It's certainly readable and interesting but ultimately I found it was too ambitious for its own good.

The basic plot is: Emperor Tiberius sends a special legate to Judea who, while there, meets the centurion of the title who has already fallen under the influence of the 'Rabbi Jesus', and the events of the novel are basically the weeks leading up to the crucifixion and the months afterwards, and how they affect the various Roman characters who find themselves in the region. There are various linked sub-plots too.

The book is trying to be a straightforward historical novel, but it's also trying to be a political novel and a romantic novel --- and a religious novel that has clearly and overtly Christian sympathies. For the non-Christian reader, this seems more than a bit forced and not justified by the rest of the novel. I guess it is trying to set the crucifixion in its political and historical context, whilst at the same time relating to some fictional and factual characters. It doesn't really succeed. And the ending is too happy ever after...

Interesting but flawed. ( )