"Kingdom of the Wicked Book Two: Order" - Helen Dale

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If "Kingdom of the Wicked Book One: Rules" was about establishing the setting - a high-tech Roman Empire in traditionalist Judea c. 31-33 AD - book two is about the ongoing clash of cultures. In truth, books one and two are just the one novel, with the second part being delayed due to the opaque and irritating rules of publishing.

Book one set up the trial of Jesus (Yeshua Ben Yusuf ) and explored its middle-eastern setting. The Romans look a lot like the Americans today. They're behind in electronics and ahead in genetic engineering. Our familiar western culture inherits judeo-christian hangs-up about sexuality and is 'blessed' with an overabundance of 'compassion'; the classical tradition of Greek and Roman paganism wasn't overly burdened with either.

Book 2 initiates Jesus's trial before Pilate. Evidence is presented in the form of backstories - well elaborated - embellishing the Jesus message and its rather startling effects on both Romans and the orthodox Jewish religious establishment. The Sanhedrin are the more bothered.

"Order" is a keen exploration of this culture clash. Dale tells the story through her well-drawn characters: the Romans are generally hedonistic, sexually inventive and uninhibited (this is not a story you could easily read aloud to your wife or servants); the Jews are extremely moralistic and sexually conservative - reminiscent of fifties America, or the Mormons.

We think we know the plot (the Bible) but the magic of "Kingdom of the Wicked" is that events flow organically from the novel's premises and are not artificially grafted on. Roman capitalism depended upon slavery being abolished (the Stoics were the movers and shakers there); the abolitionist movement also ended crucifixion as being grotesquely cruel. Jesus has not obviously committed a capital offence under Roman law (the affray in the Temple) but the political situation in Judea is deteriorating fast.

The ending is surprising, in more ways than one, but Dale brings it off. An excellent and thought-provoking book.