The Twice and Future Caesar Audiobook

By: R.M. Meluch

Narrated by: John Glouchevitch

Published by Brilliance Audio 5/18/2017

11 hrs and 27 mins

Tour of The Merrimack #6

The Twice and Future Caesar Audiobook Sample

The Twice and Future Caesar Audiobook

4 Hearts

I practically binged on the first five books in this series and then I waited many months to finally pick this one up. I knew I would enjoy it, but… it was last book phobia setting in. I anticipate and want the story, but at the same time, once I’ve read it, I have to say good-bye to a well-liked series. #ReaderProblems

So yes, The Twice and Future Caesar is the sixth and final book of the Tour of the Merrimack military space opera series. It is set a few centuries into the future and has an alternate history where the Roman Empire never fell, but merely submersed until it had regained enough might to compete with the US for supremacy of the galaxy.

This final book explored time travel and the paradox of what happens when a person leaps through time and thus, alters history. Twice and Future Caesar begins with a prologue which reminds the reader of events that took place at the very end of book one- when a traveler through a time wormhole started a parallel time for everyone and no one realizes that history was on a different path until that moment. But, somehow, a once Caesar Romulus whom his followers manage to steal his comatose body and revive him, learns of this wormhole anomaly and he decides to go back and change history so that he doesn’t get destroyed, his lover Claudia is not dead, and he gets Rome and defeats the US.

The rest of the book becomes a retelling of the keypoints that occur in books two through five just within a new parallel time and interesting alterations in the past because of what having Romulus make his leap in the future caused.

I think I could have kissed the evil, crazy megalomaniac Romulus for doing this if for no other reason than he gave me more of the sneering brilliant Roman, Augustus, and John Farragut as captain again fighting the alien flesh eating aliens, conspiring Romans, and all the gang on Merrimack brought back together. Another thing I liked, though still wouldn’t claim to love, was that in this parallel time, Captain John Farragut’s prodigal brother, Nox, still resents his brother and envies his fame, and yes, makes choices that are heartbreaking, but in this time, he is very young and falls under the manipulations of a clever man out for his own ends. I felt pity more than exasperation with Nox and he pays for his choices in an appropriate way.

Things get dire and exciting. Lots of fighting and action, some relationships built or furthered along. There is the tension and back and forth between the US and Rome, but also civil war within Rome between Caesar Numa and the challenger Romulus. It was a great way to finish out the series though, my one niggle, was that in the end, I wanted more of a wrap up for the fallout from the last great confrontation and battle. Maybe it was meant to leave the door open for the possibility of more, I don’t know. At least the main threads were addressed.

All in all, I am sad to be done with the series. I will likely revisit the series because I enjoyed it so much and I can heartily recommend it to military space opera lovers who enjoy colorful characters and exciting fight action.

The Twice and Future Caesar Audiobook Narration

5 Hearts

The narrator, John Glouchevitch, was stellar as he has been all along with this series. I’m pretty sure that he made a decent sci-fi series even better and helped me picture the characters, the plot, and the setting so much more intensely and vitally.

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