A great book. This is a cracking adventure novel set in Ancient Rome and
on the German frontier. There are battles, political intrigue, personal
feuds, love interest and enigmas aplenty. If you like a good adventure,
this is for you.
At first I worried that the central plot line
would come across as artificial and silly. A pair of half-brothers - one
a wealthy nobleman and the other the bastard sone of a slave woman -
had the potential to be schmaltzy. In the event, the author carried it
off very well. The way in which the kinship came about, the way the
brother grew up and the method the father found to seek reconciliation
were all perfectly credible and believable.
The secondary
characters were all well drawn. The German leader is a great character
with loads of potential, much of which was fulfilled in this book. The
German slave woman was particularly credible with all her hang-ups and
character flaws. Even the nomadic trader who was in the book for only a
couple of chapters was well drawn with a good back story. In fact, I
can't think of a single character who was not utterly credible and well
drawn.
The story line was pretty good too. I won't give anything
away, but there are twists and turns right up until the final page. And
while this story is complete in itself, it sets things up nicely for
the next book in the trilogy without leaving so many loose ends that it
becomes annoying.
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