I’ve read a number of Hank Davis anthologies over the years–you can check out the list below with links to the reviews. Hank always assembles sets of stories that provide great entertainment and a nice mix of Name writers with some New Writers.
I read L. Sprague de Camp’s classic Lest Darkness Fall in the mid-1960s. The story of a 20th Century man who time travels back to the Roman Empire and tries to prevent The Dark Ages thrilled me. Some of the stories in All Roads Lead to Rome refer to de Camp’s story that was first published in Unknown in 1939…and a hardcover edition by Holt in 1941. I read the Lancer paperback edition.
Hank includes Randall Garrett’s “L. Sprague de Camp’s Lest Darkness Fall: A Review in Verse” for a quick summary for readers not familiar with the famous novel.
I enjoyed Robert Silverberg’s “Via Roma” and David Brin’s “71” and especially Eric Flint’s “Islands.”
Hank Davis delivers another wonderful anthology with an unusual theme. Don’t miss it! GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction: “There’s No Place Like Rome” by Hank Davis is published here for the first time. © 2025 by Hank Davis. Published by permission of the author. — ix
“Ranks of Bronze” by David Drake, originally published in Galaxy magazine, August 1975. © 1975 by David Drake. Reprinted by permission of Joanne Drake. — 1
“L. Sprague de Camp’s Lest Darkness Fall: A Review in Verse” by Randall Garrett, originally published in Science Fiction Stories, September 1956. © 1956 by Randall Garrett. Reprinted by permission of Joshua Bilmes and the JABberwocky Literary Agency for the author’s estate. –11
“Temporal Discontinuity” by David Weber, originally published in Lest Darkness Fall and Timeless Tales Written in Tribute. CAEZIK SF & Fantasy, 2021. © 2021 by David Weber. Reprinted by permission of the author. — 15
“Via Roma” by Robert Silverberg, originally published in Asimov’s Science Fiction, April 1994. © 1994 by Agberg, Ltd. Reprinted by permission of the author. — 35
“71” by David Brin, originally published in The Baen Books Free Stories, May 2016. © 2016 by David Brin. Reprinted by permission of the author. — 91
“Islands” by Eric Flint, originally published in The Warmasters, edited by Bill Fawcett, Baen Books, 2002. © 2002 by Eric Flint. Reprinted by permission of the author’s estate. — 115
“Ave Atque Vale” by Sandra Miesel is published here for the first time. © 2025 by Sandra Miesel. Published by permission of the author. — 175
“A Difficult Undertaking” by Harry Turtledove, originally published in Dragon magazine, September 1986. © 1986 by Harry Turtledove. Reprinted by permission of the author. — 193
“The Wandering Warriors” by Rick Wilber and Alan Smale, originally published in Asimov’s Science Fiction, May 2018. © 2018 by Rick Wilber and Alan Smale. Reprinted by permission of the authors. — 215
Authors’ Biographies — 297
HANK DAVIS ANTHOLOGIES:
Love those time travel stories.
I’ve read a couple of Hank’s anthologies.
Jeff, Hank Davis chooses fun stories in his anthologies. I’ve enjoyed them all!
As usual with Davis, a nice mix of older and newer works. I think I read LEST DARKNESS FALL in the Holt hardcover edition in high school, checked out from the beloved Kanawha County library of my youth. Even in 1968, the library still shelved a fair number of books from the ’40s.
Fred, LEST DARKNESS FALL hit me like a drive-by shooting! A very memorable classic SF novel!
I’m a big fan of LEST DARKNESS FALL, as well as any other (but not all) of de Camp’s books. Also a fan of Garrett’s poetic “reviews” of some of the important books in the history of SF. I’ve read the Drake and the Silverberg stories and, based on those alone, this book gets a big thumbs up.
Jerry, I give a big thumbs up to all of Hank Davis’s anthologies!
I like time travel stories too but I am not sure if the story is mostly exploring ancient Rome or whatever would interest me. I am thinking a brief travel in time.
Patti, some of the stories in ALL ROADS LEAD TO ROME deliver a brief travel in Time.
It sounds interesting to me but I can’t even keep up with mysteries.
Side note, I went to the same high school as Greg Bear. A year behind me and I didn’t know him. He and 3 others started comic con
Maggie, I’ve a lot of Greg Bear’s work.
In case you’re interested, Mike Connelly’s new character is Steven Stilwell
Maggie, I wonder what Stilwell did to get Tuckered!