McDougall, Sophia
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1979- ) UK author whose Romanitas sequence, comprising Romanitas (2005), Rome Burning (2007) and Savage City (2011), posits an Alternate History world in which Rome did not fall; the Jonbar Point, which may be obscure to most readers, is generated by the survival of Publius Helvius Pertinax (126-193 in this world) for twelve years after he becomes Emperor in 193 CE, giving him time to institute the kind of liberal reforms that (in this world) he may well have planned before his almost immediate assassination. The sequence, which is couched for the Young Adult market, takes place around two millennia later, in a world without Christianity or Islam, but where Slavery has persisted. The tale focuses variously on its three young protagonists and upon the three vast empires – Roman, Chinese and Japanese – which have divided the world up. Much happens, including love and war.
McDougall's second sequence, the Young Adult Mars series comprising to date Mars Evacuees (2014) and Space Hostages (2015), traces the hegira of its young main protagonist from an Earth ravaged by Climate Change as an Alien Invasion threatens to Xenoform the planet, to a partially Terraformed Mars; and further. A singleton, Not the End of the World (in Pandemonium: Stories of the Apocalypse, anth 2011, edited by Anne C Perry and Jared Shurin; 2012 chap), is set during the final days of World War Two. [JC]
Sophia McDougall
born London: 31 May 1979
works
series
Romanitas
- Romanitas (London: Orion, 2005) [Romanitas: hb/Chris Moore]
- Rome Burning (London: Orion, 2007) [Romanitas: hb/Chris Moore]
- Savage City (London: Gollancz, 2011) [Romanitas: hb/Patrick Knowles]
Mars
- Mars Evacuees (London: Egmont Books, 2014) [Mars: pb/Andy Potts]
- Space Hostages (London: Egmont Books, 2015) [Mars: pb/]
individual titles
- Not the End of the World (London: Jurassic London, 2012) [novelette: chap: first appeared in Pandemonium: Stories of the Apocalypse (anth 2011) edited by Anne C Perry and Jared Shurin: in the publisher's Jurassic London Novelette Series: pb/from John Martin, The Last Judgement]
links
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