The 1500 year spree

There is an argument (made by Harlan Ellison among others) that Robert Silverberg did all his best work in the 1960s and 70s. There were some great novels from that time. But they didn't sell in huge volumes and Silverberg took some time out from writing to assess things. He came back and wrote the Marjipoor books and it was all downhill from there. He may have sold better, but the books never got the critical regard that the earlier work did. When I heard this expressed by Harlan I was quite sceptical - I mean, consider the source. But when I went through a Silverberg bibliography, it was true for me too - all my favourite Silverberg titles came from before the publishing of Lord Valentine's Castle.

So what then to make of Roma Eterna - something quite recent and therefore a long way down the supposed quality slope. Sadly, I found it pretty ordinary. Hard to believe it came from the man who wrote Dying Inside or Nightwings. Roma Eterna isn't bad. It just isn't in any way special.

Roma Eterna is an alternate history of the "Rome never fell" school. In fact, it is a series of connected tales - a fixup of short stories. That is a problem in itself. Each of the short stories contains a recap of the alternative scenario. It gets a bit repetative and could really have done with a proper edit if this book is to be put forward a a single work. I'm not sure it would have helped that much though.