Rating: 
Summary: Orgin of Pressfield's Gates of Fire?
Review: It is quite telling that this reprinting of Wallace Breem's 1970 novel "Eagle in the Snow" has a forward by Steven Pressfield, author of the best selling novel, "Gates of Fire." Because upon reading "Eagle in the Snow," it's very evident that this is where Pressfield got the idea of his novel being narrated by the sole survivor of a lost battle retelling his story for an audience. It is little wonder that Pressfield is so praiseworthy in the forward because "borrowing" the narrative format from "Eagle in the Snow" helped make him a very wealthy man.Breem has an eye for detail in some matters, but not in others. For instance, he gives few details on how these people looked like. How are these barbarians dressed and what do they use for armor and weapons? Do these early 5th century Roman legionnaires look anything like the 1st century Legionnaires shown on the cover of the book? (The cover of this reprint was obviously designed to attract fans of the movie "Gladiator." It also helps that the main character is a Roman general named "Maximus." Did "Gladiator's" screenplay writers read this book?") I would have really appreciated more detail on arms and equipment, but Breem gives very little. Also, I was curious why Breem didn't even bother giving a name to one of the few female characters in the story- she's just "Rando's daughter" or "the girl." Where Breem does give detail is on the personalities of various characters- ruthless, opportunistic barbarian kings; cowardly, venal civilian authorities; and proud, professional Roman soldiers. (Breem, a former British Army officer, does not hide his sympathies.) Breem also goes into great detail on the tactical and operational situation facing his Roman general. With too few troops, Maximus must defend a 50 mile stretch of the Rhine River against a threatened mass migration of Germanic barbarians. How Maximus keeps these tribes ignorant as to his weakness through subterfuge and diplomacy while at the same time maximizing his own tactical abilities to keep them off-balance is the crux of the novel. Meanwhile, he must also combat apathetic and pessimistic civilian authorities for his supplies and, above all, reinforcements. It is a very tenuous situation, but Maximus does have one huge ally- the Rhine River, deep and wide, it is an almost impregnable, naturally-made barrier to invasion. But, if the upcoming winter is exceptionally cold then the Rhine could become his greatest enemy.... Overall, if one can stick through the rather weak beginning then "Eagle in the Snow" becomes a very engrossing read. How Maximus deals with the challeges of a very difficult military situation is gripping.
Rating:
Summary: Good but poor copyediting aggravating
Review: It's a very good story, which lovers of historical fiction, especially works emphasizing the Roman era, will like. However, beware! If you are a stickler for detail, the poor copyediting may mar what otherwise would be a wonderful read.
Rating:
Summary: Decent Historical Epic
Review: Originally published almost 35 years ago, this lengthy novel about a Roman officer in the early 5th century AD was allegedly the inspiration for the opening sequence of the film Gladiator. Alas, for the most part it's much more tedious than that sword and sandal epic, although perhaps equally grim in tone. Amid the tedium, however, is a pretty decent portrayal of an empire crumblingóa view of the Roman Empire not generally seen. We first meet Maximus as a junior officer manning Hadrian's Wall, holding back the Picts, Saxons, and Scotty barbarians. This initial section is very plodding, and contains a rather silly subplot concerning his cousin and brother officer who is part of a failed coup attempt and flees to live among the barbarians. Meanwhile, Maximus marries, dreams of seeing Rome, and becomes best friends with a nearby cavalry officer. An old-fashioned man, he stands for everything the Empire used to, duty, honor, the old gods, and so forth. Unfortunately for him, Christianity is taking over, and the Empire is a failing institution, rotting from the core.
After being stuck in this backwater for most of his prime years, enduring personal tragedy, and seeing all his best efforts go to waste, he is unexpectedly asked by General Stilicho to raise and train a legion. Bringing his best friend with him to be head of cavalry, Maximus manages to rise to the task and go on to fight for several years in Italia. Most of this happens "off camera", and the book really kicks into gear in the second part, when Maximus' legion is sent to the empire's northern frontier to hold the Rhine against the Germanic tribes trying to push into Gaul. The Huns have come from the East and are driving the Vandals, Goths and other tribes out of their traditional lands and toward Roman turf. Maximus is given scant resources, almost no political support, and vague promises of reinforcements to supplement his mere 6,000 men.
At this point, the book does get pretty interesting, as Maximus tries to build alliances with friendly tribes, bluffs the Germanic kings into thinking he's got a stronger force than he does, browbeats the locals into providing more men, horses, and food to his army, all the while trying to set up a network of outposts, forts, and even a small river fleet. All of this is an attempt to stall until reinforcements arrive the next year, but the prologue reveals that there will be a battle, and that Maximus will lose. When the fighting does start, the book kicks into high gear, as strategic and tactical efforts are detailed, and Maximus uses every trick in the book to offset his foe's huge numerical superiority. Not only are the battle scenes great, but great deal of emphasis is given the logistics, communications, and supply issues involved, and how critical all of these are. The final third of the book is crucial reading for anyone interested in the Roman Empire's military.
On the whole, it's worth reading for anyone really into fiction about the Roman Empire, however there's a lot of clunky plotting and fat that could be trimmed. The whole subplot about Maximus' cousin, who reemerges later, is silly and unnecessary. As is a cheesy betrayal that's not nearly the surprise to the reader that the author must have intended. And all the stuff about duty, honor, and Empire wears thin fairly quickly. Of course, Breem was an officer in the old Indian Army, and served just after WWII, as the British Empire was crumbling, so it's not hard to see the book as a little bit of projection. Bearing in mind that it was written in the late-1960s, one could also easily read this as a Cold War allegory, with Maximus standing for valiant Western military who are being betrayed by lilly-livered politicians and a soft public into not standing against the faceless hordes of Germanic barbarians, who stand for godless communists (be they Russian, Chinese, or North Vietnamese). Still, it's fine old-fashioned romantic epic about one man battling the odds and trying to live by his own code.
Rating: 
Summary: MAGNIFICENT
Review: Rome fell because Romans stoped believing in its glory. The one man who cared watches his legion die in his last futile attempt to turn back time and restore the glory that was Rome. I could emphatize with Maximus, the noble and decent warrior in his attempt to try to stop the barbarians from crossing the Rhine and taking Gaul. He almost succeeded against inmense odds (one legion against six nations !) but ultimately the elements and the lack of care of Rome's corrupt officials conspire and bring ultimate defeat upon the legion so paisntainkingly raised and trained by Maximus. In the process he loses love, friends, family but leaves a legacy of honor. What a great narrative about a not very well comprehended period of history. Will our civilization succumb becuase we stop to care ?
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: Superb book - I only leant it from a friend but i might now
buy it.
It really captures the last ditch feel of a final struggle against the barbarian hordes - and regardless of revisionist tv and writing they did cause immense suffering and destruction within the late roman empire.
Just one caveat - the army described in the book is not really the late roman army - which by this time looked quite barbarian it used the spatha , not the gladius etc etc..
If you are interested by the two osprey titles on the period
late roman cavalryman and late roman infantryman.
Both in the warriors series I think.
All the other details seem correct to me as a layman.
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: Waiting for the end
Review: This recent reissue has my vote as belonging with the finest historical novels ever written. My vote may not count for much, of course, but Mary Renault's does, and she agrees with me. Shortly before she died she wrote an enthusiastic, praise-filled review of Wallace Breem's then newly published (1970) novel, every extravagant word of which is true. Many other readers have loved this brilliant novel, and it is a mystery why more than thirty years have passed between editions. It is available now, and I am grateful.
Eagle in the Snow is among the vanishingly few works of historical fiction that can stand comparison with Renault's novels of Classical Greece or Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin sea stories of the Napoleonic wars. I have no higher praise.
Breem's story is concerned with a pivotal event in Western history, the decline and destruction of the Roman world. Eagle in the Snow is the most polished and elegiac fictional account of Rome's fall yet published. It's a moving but unsentimental narrative of loyalty and duty set against fate, with its larger theme a disturbing look at how easily life as we know it falls apart.
The highest of the virtues, says the novel, is loyalty, unless it be love, but what is love without loyalty? The narrator, P. Maximus, commander of the Twentieth legion, loves Rome, or at least loves the idea of Rome. He will not abandon her in troubled times. With growing unease we follow Maximus as, without illusions but with courage, determination and skill, he sets about a seemingly hopeless attempt to stop the unstoppable.
Those with even a slight knowledge of our history will recognize that Maximus has chosen a mission (turn away the Dark Ages) in which real success is simply not possible. Even if he manages a miraculous victory this time, the barbarians are bound to come some other year, and soon. The Roman world is failing, rotting from the inside out, Maximus a man trying to hold back the tide.
Foreknowledge of ultimate failure lends a melancholy autumnal coloring to Eagle in the Snow. In this sense the novel is a lingering farewell to things old and precious, a long goodbye beneath a setting sun. However the hard, spare, clear narrative is an effective counterpoint to the mood of gathering twilight. Breem's story is both brisk and poignant, and manages to be tragic without ever being merely sad.
Eagle in the Snow is also the single best account of a legion in combat that I have ever read. Set on the west bank of the Rhine in the ferocious winter of 405-406 A.D., the book mourns the death of a once glittering culture and the legions that had sustained it. The Twentieth legion is ancient as military formations go. It has been over three centuries since the Roman Senate honored it with the title "Victrix." No human institution, however, endures forever. Defenders of a dying world, Maximus's legion dies hard in a snowy wasteland, fighting to the last against impossible odds. The cold, restrained, unsparing tone maintained by the narrative is nothing less than extraordinary.
The profound question the novel asks is how men, knowing the end to be near, should behave. Are honor and duty admirable follies or real and worth dying for? What price survival? What price loyalty? "Great" is a term I try not to use lightly or often, but the word is unavoidable here. Wallace Breem has written a great book.
Steven Pressfield contributes a suitably laudatory "Introduction."
Rating:
Summary: To march with a real soldier
Review: Wallace Bream puts you directly into the sandals and mind of General Maximus! Few books make you anticipate the battle, fear the enemy, and feel the cold wind and snow sweeping down the valley from across the Rhine River like this book. Eagle in the Snow is a masterpiece of action and adventure told in the first person. Breem gives you the impression that not only are you standing toe to toe with the 20th Legion but you are thinking through each possible action and reaction that your enemy will attempt in his drive to destroy you. You know that you must be reinforced to survive but that there is no guarantee that they will arrive in time. Still you make your plans and execute your manuevers with the forces you have. Duty is first to the Emperor and to the Legion. This is more than just a great read, it is a great adventure. I highly reccommend this book for any Roman or military historian that wants to get a real taste of winter combat in the late Roman Empire. Mr Bream was obviously a soldier and you can tell that he thinks like a great one.
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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