"A Fascinating Look at History and Scripture"

THE LAST SACRIFICE, the second novel in the last disciple series, starts with Vitas and John, the last disciple, on a ship headed for Alexandria. Powerful people in the Empire paid the captain to deliver Vitas safely as soon as possible. The captain set sail before making the customary sacrifice to the gods and leaving behind some paying passengers. The crew object. They seize John, tie him to a cross, and cast him overboard as a belated sacrifice to the gods. Vitas intervenes, risks his life, and saves John. He and John become friends. John had been warning Christians of the beast with the number 666. Vitas has been chosen by some powerful people to overthrow Nero.

Many historical characters and events are introduced in this historical-fiction novel: the cruelty and dishonesty of Florus the Procurator, whose abuse of the Jews incites them into civil war. Berenice, sister of Herod Agrippa II, tries to get Florus to relent. Florus permits his soldiers to lay waste the "Upper Market," killing several thousand Jews. Maglorius, a fictional hero from the first novel tries to save some of his friends. Nero's fictional henchman, Helius, realizing that John, the last disciple, has disappeared, hires the fictional Damian, Vitas' brother, a famous runaway slave hunter to find John and return him to Helius. When Damian thought he located John, he was tricked into capturing the wrong man. John was kidnapped by someone else and put on the ship with Vitas. When the ship reaches Alexandria, another kidnapping puts John on a different ship that will sail back to Rome and Helius. Damian is surprised to see Vitas coming from the ship instead of John. Vitas had learned from John that important men had placed them together so that John could decipher coded messages that will tell Vitas that these men hope Vitas can liberate Rome from Nero.

The novel ends with Damien telling Vitas that Nero had sentenced Sophia to die by suicide. Incensed, Vitas asks his brother to help him liberate John and then find the men that want him to overthrow Nero. The next novel in the series promises to be a real thriller.

Maurice A. Williams

Reviewed by Maurice A. Williams
Posted July 9, 2006

Summary

Helius, Nero's most trusted advisor, anticipates the death of his sworn enemy, the legendary warrior Gallus Sergius Vitas, scheduled to die a gruesome death in the arena. However, the badly beaten man who appears in the amphitheater is not who he seems. Rescued by a stranger and given a mysterious scroll, Vitas is told that he must decipher this letter to find the answers he needsa letter that Helius is also determined to decipher and to keep hidden from Nero. As Nero's reign of terror grows, so does his circle of enemies.