Rating: 
Summary: Long live Maximus!
Review: This book was.. for lack of a better word, Awesome. From the start, it keeps its readers captivated and with the sense that they have an eye in the past, viewing the end of the Roman Empire as it happens. Breem has done a remarkable job portraying Maximus, the head of a Legion, defending a key location on the Roman frontier from the barbarian tribes pushing against him. The book shows the difficulties faced by armies of the past both in battle and logistically. Maximus has been brought to light as a real man, troubled as we all are but called on to serve a higher purpose and one who has trancended the frivolities that we spend so much of our time thinking about. Whether you like historical fiction, history, or just like reading a well spun yarn.. this book is for you.Long Live Breem!
Rating: 
Summary: Under "B" for Boring!
Review: This is a well-written book, no doubt about it, but it's written by a man for men to read. The main character is so righteous and so full of himself that wins no sympathy. At least none from me. Then end does not come to soon.
Rating:
Summary: Commanding First-Person Narrative of the Fall of Rome
Review: Wallace Breem's "Eagle in the Snow" perfectly marries style and substance. A brief prologue informs the reader that this is a melancholy age of defeat, and the surviving general of one of Rome's last defeats is going to tell his story.
From there, Maximus, Roman General, tells the tale of how he built the 20th Legion from nothing into one of Rome's finest legions, but was still unable to stop the Germanic Barbarians from crossing the Rhine. Rome is ripe to fall, corruption is rampant, and intrigues are everywhere -- rival Emperors are only too quick to proclaim themselves supreme.
Maximus, however, is a throw-back to the true Roman spirit, and proves that the guy who most deserves to be Emperor is the last guy who would accept the title. Sent to guard the Wall in Britain and to put down a rebellion (led by his childhood friend Julian, who murdered Maximus' father and is sentenced by Maximus to death in the gladiatorial arena), Maximus gains a reputation for being a hard man. His steely character is not enough to prevent Julian, who survived the arena and won his freedom only to unite the tribes of Britain and overwhelm the British legions.
Reeling from this defeat, Maximus is next assigned to guard the Rhine frontier . . . one legion against two hundred thousand united Barbarians. In addition to these hopeless odds, Maximus must also fight against a corrupt bureacracy that refuses all but the smallest request for aid and also against a Christian church that despises Maximus' pagan beliefs. Still, through it all, Maximus and his officers soldier on.
All too soon, the Barbarians are at the Rhine and desperate to cross. Maximus uses all his soldierly craft as well as some quite cunning maneuvers, but despite all his planning, Maximus realizes that his doom is foretold -- he will lose the Rhine. Before that happens, though, both his friends and enemies will offer him the chance to become Emperor -- the one prize he does not want.
Through it all, Breem writes with a direct, soldier's prose. Despite the clarity of his writing, though, there is a definite poetry to Breem's writing, and there are many passages to be savored. The battle scenes are also described with a soldier's eye for detail, and tactics are easily grasped by the reader. Breem also crams in a lot of historical detail (the glossary is much appreciated), but less than other novels of the Roman era (see Colleen McCullouch's "Masters of Rome" series for an example of a more detailed masterpiece).
Maximus, whose heart is quite tender despite his steely resolve, repeatedly notes the human cost of this doomed conflict -- his recollection of a solitary barbarian charging the Roman lines to avenge his dead wife and children is particularly moving. Maximus watches his forces dwindle, thanks both to the Barbarians and the horrific German winter, with a resolute poignancy that is unique, and even Maximus realizes that he continues to learn about humanity as his fate marches ever closer.
This book is a must-read for fans of historical fiction as well as for any student of Rome. Most historical fiction about Rome seems to revolve around Julius Caesar and the early Empire . . . the juicy tidbits of those times are just too good to pass up, I suppose. "Eagle in the Snow" has a different focus and tells the somber tale of the fall of Rome, and a mighty tale it is, too.
A must-read if there ever was one!
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