of each new changing to that of a mix of rotating and new characters. Eric Flint's 1632 series books are technically better written and have spawned a whole fanverse, with which I suspect van den Boom has some familiarity. He certainly deals with the issues of retrofitting technology to the distant past quite well, albeit in less detail than 1632.
The author is not so neutral as Turtledove in his treatment of characters. The baddies are pretty bad but the goodies are not perfect and with a couple of exceptions, more progressve than I expect most German (or any other) naval officers were at the time. Van den Boom kills off characters every so often but he is no George R R Martin. He has clearly done a lot of research and his Latin is quite passable, although historical wargamers might want more detailed battle descriptions.
The Roman and other period characters are plausible. The concept of a bishop as a bad guy is rather droll and the cleverness of some of the plotting and planning impresses. Some of them would have done well as Liberal politicians in Australia in the 21st century.
Some reviewers have slammed the translation: the fourth of the books is by far the worst. Whomever has done the translations is clearly not a native English speaker and the occasional sentence jars with ugly constructions. I suspect the books were written quickly, and translated quickly, but I have read far far worse from English speaking authors.
What is far worse is the complete absence of maps and illustrations. I know publishers dislike them but with modern books they are easy to integrate. A glossary of Roman and modern place names would make the books easier to read and follow. Diagrams of the battles would also be useful.
Overall i think the series shows promise devotees of alternate history may enjoy them as much as I did.
Enjoying these books is a guilty pleasure, like eating chocolate when one is a diabetic. The theme of time travel involving a ship is one John Schettler has explored in more than 35 volumes of The Kirov series. The Kirov is conveniently nuclear powered. Mr van den Boom's 1914 German light cruiser Saarbrucken is coal fired. The Kirov spends most its time in 1908 and 1941-2: the Saarbrucken finds itself in 378AD, leaving Kiel jn July 1914 a few weeks before the outbreak of WW1 bound for the German colony of Cameroons.
Off the Portuguese coast the Saarbrucken enters an unusual fogbank, fog being uncommon off the coast of Portugal in mid summer. It emerges in the Adriatic in 378 and the opening scenes are quite enjoyable.
The writing is quite good. The characters are gradually developed through the books. The principal characters are the officers and crew of the Saarbrucken which are reinforced by a company of troops with as much extra gear as would fit on the ship. The plot is a mix of standard devices and some original ones.
The construction of the books remind me of Harry Turtledove, with the perspective of each new changing to that of a mix of rotating and new characters. Eric Flint's 1632 series books are technically better written and have spawned a whole fanverse, with which I suspect van den Boom has some familiarity. He certainly deals with the issues of retrofitting technology to the distant past quite well, albeit in less detail than 1632.
The author is not so neutral as Turtledove in his treatment of characters. The baddies are pretty bad but the goodies are not perfect and with a couple of exceptions, more progressve than I expect most German (or any other) naval officers were at the time. Van den Boom kills off characters every so often but he is no George R R Martin. He has clearly done a lot of research and his Latin is quite passable, although historical wargamers might want more detailed battle descriptions.
The Roman and other period characters are plausible. The concept of a bishop as a bad guy is rather droll and the cleverness of some of the plotting and planning impresses. Some of them would have done well as Liberal politicians in Australia in the 21st century.
Some reviewers have slammed the translation: the fourth of the books is by far the worst. Whomever has done the translations is clearly not a native English speaker and the occasional sentence jars with ugly constructions. I suspect the books were written quickly, and translated quickly, but I have read far far worse from English speaking authors.
What is far worse is the complete absence of maps and illustrations. I know publishers dislike them but with modern books they are easy to integrate. A glossary of Roman and modern place names would make the books easier to read and follow. Diagrams of the battles would also be useful.
Overall i think the series shows promise devotees of alternate history may enjoy them as much as I did.
July 3, 2018
The action moves forward.
There's quite a few situation changes in there, but the main plot advances: our time-displaced germans finally secure their supply of coffee! There's also a few deaths, redemption, and other points like the rebellion from Maximus, but coffee is now safe...
Will the Roman empire keeps on falling? The fate still hangs in the balance.
There's quite a few situation changes in there, but the main plot advances: our time-displaced germans finally secure their supply of coffee! There's also a few deaths, redemption, and other points like the rebellion from Maximus, but coffee is now safe...
Will the Roman empire keeps on falling? The fate still hangs in the balance.
July 20, 2021
First read it in German, ended up buying first 6-7 books of the series despite not being too good with German. Translation into English could use better quality, story itself is better than most..
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews