This is more of a detective story than SiFi. There is a much lower body count than in most of Drake's books and the aliens were somewhat disapointing. Dispite that,it is a good book.Drake is able to keep you reading with good characters and a fast moving plot. Hardcore Drake fans may be disapointed but I found it a nice change from big battle books he puts out.

Hey, guys, what happened? The two of you are my favorite authors. But this book bears little resemblance to the preceding series, either in style or in entertainment value. It would be fun to watch Raj and Center and two cronies rip through the Roman Empire . . . but I have absolutely no sympathy for either of the main characters, and Raj/Center play only a tiny role in the story.

You also didn't give us a book! This thing is hardly four chapters of material, and ends in roughly the first third of what I would otherwise consider a novel.

I read it at my local bookstore. It was short enough to read in the store. I'm very disappointed and did not buy it.

Agree that this book is not in the class or breadth as The Chosen.

But it was never intended to be. Rather, The Reformer is more along the lines of the first books of the General's series. -- The Forge.

Also the authors followed their trend of translating ancient engagements into this new science fiction military context. The Forge and what followed tracked with a Byzantine general's , Belasarius, actual exploits.

In The Reformer, Stirling and Drake examined Alexander the Great's actual siege of Tyre and created a plausible alternate ending.

Still a good read. I'm looking forward to the next one.

A very good all-round read; developed male AND female personalities, civilian and military, not more stereotypes than real-life, and the historical links are great fun - if you don't know history, then it might spur you to check it out (hey, education is GOOD, check out military history or classical history under Google search engine). And if you DO know history, you may well groan a bit (they take a few liberties -- cleverly) but, hey, gentlepeople, was it really like that or not? Remember, history is writtem by the survivors (egos all). Anyway, prime reason to buy -- it makes you think.

Alien threat from another time causes an agent of the Empire to go on a quest to save humanity. Lots of historical and fighting detail, so if you like that sort of thing, this book will probably mean more to you. I thought the characters were generally shallow and their motives for many things either too transparent or totally opaque-- it felt like a larger book that never managed to get fully developed. Too bad, because there were some flashes of interesting plot.

A lot of our Sci-fi books look at alien invasion in the current time. What if aliens had invaded in the past and been defeated? Aulus Perennius is a roman imperial spy who is recruited by a mysterious person to help track down and destroy a small group of aliens who have landed in the Roman Empire.

Drake tells a good fast paced story within a well researched Roman Empire setting which gives the book a good authentic feel. He avoids the worst excesses of ray-gun sci-fi, while introducing comic elements such as an early christian cult who try a little too hard to worship the cruxicifiction, a displaced allosaurus who has a taste for donkeys and a nerve wracking naval battle in a hundred year old ship which is ready to fall apart.

A highly enjoyable read which won't put too much strain on the brain cells. Good fun!

I too am suprised by the negative reviews.This is a good read combining Roman history and futuristic technology expertly. It isn't an easy thing combining two different generes but Drake pulls it off. Instead of plodding I felt that the story progressed steadily building on top of each new development. The reader identifies with the Roman agent and therefore as he learns more so do you. For Roman buffs there is also a nice twist at the end. I never saw it coming. An enertaining read.

For me there were several problems with this book. First of all, I have served in the military and I know many soldiers from many different branches, and not one of them acts the way that the main character in this story does. He is inconsistent, uncontrolled, immature, and dangerous. There are several story threads that are started, but none of them go anywhere. For example, the book begins with evidence of contact with an alien species but midway through the story they are shuffled off to a secondary roll in favor of a bunch of Nazis from WWII who are hiding in Istanbul. Throughout the story references are made to an impregnable military space station with supporting constellations of laser sattelites and a large number of nuclear weapons. Apparently, even though the Soviet Union has no chance to destroy or even approach the station, the Nazis have no trouble taking it over. This is the most glaring inconsistency, but there are others. I consider this book to be a waste of cash and I would have given it negative stars if that were possible.

I've had this book for a while. I've started reading it several times. Only problem is by the time I get to the aliens I want to walk out into traffic. The word interesting doesn't come to mind. The phrase couldn't put it down is the complete opposite. I couldn't pick this book up. Usually I can analyze what I don't like about books but I can't with this one. I find it boring, irritating, and generaly a waste of money. If I could give it 0 stars, I would.

True to his past work, the hero is not perfect. The action is great and gun buffs will notice the S&W Air Crewman he carries through a metal detector. Drake always makes his hero suffer and that can bother the sissies. This is a good read give it a chance.

I am very fond of this series, particularly the books with a strong Cherryh influence. This is an anthology of short stories set in the Hell universe.

Among the elements of Cherryh's writing I enjoy is her mastery of the classical history and her understanding of the Roman and Greek characters she brings to the mix. This, to me, is the series' greatest strength.

Though this volume did contain a story by Cherryh and one by solid writer George Foy, it also contained a story--the first one, by Chris Morris--which offended me so utterly that rather than sell this book to the used book store, I will be tossing it in the recycling bin. Morris has chosen to represent historical characters by substituting insulting, juvenile, false, repulsive slander for actual research. It speaks badly for this anthology that the story was accepted at all. This writer had better get his mind out of the gutter and into some historical scholarship if he wants to continue to write historically based fiction.

Just a little obscure...but this book in the series was actually readable! Still pretty incoherent, but i think thats mainly due to the setting.

I like most of Drake's books, but he wrote this before perfecting his style, and it was not very memorable. Fine if you are stuck on a plane, but not in the same class as Redliners or Forlorn hope.