Wolf’s Empire: Gladiator

Actor Christian and author Buchanan (Babylon Confidential) disappoint with an almost aggressively dull, exposition-dense novel set in a world in which the Roman Empire neither crumbled nor changed its core nature, even as humans evolved into a space-faring people. In this world, House Viridian is at war with House Sertorian, and young Viridian gladiatrix Accala is intent on seeking revenge for the deaths of her mother and brother. Naturally, things don’t go her way in this extremely patriarchal future, and she soon finds herself forced to work with the Sertorians in an attempt to put down an alien rebellion. Christian and Buchanan pile the clichés high and heavy: Accala is portrayed as a vengeance-seeking but dithering gladiator who just can’t bring herself to kill opponents in the ring, and Bulla, a simple-minded house slave from a race called the Taurii, spouts halting dialogue ("He try to send you message after message, but they all blocked"). The worldbuilding is flimsy, and the long, ponderous passages that describe everything in first-person, as-you-know detail bog down the novel in ways that the occasional action sequence fails to disrupt. Agent: Frank Weimann, Folio Literary. (June)