Harry V. Keefe '39 Library Media Center, Boston Latin School: Wolfpack Reads!

Dominus by Steven Saylor – 5/5 stars

Published in 2021 by St. Martin's Press

Genre: Historical fiction

Reviewer: Nhi N., Class III

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Steven Saylor is well known for writing thrilling historical fiction novels set in the ancient Roman Empire, and this book is no exception. Many other stories are written chronologically, but not many are written from one family generation to another, and that’s what makes this book so intriguing to me. When you first start reading, you get an idea of what daily life in the Roman Empire is like through the eyes of a family-oriented senator who has connections to the current emperor, Marcus Aurelius. It’s relatively peaceful in the beginning, but after Marcus Aurelius’s death, you see the empire rapidly plunge into an era of chaos and uncertainty as more and more emperors take the throne and subsequently get replaced. What makes it feel more real is that you’re seeing this all play out through the eyes of the son of the previous narrator, starting with the original senator in the first chapters. These sons, each one witnessing a different era of Rome and a different lineup of emperors, experience different lives. As the reader, you start to feel pity for the ones that are born in later generations who have to witness the craziness of the later emperors. When you near the end of the book, you really start to soak in just how far Rome has fallen from greatness, which makes for a really enthralling and emotional read. My only gripe with this book was that because there were so many generations that each acted as a narrator, later down the line it became a bit hard to keep up with the names and the context of each one. However, this book is overall one of the best books I’ve ever read, and I fully recommend it to anyone who’s interested in history or just a good story.