Henry is a computer programmer who wakes up in an ancient Roman arena as a slave gladiator during a fight. Managing to survive, although horrified by having to kill, Henry begins to wonder what is happening. Trained further, he begins to make some friends and prosper in the arena attracting the attention of the rich and powerful. One such person is Julius, and his wife Agrippina who lusts after Henry. But when Henry turns down her advances she sends him to an underground fighting arena. The arena is a brutal and fights are to the death. Henry survives and when Julius finds out what has happened, his guards appear and return Henry back to the gladiator school. From his fights and his reputation, he becomes a house slave. But when he fails in an assassination attempt he is sentenced to death. But further political strife, sees him freed and sent on his way to Gaul to get away from Rome and find his fortune.

This is the first part of a time travel story that does not do itself any justice. There is time travel in that someone from the present is transported to the Roman age, but that is as far as it goes. What skill and ability he might have is not really clear and the story keeps tripping it self up. Henry starts in a gladiatorial arena, then stays around a ruin of his own free will, then is in a cage in the arena, all in a few pages. The writing style is very simple and feels aimed at the YA audience and I had no challenge following it when it made sense. The characters feel uninteresting and only a few have any clear motives. The sub plot about the Roman political conflict is told more from a view of exposition and seeing the outcome of their actions, instead of seeing how the characters plot themselves. Even Henry himself is a blank slate and an attempt to have someone with more modern thoughts and reasoning interact with this world. But most of his actions are very passive, so any chance to have him contrast the differences seem lost. We barely get an understanding of who he was before the time jump, what he knows or even how old he is. We get he knows about the ancient Greek and Roman cultures, but his knowledge seems cherry picked for each situation.

As for the layout of the book, this is where it is quite saddening. The formatting starts off well enough, but by the final third of the book I was beginning to wonder what I was reading. Sections were repeated in different chapters, one chapter is cut off mid sentence, there are few breaks to show when scenes have changed and the name of the hero keeps changing through the book. This could really have done with an editor to go through it. The best touch in the book is the front cover, which looks suitably imposing.

Overall, this is a time travel book with no hint about what happened, from a romance author when the book has little romance in it, and a poorly edited book that really needs someone to fix it. I can’t honestly recommend it, and likely the second book due to this one.

Personally, I’m really hoping this is all just a dream.