KING OF THE ROMANS

Stuart Langton spiffs up this trite (“she felt him inside her”) war story about Syagrius, a Roman, who was not a king, but a procurator, in a Gallic province two thousand years ago. The story, although intended to be historical literature, lacks convincing and fascinating details about how the Roman armies fought. By means of sadistic torture scenes and decapitations in battle, the author gives Stuart Langton a mountain of fodder for the unique voices and inflections he creates as he brings the novel’s characters to life. Langton punctuates sentences by extending the last word of each, and portrays women with an oxymoronic “bass falsetto” voice. J. A. H. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB / MAR 03]