Novel borne from an AH writing prompt: Rex Electi

[HongCanucker]

Available on Amazon Kindle

Description:

Caius Serica, a pilot in the Roman military in the year 1999, is whisked away from his camp in the middle of the night under mysterious circumstances. He soon learns that every aspect of his life so far, including the staged deaths of his parents, has been arranged by the Senate Tribunal in an attempt to mold him into the perfect leader. Now there are only thirty candidates, including Caius, left competing to be the Emperor's heir. Success in a series of Trials will reunite him with his family and make him the most powerful man in the world, but failure will lead to a life of isolation and imprisonment hidden in the eaves of the palace. As Caius enters the trials, it becomes apparent that the tests themselves are not the problem: it is the twenty nine other candidates willing to do whatever it takes to win, including maim or kill their top competitors. Can Caius navigate the pitfalls of imperial politics and cutthroat competition, all while performing well enough to succeed in the trials fair and square?

Really interesting how this turned out. It got started two years ago - the original conception from the book was on r/writingprompts, the prompt for the writer was "The Roman Empire never collapsed and the year is 1999," and the author enjoyed writing that little blurb so much she followed it up with another part and (eventually) the entire novel. I haven't read it yet, but it seems looks quite interesting; it's got quite a bit of a Hunger Games vibe with a lot more history and politics in the mix. Admittedly, the fact that there aren't alternate technology or geography names (at least in the original two parts published on Reddit) is a bit troubling, but I suppose it's not the worst thing in the world, and it might have been fixed in the original. I'll be looking forward to hearing a little more from this.

Part 1 | Part 2