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Title: Under the Eagle : A Tale of Military Adventure and Reckless Heroism with the Roman Legions by Simon Scarrow ISBN: 0-312-27870-5 Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books Pub. Date: 05 October, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.58 (38 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Detailed setting, dull story, utterly flat characters.
Comment: The details of daily life in the Legions give "Under the Eagle" a fascinating backdrop to a dull story involving boring characters. These utterly flat, two dimensional people are built around stock military adventure novel stereotypes as old as the Legions themselves, like the geeky upper class new recruit, the menacing bully, and the crusty veteran. The "comic book" analogy of a previous reviewer is accurate - the narrative tells exactly what all of the characters are thinking through a clumsy omniscient point of view, instead of showing it through their actions. The awkward dialog they blurt out, laced with an anachronistic modern British flavor, keeps the plot moving without developing any depth of characterization. The thin plot involves the Legion commander looking for a political conspirator in his officer corps, far more than it involves the invasion of Britain. Lots of armchair Roman historians seem to love that an author has sent an adventure series in this time period so much that they revel in Scarrow's thorough historical accuracy but overlook his sloppy prose. "Under the Eagle" is a fun read, but a quick and ultimately empty one.
Rating: 4
Summary: A Promising Start
Comment: This book is a ripping yarn, firmly in the tradition of Bernard Cornwell's "Sharpe" novels, set around the Roman invasion of Britain in 43 AD. I found the story gripped me, held my interest to the end and left me wanting more. The action was well-paced and the central characters were well-drawn. On the down side, some of the minor characters were a bit 2 dimensional (and, on the historical-accuracy front, I'm not sure the Belgae of southeast Britain rode "shod" horses). Nevertheless, I enjoyed this book and look forward to the further adventures of Cato, Macro and the rest!
Rating: 3
Summary: An entertaining, quick read
Comment: I enjoyed reading "Under the Eagle." The plot and character development held my interest enough to keep me reading. It's a quick read and I was able to finish it in day. It kept me turning the page and interested to find out what would happen next. That pretty much fills my criterion of an entertaining read and that's all I expected from it. I didn't start reading it with the belief that it would rival Pressfield's "Gates of Fire" or Chiavetone's "A Road We Do Not Know" as a modern classic of military historical fiction and it most certainly did not.
"Under the Eagle" is an attempt to give the reader a "boots on the ground" view of the Roman army in the 1st Century AD by following the lives and adventures of two junior officers in the 2nd Legion- a veteran, battle-hardened centurion, Macro, and a fresh-faced, kid recruit, Cato, who because of connections is promoted to Macro's optio or second-in-command. It's a neat premise- what was it like to live and fight in a Roman Legion. However, Scarrow was only partly successful in creating this premise into a compelling work of historical fiction.
Scarrow obviously did some heavy historical research to capture the locations and political atmosphere of the era. However, one also gets the idea that Scarrow has watched too many war movies and unfortunately fell back on those memories to fill his novel with cliches and anachronistic dialogue. The recruit training parts are something out of "Full Metal Jacket" and the relationship between Macro/Cato is similar to the one between John Wayne and John Agar had in "The Sands of Iwo Jima"- a soft, rich kid grows up and becomes a leader under the tutelage of a battle-hardened vet. The most jarring fault of Scarrow is having his Roman soldiers talk just like modern-day Brits. It's extremely silly when you come across this dialogue and really helps ruin the historical atmosphere. (In my life I have taken five years of Latin and I never learned the Latin equivilents of "wanker," "bloody," or "bugger.")
Also, Scarrow seems to get bored with describing the day to day lives of 1st century legionnaires and thus moves the plot into one of political intrigue. It would have been nice to get a more detailed look at life in a Roman century- like what kind of men made up the Roman army. However, with a few weakly drawn exceptions, the men of the 6th Century, 4th Cohort are mostly nameless figures whose only purpose is to fill out the casuality rolls.
The faults of this novel are glaring, but I still finished it in a day. So there is definetely something here that is worth checking out if you like historical fiction. I thought Scarrow did a great job of introducing characters and plot strings that really make one want to continue reading. I was pulled into this novel early on. It is also well-plotted and the historical setting is very interesting. So if you're looking for a fun, quick read of historical fiction then by all means check out "Under the Eagle."
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Title: The Eagle's Conquest: A Novel by Simon Scarrow ISBN: 0312305338 Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books Pub. Date: 01 December, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Eagle in the Snow by Wallace Breem ISBN: 1590710118 Publisher: Rugged Land Pub. Date: 23 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: When the Eagle Hunts by Simon Scarrow ISBN: 0312305354 Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books Pub. Date: 01 February, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Ten Thousand : A Novel Of Ancient Greece by Michael Curtis Ford ISBN: 0312269463 Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books Pub. Date: 13 July, 2001 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Gods and Legions: A Novel of the Roman Empire by Michael Curtis Ford ISBN: 0312275382 Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books Pub. Date: 01 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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