{
    "id": 518597,
    "slug": "the-ghost-player-nick-aaron",
    "nstc": null,
    "title": "The Ghost Player",
    "subtitle": null,
    "collection_title": null,
    "collection_part_number": null,
    "annotation": "<strong>She was in on the game but a reluctant player</strong><p>It all started right after Nero\u2019s suicide in AD 68: even his death was part of the game. And Desiderata, who was also Nero's half-sister Antonia, got caught up in the struggle for power against her will. Then, in AD 86, her old enemy Numa Manlius tried to revive the game, and Desi had to take up one more challenge as 'the ghost player'.</p>",
    "description": "<p>The game started right after Nero\u2019s suicide in AD 68, and his death was part of the game. He\u2019d been tricked by the other players into taking his own life, opening the race, the free-for-all to seize power in Rome. What ensued went down in History as the \u2018Year of the Four Emperors\u2019.</p><p>But from the start the rivals vying for the top prize discovered that Nero had a half-sister, eighteen-year-old Antonia, the daughter of Claudius and Agrippina, and using her as a pawn became part of the game. Only, she didn\u2019t want to be used\u2014or eliminated\u2014and managed to thwart them so well that in the end they called her \u2018the ghost player\u2019.</p><p>Then Antonia went back to being Desiderata, married and mother of three, a Christian, and a \u2018Seeker of Justice\u2019 by trade. Until one day, in AD 86, her old enemy Numa Manlius tried to revive the game, and Desi had to take up one more challenge.</p>",
    "imprint": null,
    "language_code": "eng",
    "original_language_code": null,
    "page_count": 260,
    "duration_seconds": null,
    "publication_date_first": "2025-06-15",
    "publication_date_latest": "2025-06-15",
    "cover_url": null,
    "editions": [
        {
            "isbn": "9789083433899",
            "product_form": "BC"
        }
    ],
    "ratings_count": 0,
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    },
    "created_at": "2025-09-19T14:39:50+00:00",
    "updated_at": "2025-11-02T00:43:48+00:00",
    "publisher": {
        "id": 1787,
        "slug": "-",
        "name": "",
        "created_at": "2025-09-19T12:37:05+00:00",
        "updated_at": "2025-09-19T15:13:47+00:00"
    },
    "contributors": [
        {
            "id": 319583,
            "slug": "nick-aaron-2",
            "key_names": "Aaron",
            "names_before_key": "Nick",
            "prefix_to_key": null,
            "contributor_role": "A01",
            "readable_contributor_role": "Author"
        }
    ],
    "genres": [],
    "subjects": [
        {
            "scheme_identifier": "32",
            "scheme_version": null,
            "main_subject": false,
            "subject_code": "331",
            "created_at": "2025-09-19T14:39:50+00:00",
            "updated_at": "2025-09-19T14:39:50+00:00"
        }
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}