Marine archaeologist Jack Howard follows the Silk Route to uncover the mystery of an ancient Roman army's disappearance, and discovers secrets about dangerous artifacts and his own family history. The novel brims with historical and archaeological facts and theories spanning in time and place from the birth of the unified Chinese empire in 221 BCE to Caesarean Rome to British colonial rule on the Indian subcontinent to present day Afghanistan. Most of these facts and hypotheses are intriguing, and all are patently the result of Gibbins' commendably deep research, study and thought. Unfortunately, none of the above renders Gibbins a master of character, dialogue, or narrative pacing in the art of storytelling. With rare exceptions, his characters are uniformly dull.

Release #166 for 2018 ...