Stittsville author, John W. Egan, is releasing his sixth novel of the ‘Gaspunk series – The Roman Sky’ this month entitled ‘Justinian’s Torch’. John’s reputation as an incredible author who pens novels bursting with history and intrigue draws his audience into each story. His first novel in the series, ‘Empire’s Gate’, was released in December 2020 to rave reviews. Since then, his following novels in the series have kept booksellers and the Ottawa Library busy. At the library there is a waitlist of ‘holds’ by people wanting to read his books. In this article, John explains what went in to writing this latest novel, the series overall and the personal connection to his ancestors.
In 234 CE, Emperor Severus Alexander was shown a sky lantern and told of its use in China to signal armies. Nothing came of that moment but a footnote in history. But what if someone had been inspired to build a larger lantern that could lift a person off the ground? One answer to that question is Justinian’s Torch, John W. Egan’s tenth novel. It is also his sixth novel of the Roman Sky series, set in a 6th century Roman Empire with airships that evolved from that sky lantern over three centuries. The series follows Cillian, who is obliged to serve in the Roman Army after his father and family were granted Roman citizenship upon his father’s retirement from the army.
Justinian’s Torch is about Cillian’s third summer at the northern end of Britannia, in Caledonia with the army of Belisarius. Two years earlier, Emperor Justinian sent Belisarius to conquer the Picts, something no Roman has ever done. But as the army approached the Picts’ homeland, Caledonia, the Irish attacked it and Britannia. So, the Romans and Picts allied to stop the Irish. After two years, the Irish have been pushed back into their colony and stronghold of Dalriada, the west coast of Caledonia.
Cillian now commands a century of Eagle class airships in the airborne legion that supports Belisarius’s army. He faces not only the brutal tactics of the Irish but revelations about his own Irish lineage. Cillian must also deal with the Pictish Druidess, Coevla, and her prophecy that would have him condemn him to death if the emperor heard of it. And then there is the challenge of flying airships in the wet and windy highlands of Dalriada. While victory over the Irish this summer seems certain, Cillian wonders what will that victory cost him and his century.
The Roman Sky series is speculative fiction rather than a fantasy as I “built” the airships using only historical 6th century technology. I did allow for a number of discoveries and inventions to happen a few centuries earlier than they actually did, such as hydrogen gas, steel, compasses, altimeters, and clocks, as flying airships would have inspired such advances. Justinian’s Torch introduces another new technology that the Romans could have developed, one that will be quickly adapted by Cillian for another purpose. Improvising is something that soldiers constantly do around the globe and in all eras with varying results.
A fellow veteran who knows my background told me this series is really about my involvement in the RUF War in 2001. I was a “on loan” to the Sierra Leone Army during its battles against the Revolutionary United Front, or RUF. While my first novel, Angel and Mercy: The Ceasefire War, was a fictional account of what happened to me in that war, I still draw on my experience of a 21st century war in West Africa to add realism to a 6th century war in a speculative fiction. I substitute airships for helicopter gunships, bolts launched from ballistae for rocket propelled grenades, and volleys of arrows for rifle fire. Explosives aside, the smells and sounds of battle are the same. Also the same are the tension, fear, and rage, and the necessity of having to “act now and feel later” as I did and Cillian does. Certain smells and sounds still take me back to certain moments and so I mention these details in my stories.
I also drew upon the letters of Roman soldiers and my own experience of being in a war zone, far from home and family, without access to modern social media. Letters usually took a month to reach me in Sierra Leone while Cillian would be impressed if a tablet took only three months to reach him across Europe. In Cillian’s case, his mother and sister write to him. And there is a complication in exchanging letters since he knows what he reads and writes are being read by Empress Theodora’s agents. Theodora has plans that involve Cillian and his sister although exactly what they are and when she will call upon them is not known. Otherwise, the anticipation and delight of getting a letter, a physical connection to the world you left behind, cannot be overestimated nor the distance and isolation that is otherwise felt. I might yet have Cillian experience losing his bundle of letters to an overnight infestation of termites; paper is like candy to them and they eat it up just as fast.
I can also understand why poor Roman soldiers paid for expensive monuments to their dogs and cats. Despite the prevalence of rabies and mange among the dogs of Freetown—an average of three people died each week from rabies—we had a few dogs with us in the headquarters and up country, near the front lines. They were our companions and sentries. And so, Cillian’s friend, Rufus, has Felicula, an Armenian cat that likes to fly in airships and swim in lakes, to protect its food from rodents. The legion’s prefect, Zacharias, has Ferox, half army dog and half wolf, as his bodyguard. Ferox is dedicated to the prefect and hostile to all others, except Cillian. Perhaps Ferox senses that Cillian longs for his own dog, Aello, whenever he sees Ferox.
Justinian’s Torch is also a tribute to my Scottish relatives and my Pictish, Irish, and Brittonic ancestors. But Cillian still has other lands to see and a history to shape in more stories of the Roman Sky.
John’s books are available both as eBooks and paperbacks, and sold by all major booksellers, such as Amazon, Indigo Books and Books2Read, as well as on the shelf at Ottawa Public Library branches. Indigo Books tag five of John’s novels as a Canadian author. Additionally, you can find them on the ‘Local Author’ shelf at Indigo Books in Kanata.
