Reviewed by Saifunnissa Hassam for Readers' Favorite

Filip Cvetkovic’s Mars And Venus: Veni, Vidi, Vici is a riveting historical and character-driven story set in the ancient Roman Empire. The story begins with the early months of the Roman conquest of Britannia. Marcus Gaius Severus Treius leads ten thousand Roman soldiers deep into territory held by Briton warriors. At 23, he has already shown himself to be a brilliant military strategist and tactician, disciplined and decisive in battle, with troops that are fiercely loyal to him. Marcus is intensely focused on conquering lands for the Roman Empire and molded by his father’s ambitions to be a great general. Following Roman protocols, Marcus rides into a Dobunni village and demands, as an alternative tribute, that the village chieftain’s daughter, Brendana nic Eflamm, must marry him. For Marcus, this is part of building political alliances with local tribes. When Marcus conquers the strategic fortress of Verulamium and the major port and city of Camulodunum, his independent thinking and initiatives draw the attention of the Roman Emperor Claudius.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Mars And Venus for its remarkable and complex characters, and its evocative and richly detailed worldbuilding. I particularly enjoyed Marcus' character development and the transformative journey that sprang vividly to life through the immersive details, particularly of the key secondary characters with whom his life is inextricably bound. I loved how Brendana is interwoven into the overall story and into Marcus’s life. Two other characters were integral to the story for their honesty and forthrightness in their relationship with Marcus: his younger brother Gaius, who leads one of the legions under Marcus’s command, and Quintex, Marcus’s tutor, mentor, and advisor at the battle fronts. The prose flows well with skillfully chosen words and phrases, bringing to life Romans and Britons, Latin and Celtic languages, dialogues, orations, and heated discussions. All these details are interwoven into challenges that Marcus faces, including grief, doubts, and uncertainties of war and life, and how he finds his way back to the empathy and humaneness buried deep in him. The well-crafted events and the diversity of people and situations that Marcus learns to work with express very well his shift away from his father’s thinking, choosing consciously to be an independent thinker and still a brave Roman leader of his men. The story has an incredible, gripping, and suspenseful climax. I highly recommend Filip Cvetkovic’s novel to readers who enjoy stories of ancient Rome and empire-building, with complex and memorable characters.