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From Darkness
In the first century BC, under the backdrop of actual historical events, a series of characters from all walks of life struggle with their circumstances:
- Their old life destroyed, a young Numidian and his nephew sign up as auxiliary archers for the Roman legions and ship out to Hispania
- Their homeland overrun, the fierce Celtic men and women warriors of a small clan of the Gallic Aedui nation see Caesar and his legions as the last hope for them and their families.
- A young freed-woman in the Italian countryside needs her brother the most when he's far away, fighting for the Ninth Legion in Gallia
- Their old life destroyed, a young Numidian and his nephew sign up as auxiliary archers for the Roman legions and ship out to Hispania
- Their homeland overrun, the fierce Celtic men and women warriors of a small clan of the Gallic Aedui nation see Caesar and his legions as the last hope for them and their families.
- A young freed-woman in the Italian countryside needs her brother the most when he's far away, fighting for the Ninth Legion in Gallia
- Julius Caesar's early personal life and history are the anchor for various converging storylines
As destinies interweave with the Ninth legion's history, the need for community and belonging unites people across different cultures.
430 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 21, 2019
About the author
C.K. Ruppelt
1 book5 followersC.K. Ruppelt lives in Oregon with his wife and two children. After spending most of his work life as a Mechanical Design Engineer, he dabbled for a few years in Program Management before moving on to Product Reliability. His penchant for historical fiction is based on growing up in Europe surrounded by ancient sites, coupled with several years of high-school Latin. He considers himself very lucky for discovering his passion for storytelling and wants to keep writing for the rest of his life.
Please check out his personal website at www.ruppelt-pdx.com where much support material for his work can be found.
Please check out his personal website at www.ruppelt-pdx.com where much support material for his work can be found.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 18, 2021
Caesar
I'm not a big Caesar fan. But I kept a open mnde. I'll say this the writing wrote a very interesting story. If you like Caesar fan give it a go.
I'm not a big Caesar fan. But I kept a open mnde. I'll say this the writing wrote a very interesting story. If you like Caesar fan give it a go.
February 24, 2022
A Bit Ragged, but OK
This is a book intended for older teens younger 20s looking for simple answers in simple explanations on Rome late Republic., And how they are organized. Also there is some fairly decent handling of the politics of the time, again simpler rather than complex and much easier to understand than some of the very literary terms of the ancient historians.
The handling of the primary characters and the time frames for moving forward through the book, can be somewhat confusing, however. The author chose specific time hacks over a period of decades that he decided to use as ask within the scenes that would easily be put into cinema form. And by and large does a fairly good job of it.
I didn’t particularly find it comfortable to jump several years along through the book. It appears to me this book is not the first of a group of stories like mini authors do. I guess that’s the reason why he chose to jump that way. Again it’s just a choice the author made but I find it not always convenient M comfortable leaving out large sections of also very important.‘s during the winning age of the Republic.
One thing this style of book illustrated, and how the author described details, he focused on the cultural and societal standpoint aspects of Rome. . Obviously Rome’s Republic borrowed 90% of what it did from the Greeks. That isn’t always acknowledged, but this author did, at least to a degree.
Still the Romans were known to be extremely arrogant and although they considered themselves civilized, were true barbarians in their heart. They could out slaughter anybody, given the chance, better armaments and numbers against the free Celtii tribes. The author did give humanity to some of the characters, some which was quite good to show both the evil and good within humans, but sometimes it got a little pedantic in a little bit too preachy.
A couple of examples are the homosexual proclivities of some of the characters, and really didn’t do anything to move the plot forward. It seemed a little bit too gratuitous. Also, any of the barbarian tribes the Romans ran across were pretty much trampled into the soil by Caesar and his ‘guys.’
Even some characters shown to be humans, didn’t really seem to care about anything other than dismembering and dispatching any one they faced with a man woman or child. That was a little discouraging too.
Overall, the book wasn’t bad but I didn’t like the unevenness of the flow of the story and the implication, be it ever so broad, that the Romans were superior to the freedom loving Celtic tribes fighting against Rome. Especially since Rome was driven by an overweening desire for more money and power…and other such feet-of-clay morality.
This is a book intended for older teens younger 20s looking for simple answers in simple explanations on Rome late Republic., And how they are organized. Also there is some fairly decent handling of the politics of the time, again simpler rather than complex and much easier to understand than some of the very literary terms of the ancient historians.
The handling of the primary characters and the time frames for moving forward through the book, can be somewhat confusing, however. The author chose specific time hacks over a period of decades that he decided to use as ask within the scenes that would easily be put into cinema form. And by and large does a fairly good job of it.
I didn’t particularly find it comfortable to jump several years along through the book. It appears to me this book is not the first of a group of stories like mini authors do. I guess that’s the reason why he chose to jump that way. Again it’s just a choice the author made but I find it not always convenient M comfortable leaving out large sections of also very important.‘s during the winning age of the Republic.
One thing this style of book illustrated, and how the author described details, he focused on the cultural and societal standpoint aspects of Rome. . Obviously Rome’s Republic borrowed 90% of what it did from the Greeks. That isn’t always acknowledged, but this author did, at least to a degree.
