| Product: |
Centurion (Roman Legion 8) - Simon Scarrow |
| Date: |
21/07/08 (50 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Great story and good character insight
Disadvantages: None
I have read all 8 of Simon Scarrows Roman Legion books and i would say this is definetly within the top 3!
Since the first book we have come to love the now Centurion Cato and Macro on their struggle through Gaul, Britain and Syria. They though they had come through the toughest battles they were ever likely to be faced with, how wrong were they.
Personally i enjoyed the first two books the most, its where we got to learn about Cato and Macro's personalities and backgrounds, now however we see that Cato is no longer the scared inexperienced boy he used to be, in many ways he is older than his veteran friend Macro.
Macro is soldier through and through, simply see's a battle as a melee brawl with the strongest no doubt becoming the victor, he heavily relies on Cato to be the brains of the operation as he has proved to be many times before.
In this book we see the pair in a struggle against the Parthian armies, defending the city Palmyras, a key stronghold in a political struggle, and already in revolt. Macro and Cato must defend the city from itself but more importantly the parthians. The Governor Cassius Longinus who we met in book seven knows Macro and Cato are onto his plans to overthrow the Roman EMpire in Syria and tries his hardest to get rid of them in anyway he can without it looking too suspiscious. Luckily for him a call for aid fom Palmyra gives him his opportunity. He sends Macro, Cato and a small force to help the King in advance of the main army knowing what immense danger they face.
On route the small force is attacked by a large force of Parthians, a foe unlike Cato and Macro have ever fought before. The large Romand shields and short swords are no use for the long range of the Parthian horse archers. I will not tell you anymore, it will ruin some key parts of the book.
I have read many Roman historical books and i find the way Scarrow distinguishes between the different fighting styles of the Romans and Parthians to be brilliant, both have their strengths and weaknesses.
This book is filled with treachery, immersive and detailed battle scenes and a good love story to keep all you romantics interested...I would advis reading all 8 of Simon Scarrows books, they can be purcahsed from Amazon for around £3 softback and the later ones (7 & 8) for around £6 in hardback (at time of writing).
Summary: A solid read that you wont want to put down, i didn't.
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