The Sword of Jupiter

I decided to try a new series called Imperium by Travis Starnes. The first book is The Sword of Jupiter and it was excellent. If you enjoy alternate history stories, I suggest giving this one a shot. 

It starts off in the future. We meet a test pilot named Ky, who is about to test out a faster-than-light wormhole engine. The test killed the last pilot, and he is up next. He has an AI implanted into his brain, and the doctor that checks him says that his implant is getting close to expiration. This means the AI is close to become self-aware, so they will have to remove it and implant another one. We are told that if it becomes aware, the human usually goes insane.

The ship heads through the wormhole, Ky’s AI starts acting weird, and then Ky finds himself near Earth. But there are no space stations, no satellites. His ship is out of control and he crashes in the United Kingdom, but London is not there, nor any of the massive cities. He ejects from his ship, his AI is now working fine, and Ky lands in the middle of some soldiers attacking a woman and her guards. Ky saves the day, and we learn that he has traveled back in time. But that this is an alternate timeline.

In this timeline, Rome lost the Punic War to Carthage. The Romans have retreated to Britannia and the Carthaginian Empire is just about to wipe them off the map. Ky decides to help the Romans, and begins using his tech and knowledge to win a decisive battle. His AI downloaded a ton of information before they became disconnected from their time period. This helps Ky learn the language, and some of the customs.  

I loved that this book was short. Starnes gets to the point. He has action-packed scenes, and fortunately the exposition with his AI helps explain certain things in a quick manner.