Still the Romans were known to be extremely arrogant and although they considered themselves civilized, were true barbarians in their heart. They could out slaughter anybody, given the chance, better armaments and numbers against the free Celtii tribes. The author did give humanity to some of the characters, some which was quite good to show both the evil and good within humans, but sometimes it got a little pedantic in a little bit too preachy.
A couple of examples are the homosexual proclivities of some of the characters, and really didn’t do anything to move the plot forward. It seemed a little bit too gratuitous. Also, any of the barbarian tribes the Romans ran across were pretty much trampled into the soil by Caesar and his ‘guys.’
Even some characters shown to be humans, didn’t really seem to care about anything other than dismembering and dispatching any one they faced with a man woman or child. That was a little discouraging too.
Overall, the book wasn’t bad but I didn’t like the unevenness of the flow of the story and the implication, be it ever so broad, that the Romans were superior to the freedom loving Celtic tribes fighting against Rome. Especially since Rome was driven by an overweening desire for more money and power…and other such feet-of-clay morality.
May 13, 2019
I'm a WWII history buff and I generally read three kinds of books - WWII military history (like Rick Atkinson's Liberation Trilogy), literary fiction, and some science fiction. Frankly, I picked this book up as a bit of a lark on the recommendation of a friend who knows my interest in military history and thought I might like to give historical fiction a whirl.
I was pleasantly surprised with the detail in this book, both at the historical and character levels. In many ways, I felt I got to see a bit of that world through the eyes of the people there at the time. This has happened me before with books like 'The Pacific' and 'Band of Brothers' regarding WWII but this was a period very poorly known to me.
The author (C. Ruppelt) does a great job of using dialogue between the well-developed characters to give one a read on what is happening versus being told what is happening. That was refreshing for me and it is inspiring me to look for more historical fiction at the intersection of military history like this. Seeing one new theater of battle (Hispania in the time of the Romans vs. the Celts) in this way was really eye-opening.
The author's attention to detail in maps and things like combat tactics (including underlying training) and strategy (battlefield movements) underscored the amount of research that must have gone into this book.
In short, I highly recommend this book. I think it will be of exceptional interest with those already well-versed in the well-trod history of the Roman Empire, but can prove to be a great introduction to it and historical fiction for a reader like me.
I was pleasantly surprised with the detail in this book, both at the historical and character levels. In many ways, I felt I got to see a bit of that world through the eyes of the people there at the time. This has happened me before with books like 'The Pacific' and 'Band of Brothers' regarding WWII but this was a period very poorly known to me.
The author (C. Ruppelt) does a great job of using dialogue between the well-developed characters to give one a read on what is happening versus being told what is happening. That was refreshing for me and it is inspiring me to look for more historical fiction at the intersection of military history like this. Seeing one new theater of battle (Hispania in the time of the Romans vs. the Celts) in this way was really eye-opening.
The author's attention to detail in maps and things like combat tactics (including underlying training) and strategy (battlefield movements) underscored the amount of research that must have gone into this book.
In short, I highly recommend this book. I think it will be of exceptional interest with those already well-versed in the well-trod history of the Roman Empire, but can prove to be a great introduction to it and historical fiction for a reader like me.
June 27, 2019
Solid effort by a new author delivering interesting characters and storylines of various people that all get attached in some way to Caesar’s Ninth legion. There are several Roman characters including a centurion, the people around Caesar, a legionary and his unlucky sister that come in a bit later, but also two Numidian archers that become main stars, a strong Celtic woman and her friends and family, and a young Greek archer that happens to be gay, to name a few others. The first quarter or so mainly focuses on a young Caesar. This does most of the world-building to bring the reader up to speed on the politics of Roman expansion of the time, and to explain Caesar’s motivations. After that the other characters come more and more into play and the tone of the book slowly changes from their background stories to them finding their way, with plenty of action and battle scenes and some thought-provoking bits thrown in for good measure.
March 25, 2019
A good read ! I was fascinated with the details of life in the Roman times.... the mechanics of how the Roman Legions lived and traveled, the politics. I especially liked the details of the moving city that traveled with the Roman Legion. I hope there is a sequel with some of the same characters and story lines. I thoroughly enjoyed them.
April 9, 2022
I really enjoyed this book. A novella, first in the series. Encompassing several story arcs coming together in exciting fashion. Ruppelt manages to balance exciting character development with historical content. Viewing the story through the eyes of the characters and what is actually happening at the same time.
I read this book during a very busy time in my life. The read was surprisingly easy going, without being oversimplified. Sometimes uncommon to the genre. The book contains lovely maps and other diagrams to help explain war tactics. Something I really love in books.
I recommend this book to anyone looking for some good storytelling. Whether you're a Roman empire buff or not.
Bring on book 2.
I read this book during a very busy time in my life. The read was surprisingly easy going, without being oversimplified. Sometimes uncommon to the genre. The book contains lovely maps and other diagrams to help explain war tactics. Something I really love in books.
I recommend this book to anyone looking for some good storytelling. Whether you're a Roman empire buff or not.
Bring on book 2.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews