784 ab urbe condita—31 AD. Jerusalem sits uneasily in a Roman Empire that has seen an industrial revolution and now has cable news and flying machines—and rites and morals that are strange and repellent to the native people of Judaea. A charismatic young leader is arrested after a riot in the Temple. He seems to be a man of peace, but among his followers are Zealots and dagger-men sworn to drive the Romans from the Holy Land. As the city sinks into violence, the stage is set for a legal case that will shape millennia—the trial of Yeshua Ben Yusuf. Intricately imagined and ferociously executed,
Kingdom of the Wicked
is a stunning alternative history and a story for our time.