John Maddox Roberts spins a grand Space Opera which borrows quite heavily from the Crusades, the Fall of Rome, and the book of Exodus (his main protagonist standing in for a latter day Moses complete with a high tech rod). The writing is crisp, the pace is fast, and his use of descriptors sparse yet effective. But the story, at least for me, falters on a few points. First of all the idea of a virtually indestructible swashbuckling kick-ass ninja warrior priesthood sporting shields and surcoats borders on cartoonish...is there anything his fanatical hero, Father Miles, CAN'T do? Furthermore I found the idea of a highly advanced star-faring race still clinging to iron age mythologies---and all the blind faith and magical thinking which that entails---hard to swallow. There's also an assumption that a society cut off from the grand moral beacon of faith (LOL!) will eventually sink into decadent barbarism unless redeemed once more, or as one pious Franciscan monk put it upon landing on a pagan planet, "We've come to replace superstition with religion!" (LMAO!) Or is there a vein of satire running through all the pageantry and proselytizing? With names like "Malatesta", "Mangiapane", "Cato", and "Achillia" being thrown out you only need a rudimentary familiarity with Greco-Roman mythology and highschool Latin to appreciate the joke. At least there is a brief footnote suggesting that the universe may indeed be bigger than any one single belief can encompass and that point alone would be worthy of a sequel. ( )

An entertaining adventure, taking place on Charun which has modeled itself on Ancient Rome, complete with gladiatorial games, emperors, orgies and slaves. The resurgent Church of Rome wants to bring Charun back into the fold, so they send a Jesuit priest/ warrior to bring home the lost sheep of Charun. Despite having priests and the church as main characters, there's little theological discussions, as Father Miles sets about changing the rulers of Charun to something more acceptable to the church. ( )