Review: Lord of Silver

Alan Fisk, Lord of Silver, (Xlibris Corporation, 2000)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2811668-lord-of-silver

A Pict’s eye view of Roman Britain

366 CE Austalis, a Pict, heads south from Gododdin (now Lothian, Scotland), passing the Wall to enter the empire on the other side. He’s a Roman citizen—his father once led a Roman cavalry unit of Frisians, but people keep calling him ‘a barbarian’. Nevertheless, he finds people keen to explain the local customs and help him on his way. He’s seeking ‘opportunity’ and, who knows?

He heads off to Londinium, where he is initiated into the first ‘ordeal’ of Mithras. He doesn’t like it. He is drawn to the ‘sense of goodness’ of Christians, but he turns back to his native god, Nodens, the Lord of Silver.

He continues to be befriended by people who introduce him to the wonders of Roman civilisation—a sundial in the courtyard of his hostess Marcella which spouts water from underground pipes, a monogram of a Chi-Rho wreath of Christ on a wall, a game of glass bead representing warring Romans and Sabines, religious rituals performed dressed only in a loincloth.

He returns to the barbarian north with visions of conquest. What follows is the story of what the Romans called the Barbarian Conspiracy of 367-368.

This is the first work of fiction I’ve read set in the latter days of Roman Britain and certainly the first where the protagonist is a ‘barbarian’, and I was eager to learn about it. Making the narrator an ‘outsider’ being introduced to the culture gives us an opportunity to be initiated. Austalis’ background and character are his own, and we see things through his perspective, though sometimes his reactions and decisions are perplexing. I found myself just as wide-eyed and excited as he is.

A vibrant, original story.

I received an ARC from the author.