I've read a number of Stephen Baxter novels and stories. So far all of these have been space opera types, or at the very least involving high technology. Until now that is, for this is takes place on Earth in two time periods – the present day and the years immediately following the withdrawal of the Roman forces from Britain.

In the modern day and following the death of his father, George Poole discovers a shocking family secret when leafing through his father's possessions. What he discovers is a photograph of himself as a young boy with what appears to be a twin sister. When he begins to investigate this, everything he discovers seems to imply that the old family legend of a Roman girl called Regina might be more real than he ever thought they could be, and that his lost sister's whereabouts are tied into this family legend.

When a girl Regina witnesses the end of the Roman Occupation and the end of the civilisation she is accustomed to. Despite this tremendous shock to her sensibilities and the fact she is now pregnant by a man who has deserted her, she determines she and her daughter are going to survive. She allies herself with a powerful British warrior Artorius and sets about raising her daughter.

Modern day Rome holds the key for George Poole's search, and a secret society where his sister is to be found, a society which holds a secret which could affect the future of mankind.

This is gripping stuff, and a complete chance of pace from the Baxter novels I've read before. We have a mystery in the current day, a story of survival in ancient Britain, and a secret society that links them both. It's a book that feels a lot shorter than its five hundred plus pages, and one that involves the reader in George's search and Regina's struggle for survival.

Baxter's description of the events and circumstances following the end of the Roman occupation of Britain are particularly evocative, he manages to bring this period to life and populates it with people who are 100% believable with whom you can't help but empathise.

This is a fascinating read, and it proves Stephen Baxter is equally adapt at writing in historical settings as onboard space craft in the distant future.

Synsopsis
Now, joined by his boyhood friend Peter McLachlan, who arrives in Rome with a dark secret of his own, George uncovers evidence suggesting that the women of the Order have embarked on a divergent evolutionary path. But they are not just a new kind of human. They are a better kind, genetically superior, equipped with all the tools necessary to render homo sapiens as extinct as the Neanderthals. And, chillingly, George and Peter soon have reason to fear that this colony is preparing to leave its overcrowded underground nest...

Stephen Baxter possesses one of the most brilliant minds in modern science fiction. His vivid storytelling skills have earned him comparison to the giants of the past: Clarke, Asimov, Stapledon. Like his great predecessors, Baxter thinks on a cosmic scale, spinning cutting-edge scientific speculation into pure, page-turning gold. Now Baxter is back with a breathtaking adventure that begins during the catastrophic collapse of Roman Britain and stretches forward into an unimaginably distant, war-torn future, where the fate of humanity lies waiting at the center of the galaxy...