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The Silver Eagle (2009)

by Ben Kane(Favorite Author)

4.08 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1848090110 (ISBN13: 9781848090118)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Preface Publishing

series

Forgotten Legion Chronicles

review 1: Another enjoyable read from Ben Kane. I really enjoyed the first novel in this series and found that I couldn't put it down - this 2nd book was just the same. Ben has done a lot of research into the Roman period and it shows, I found the historical side of the story fascinating and funnily enough while I hadn't even heard of Mithras before these novels I happened to watch a documentary on the Roman War Machine when I was reading this and it which mentioned Mithras and even showed inside one of the shrines - this brought new life to the novel and helped me to picture things clearer.My one criticism is that while I can understand that haruspicy was a historical fact and that while I can believe that some of the signs and portents foretelling what happens could be coincidenta... morel I did find that certain parts of the novel where characters had visions of exact happenings to other characters took us into the realm of complete fantasy and took me out of the story a little bit. I'm all for showing us how people believed in different gods, etc in historical times but I expect a degree of reality from my historically based novels. A near criticism is the death of a certain person which happens off page - what!??! I could hardly believe it even when they explained what had happened later, it was a bit of a letdown and as if they'd missed this persons biggest moment. My only hope is that perhaps they aren't actually dead and might return later as is sometimes the case when you don't actually see a body as it were..Overall a great read and I'm looking forward to concluding the trilogy with the next novel.
review 2: After reading The Forgotten Legion last week and having thoroughly enjoyed it, I decided to read the Silver Eagle this week (after a brief interlude with Simon Scarrows Gladiator: Fight for Freedom) to see where Romulus and company had got to and what had happened to them after they had had been captured by the Parthians and made to fight in their army.Book two of the Forgotten Legion Chronicles finds the intrepid threesome in the frozen winter of Eastern Margiana operating out of a Roman style fort built by the survivors in the legion, fighting against the Sychians, built nearby are small fortlets. Meanwhile Fabiola is a freed-woman having been bought out of slavery by Brutus, trusted friend of General Giaus Julius Caesar.With a huge revolt in Gaul, Caesars legions are fighting a bitter war whilst Cato and Pompey are plotting his downfall from the safety of Rome, where trouble is also brewing with rioting on the streets. With Vercengetorex withdrawing hundreds of thousands of warriors to Alesia a major battle is in the offing for Caesars army of sixty thousand.The Silver Eagle in my opinion with the above back drop is equally as good as The Forgotten Legion. Ben Kane manages once again to produce an exciting story that easily enables you to 'feel' what the main characters are experiencing and for you to visualise his story whilst at the same time combining factual history in his books.There are a few revelations in the Silver Eagle that explain some of the topics in the Forgotten Legion, that were unsuspected. It brings the reader quite cleverly to a place where The Road to Rome starts for what I believe is the conclusion to the storyline. Another cracking romp through Roman history with great characters that is highly recommended, keep it going Ben! less

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