Imperial Dawn - Paperback

Rome calls him a god. He knows he is just a weapon.

For fans of Gladiator, Game of Thrones, and the grimdark fantasy of Joe Abercrombie comes a brutal, epic saga of magic, history, and the cost of power.

For eighty years, Galerius Manlius Britannicus has been the Empire's sword. As one of the Blessed, he possesses godlike strength, enhanced reflexes, and eternal youth-a living legend bound to serve a lineage of mad Caesars. He has slaughtered barbarians in the forests of Germania and crushed rebellions in the sands of Syria, believing that his brutality is the price of order.

But the Pax Romana is a lie.

A shadow has fallen over the capital. The Flectores-interdimensional spies capable of rewriting reality itself-have infiltrated the highest levels of the Senate. They do not just conquer lands; they overwrite the truth. They wear the faces of trusted allies. They whisper in the ears of tyrants.

And the rot has spread to the Champion's own bed.

When Galerius discovers that the conspiracy has infected his own home-and that the woman he loves may be the architect of Rome's destruction-his world shatters. Betrayed by his family and hunted by the government he swore to protect, Galerius is forced into a war he cannot win with a blade alone.

To stop an enemy that can change the past, he must forge an alliance with the very people he was trained to hunt: a fugitive mind-reader seeking vengeance and a shapeshifting courtesan with a deadly secret.

From the burning slums of the Subura to the blood-soaked frontiers of Gaul, the legions are fracturing. The magic that sustains the Empire is fading. And Caesar Nero is spiraling into madness.

Galerius has spent a lifetime fighting for Rome's glory. Now, with the world crumbling, he must face the ultimate choice:

Will he save the Empire... or become the tyrant who destroys it?