Roman Rhapsody Firedrake’s Weyr

REVIEWED BY:

SCORE:

Author: Rita Trevalyan
Publisher: Firedrake’s Weyr

REVIEW:

Olivia, a rich housewife, has sexy dreams about a hunky gladiator in ancient Rome. At 42 she’s still sexy and desirable, although with her children grown-up and gone, she has little to occupy her time except fund-raising, tennis matches and shopping with her friends. She’s drifted away from her husband, Donald, who’s away on business so often she wonders if he’s having an affair.

Her past life and present life bear certain resemblances. In ancient Rome, during the time of Julius Caesar, Olivia is married to a man who’s constantly away. But Roman Olivia isn’t afraid to take her pleasures elsewhere. On an impulse, she decides to help a young woman who’s pregnant, taking her to the safety of the temple of Magna Mater.

Back in the present, Olivia’s routine life suddenly becomes interesting when, at a social event, she meets the modern equivalent of her gladiator. Kearney, a football player, is attracted to her, too, and they have a fling. Donald gets involved with a young woman named Caitlin, who accidentally kills her boyfriend Fred in self-defence. But Fred’s gang are determined to have revenge by any means possible, and Olivia finds her past and present lives beginning to collide.

There’s something curiously flat and lifeless about the modern-day characters. I can’t quite put my finger on why they didn’t work for me – maybe because there’s an over-abundance of detail that results in the author ‘telling’ rather than ’showing’. I suppose it could be argued that the lists of what Olivia eats, the clothes she’s wearing etc are included as a way of showing just how trivial her life has become, but it felt a bit too much like filler at times.

There are other problems too. The scene where Olivia visits her therapist becomes a ‘talking heads’ scenario rather than a dialogue between two people. The scene between Olivia and her friend Tamara, a Tarot reader, is all ‘tell’ and no ’show’. Then the characters go OOC and have a foursome, and the whole sub-plot with Fred’s murder is bizarre and completely sudden. From there the plot lurches from one drama to another, rather like the over-the-top soap opera spoof in Ugly Betty. There’s simply too much going on for this to be rational or believable, which is a real pity.

However where this story really comes alive is during the dreams of Olivia’s past life in ancient Rome. Ms Trevalyan does a good job depicting the might of the late Republic, from the gladiatorial bouts and the contempt for Christians (although historically it was a little later during the early Empire that Christians were thrown to the lions) to the social mores of the times.

There are the bones of a good story in here, but sadly it floundered under too much hysterical drama. I very much enjoyed the Roman part of the story; it was during the contemporary parts that it faltered. Just for the Roman aspect, this gets 2 Flutes.