Amazon.com Review
Friesner blends understated speculation on the affairs of men and their gods with the story of Marcus Junius Brutus whose fate is taken into the hands of a goddess on the eve of Caesar's scheduled assassination. Venus has plans for Rome that preclude Caesar's death, and she recruits Brutus to her cause, making him a new god-sponsored hero in the classical mold. Yet Brutus is not a god, but human, and as he seems progressively more godlike, it becomes clear that his humanity rules him. The tension between the mortal and the divine pervades the story; the ending provides an unspoken resolution to this tight, intelligent historical fantasy.