Empire Burning by Eugene Gilfedder melds history and science-fiction with an evocative, poetic language to throw Western anxieties of the Other into sharp relief. The fires of Rome and the characters surrounding Nero are warped and twisted out of their time and into ours. Disaster strikes this modern Empire when figures begin to appear from out of nowhere, bursting into flames and setting the city ablaze. One of these strangers survives; they have him imprisoned.