Roma Mater is one of the most thematically complex of Poul Anderson's novels.

Thorough in its details and careful in their presentation, the novel attempts to portray an enure society in transition from a backwater people into a major military and economic power. Furthermore, the characterizations tend to be deep, with many subtleties and nuances fleshing out the characters so that they seem to be full human beings. The characters and the society are deftly interwoven into the novel's themes so that each theme is seen from more than one view and each action is shown to have many effects.

Magic is one important theme in the novel, and it is handled in an unusual way.

It is presented as something that is an ordinary part of human affairs, not as something wondrous. The matter-of-fact handling of magic emphasizes its relation to its human practitioners, allowing the novel...