Read as an audio book.

I really enjoyed this story, which was only made stronger by its adherence to historical context and culture. It was well researched, and the historical notes at the end were fascinating, and yet it was still a rollercoaster of action, mystery and clever dialogue. The narration was also very well done, with almost all characters having distinct voices and accents making it easy to differentiate despite the complex and often similar names and titles.

A very good read (listen?) that I can't believe I put off reading for so long. ( )

Read as an audio book.

I really enjoyed this story, which was only made stronger by its adherence to historical context and culture. It was well researched, and the historical notes at the end were fascinating, and yet it was still a rollercoaster of action, mystery and clever dialogue. The narration was also very well done, with almost all characters having distinct voices and accents making it easy to differentiate despite the complex and often similar names and titles.

A very good read (listen?) that I can't believe I put off reading for so long. ( )

Action adventure on the northern edge of Roman Britain, before the Wall was built.

The author tells a good yarn although there were times it seemed the author was determined to give us the benefit of ALL his research into the Roman Army and I felt quite overwhelmed. Still, good enough for me to continue with the series. ( )

Rather Boy's Own. Soldiers battling.

The leader of the Brigantian scouts has the rather unfortunate name of Vindex. Which not only sounds like Windex, but since the Romans probably pronounced v as w, actually would have been Windex.

Unabridged audiobook:

The reader sometimes pauses mid-sentence when the phrase should be continuous. The reader also uses an assortment of accents and tones for various different characters, which may or may not work for you. ( )

Titus Flavius Ferox has a foot each in two very different cultures: he is a prince of the Silures as well as a centurion in the Roman army, stationed in the far north of Britain in AD 98. Bored and with nothing much to do, he is often found drunk, but this changes when he rescues the wife of the prefect of Vindolanda during an ambush. There is evidence that someone is stirring up the surrounding tribes to start a sacred war against Rome, and Ferox must learn the truth while trying not to get killed in several skirmishes and battles against the locals, who at best tolerate the invaders and at worst openly oppose them.

This is a foray into fiction by the well-respected historian Adrian Goldsworthy, an expert on Rome and the army in particular, and as such the novel represents a faultless evocation of the period. Yet he is not a natural novelist and the characterisation falls back on cliché, the dialogue often feels clumsy and the pace, especially during the skirmishes and battles, is too bogged down with historical detail to flow easily. While I could clearly see the action unfolding in front of my eyes, with graphic descriptions of the carnage wrought by each side, the heart did not engage, and I felt very removed from the proceedings. Despite the fact that the plot turns into some kind of historical whodunnit, any genuine tension simply did not arise. There is a large cast of military characters and I had trouble keeping track of who’s who, as their characters weren’t sufficiently distinguishable from each other; a cast of characters in the prelims would have helped here. Additionally, I sometimes struggled to keep up with the plot as it wasn’t always easy to follow, with a few too many jumps in the narrative, not to mention several credibility-straining coincidences. Though the historical note in the appendix, as can be expected with a historian author, is interesting and makes one appreciate how much research has gone into writing this novel, in all I couldn’t help feeling that tension and pace were sacrificed for the flavour of authenticity.

The fact that I’m still considering reading the upcoming sequel is due to the fact that Flavius Ferox is an engaging character with an intriguing past and I’m interested to find out where the author is taking the story. A very generous three stars. ( )