Empire Without Limits

Rome never fell, thanks to time travelers from our present and their future arriving in Marcus Aurelius’s Rome. Rome eventually united the whole world under the Roman eagles and then reached out to the stars. There they found other humans and other civilizations in the ruins of an alien Fallen Empire.

Rome to the Stars (Pax Astra Book 1), a science fiction novel by S.M. Stirling and Melissa Olthoff, explores that alternate future. The Fallen Empire harvested humans from Earth to serve its needs before it disintegrated. As Rome expands into space, it absorbed some of them and fought others.

Now a new threat has arisen. Nova Fines, a one-generation-old Roman colony, has been captured by the Gra’ak, an alliance of Fallen Empire barbarians. Once a world was beneath the wings of the Eagles, it was guaranteed the protection of their talons. Emperor Marcus Verus Augustus Caesar is sending Rome’s navy and its legions to retake it.

Leading the fleet is Commander Aquila Amphion. She commanded the Wolf Squadron, a cruiser and six destroyers, assigned to protect Nova Fines. She made the first military contact with them. She is returning with reinforcements and is energized by a personal motivation to kick the Gra’ak out. Her fiancé, Evander Triarius, was on Nova Fines. She is going to get the planet and Evander back from the Gra’ak, even if she has to drench her gladius in barbarian blood.

The idea an ancient civilization which disappeared thousands of years earlier seeded the galaxy with human colonies, with no group of humans rising beyond space-going barbarians before a Roman Earth achieved interstellar spaceflight, seems iffy. The authors take that leap to translate ancient Rome's expansion by conquering and civilizing barbarians into a story of space-going ancients conquering and civilizing barbarians. One with sword-wielding conquerors donning space armor to battle.

Another irritation is the survival of Roman pagan gods into this future society. Regardless of whether Constantine disappeared due to timeline changes, Christianity would have largely supplanted paganism by 400AD. But a pagan future Rome better lets Romans be Romans.

You are better off letting both issues slide, because the result is a rousing space adventure. Rome to the Stars really illustrates why Dutton Peabody, newspaper editor in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, said that when facts contradict the legend, print the legend. Imperium sine fine, Empire without limits, is the book’s theme. It delivers a swashbuckling and action-packed tale. Just enjoy the ride.

“Rome to the Stars (Pax Astra Book 1),” a science fiction novel by S.M. Stirling and Melissa Olthoff, Baen Books, October 2026, $28.00 (Hardcover), $9.99 (E-book)

This review was written by Mark Lardas, who writes at Ricochet as Seawriter. Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, historian, and model-maker, lives in League City, TX. His website is marklardas.com.