≫ PDF Free The Eagle Conquest Simon Scarrow 9780747266303 Books

The Eagle Conquest Simon Scarrow 9780747266303 Books

Download As PDF : The Eagle Conquest Simon Scarrow 9780747266303 Books

The Eagle Conquest Simon Scarrow 9780747266303 Books

Not a bad read, but the inherent contradictions between the author's emphasis on accurate historic depiction of Roman military tactics and organization is in complete contrast with his characters, who might as well be Tommy Adkins and Harry Paget Flashman as 1st Century AD Romans -- and the Carthaginian character practically quoting Shelly's "Ozymandias" is just a bit too clever/precious... Are we trying to be Patrick O'Brien here? Admittedly, the portrait of poor Claudius is not exactly out of Robert Graves, but that hardly compensates. That said, good battle scenes, good overall narrative, with rhythm, action and flow that generally keep the reader interested... and we all know that in the end, Vitellius has it coming...


Tags : The Eagle's Conquest [Simon Scarrow] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Simon Scarrow's brilliant adventure novels about the Roman army appear with stunning new covers. When Centurion Macro arrives on British soil as one of Emperor Claudius's invasion force in 43 AD,Simon Scarrow,The Eagle's Conquest,Headline Book Pub Ltd,0747266301,Adventure thriller,Crime & mystery,Historical fiction,Fiction

The Eagle Conquest Simon Scarrow 9780747266303 Books Reviews

Both Bk 1 & Bk 2 of the series I would rate 4 and a half stars given the opportunity. I'm reading Bk 3 and it will rate the same. These are hardcore Military Science books based on the Roman Empire. Never read sword and sandal books before but the author's impressive knowledge of Roman history and military (and his characters) quickly draw you into a fascinating glimpse into the story of the Roman invasion of the British Isles. I think fantasy fans would find these books very satisfying.

ps Just got a new Richard Kadrey "Sandman Slim" book (Highly Recommended!!!) so Bk 3 will have to wait a bit.
There is a dearth of good historical fiction books out there - the last author I really got into was Robert Harris and his Cicero series, beginning with 'Imperium', followed by 'Lustrum' and I think his third is coming out this year (2015). Another excellent historical fiction, and rather more profound series, are Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin books that feature the British Navy set in the Napoleonic era (so good, I have read them three times over).

Simon Scrarrow definitely does the job with this second book in his Eagle series. Having really enjoyed 'Under the Eagle', the action in the Eagle's Conquest moves to Britain and he includes excellent descriptions of the country as that time and all the build-up and landings of the four Roman legions assigned under General Plautius to pacify the war-like Celtic tribes. I have read other reviews stating that the character portrayals are too shallow, but I certainly don't find this case and the dramatic action and plot machinations more than make up for any flaws in the novels protagonists. He does an excellent job in creating enough suspense to make this a real page turner and in my opinion he is the best author around writing about this era of history. Another good author is William Altimari ('Legion', 'Horses on the Storm') but unfortunately his output is rather small.

I will also be taking a look at SS's Gladiator and Wellington/Buonaparte series as I am also interested in these two themes.
As a fan of good action adventure stories, and a fan of the history of the Roman Empire, there is nothing I like more than a combination of the two. Simon Scarrow provides just that in the second installment of his Cato and Macro series detailing the Roman invasion of Britannia in the first century AD.

First of all, the good. The story, although starting off a bit slow in my opinion, really picks up in the second half of the book. This half involves an assassination plot, and the author shows he has the ability to craft a fine tale in this area. One of the members of the plot happens to be a former love interest of our hero, Cato, and we start to see a bit of character development when it comes to him. As with the first book, you learn a bit of Roman history and get a fast moving story at the same time.

The bad as I noted above, the character development is a bit lacking. Cato is being developed, albeit a bit too slowly for my taste. Macro and the other characters seem to be your stereotypical military types, but hopefully Scarrow will continue to develop them as the series continues.

There is certainly room for improvement on the part of the author, and I hope the series continues to grow these two likable characters. With a bit of character development, and some better battle/fight scenes, this could be a great series. If I could, this would be 3.5 stars over the previous entry's 3 stars.
I have enjoyed the series very much so far, and appreciate the generally accurate and nuanced approach to the historical period. I have a couple of criticisms, for which I admit I cannot remember exactly where I read the offending passages. First, I believe the author mentions syphilis, which was not known in Europe before the Age of Exploration in the 15th century A.D. Second, and perhaps more embarrassing, is the inclusion of galley slaves in discussion of the Roman Navy. Slaves were not used on Roman warships, for the very good reason that the rowers needed to be highly trained, and capable of fulfilling other tasks, most importantly fighting. For these same reasons, there were no slaves on Greek warships, as at Salamis. This has been known at least as far back as Mommsen in the 19th century, but despite that works of fiction (e.g. Ben Hur) have promoted the fallacy of Roman Navy galley slaves.
Not a bad read, but the inherent contradictions between the author's emphasis on accurate historic depiction of Roman military tactics and organization is in complete contrast with his characters, who might as well be Tommy Adkins and Harry Paget Flashman as 1st Century AD Romans -- and the Carthaginian character practically quoting Shelly's "Ozymandias" is just a bit too clever/precious... Are we trying to be Patrick O'Brien here? Admittedly, the portrait of poor Claudius is not exactly out of Robert Graves, but that hardly compensates. That said, good battle scenes, good overall narrative, with rhythm, action and flow that generally keep the reader interested... and we all know that in the end, Vitellius has it coming...