Sophie Burnham – författare

In a world where Rome never fell, an unlikely group of protagonists are ready to burn down the empire in the first of this new speculative trilogy.

In the wake of startling revelation and personal betrayal, Tair sets out to unite the city of Luxana behind the Iveroa Stone as Selah, up in the Imperial Archives, tries to make sense of her family's complicity in the Imperium's shadowed beginnings. Meanwhile, Darius faces exile in the far-flung reaches of Roma Sargassa's badlands, while Arran and Theo undertake a mission for the Revenants to revive the old world's communications grid. But long-laid plans and careful manoeuvring are nothing compared to the forces of nature, and Sargassa's future might just be determined by the coming storm.

In an alternate present where the Roman Empire never fell, Roma Sargassa—or North America—is under Roman rule, and always has been. And the Imperial Historian has just been murdered.His low-caste son, Arran, and his noble-born daughter, Selah, the new Imperial Historian, are left to pick up the pieces—setting them on a collision course with an undercover rebel group who are determined to steal an ancient artefact called the Iveroa Stone, expose the truth behind the so-called democratic society, and overthrow the Roman Empire.As Selah begins to unravel the Stone’s mysteries alongside her friends and allies, she must decide what to do with a world-shattering discovery: Roma has not always ruled in Sargassa, as the history books say. And if the Roman Empire could be toppled once, what’s to stop the Sargassans from doing it again?Equal parts political intrigue, queer romance, and revolution, Sargassa explores gender, sexuality and the racism and classism inherent in the carceral system.