Final Savage City predictions

I’ve got my review copy of Savage City in my hands. I’ve just finished rereading Rome Burning so as to have the series’ plot fresh in my mind. Before I plunge into the final book in the trilogy, though, I thought I’d pause to make a few predictions. They’re probably all wrong. This post will not be particularly coherent because, honestly, Rome Burning is so emotionally raw (oh, my poor Una, how sad you are) and ends on such a cliffhanger that I’m drained and unable to think clearly.

This post will contain spoilers for the first two books.

1. So, we’ve been left with a cliffhanger in which just about everyone could possibly be dead. I am willing McDougall not to have killed off Marcus, because if he and Una don’t get a happy ending, I may turn into a complete wreck. However, It is entirely possible he’s just been killed in Dama’s attack on the Colosseum. If he hasn’t, however,

2. Drusus may use the possibility of Marcus’ death to take over control. Either Marcus is dead, and the Sibyl’s prophecy make him Emperor of Rome (‘there’s glass on the ground’), or Marcus can be got out of the way/goes missing and Drusus uses the confusion to claim power. However,

3. As we saw in Rome Burning, Salvius was ultimately disgusted with Drusus and was unwilling to continue throwing the might of the army behind Drusus’ scheming. With both the Novians out of the way, Salvius himself might make a play for power. Or there could be some sordid civil war between the three of them. However,

3. My feeling is that McDougall wants to get us further in her imagined world in this book. The first book was so tightly-focused on Marcus, Una and Sulien, and the second stepped out into Sina and the dramas of Roman-Nionian politics. I feel sure that in the third book some of the action will take place outside Rome, possibly in Terranova/Tokogane, or in Africa. (And I’m still holding out to know what an Australia under Nionian control would look like!)

4. I am positive that Dama is alive and will play a major role in whatever unfolds. What I’m less certain about is whether the series will end on a happy note, with slavery abolished, Marcus in control of a (much less dictatorial) Rome and tensions between Nionia and Rome diffused. My money is on a bittersweet ending, possibly a diminished or destroyed Roman Empire, and a solution to the Marcus-Una-Noriko situation that satisfies no one. (This is of course if Marcus and Noriko are still alive.)

5. Someone major is going to have to die. I feel so awful saying this, but if it’s Marcus, Una or Sulien, I won’t be able to bear it. I love the three of them so much. If McDougall wrote a more conventional story, my money would be on either Varius or Delir, but I’m pretty sure this won’t be the case. I doubt that Noriko will die simply to resolve the situation with Marcus and Una (that’s lazy writing), and I don’t even think Drusus will die, because that will be too easy. Faustus, though, is a dead man.

6. To reiterate, PLEASE DON’T LET UNA DIE! AND PLEASE LET HER BE HAPPY!

7. Uh, this is a crazy, cracky theory, but is Una pregnant? I’m thinking both of the Sibyl’s prophecy (‘the newest branch of the Novian stem’) and of the parallels between her and the regent of Sina, Jun Shen (who got power through her son, being only a concubine herself).

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