Under the Eagle : A Tale of Military Adventure and Reckless Heroism with the Roman Legions

Rating:
Summary: A thoroughly enjoyable read, fascinating start to finish!
Review: I'm not sure what some of the previous reviewers were looking for in this book, but clearly some people missed the point - this is a novel, and one written by an English scholar who specializes in Roman History as it pertains to his homeland, Great Britain. As such it is fiction, and does not pretend to use latin phrases ad nauseam! The story is a page turner and I simply could not put it down until I had finished the entire book! Having finished, I could not wait months for the next volume to become available in the USA, so I had a copy shipped from Amazon-UK. If you are interested in Rome and enjoy historical fiction, what are you waiting for?? The battle sequences alone are worth the price of the book, and they get better in the next two volumes.

Rating:
Summary: To march with a centurion
Review: Mr Scarrow has written an enjoyable and readible book that places the reader in the Roman Army in Gaul during the mid First Century AD. The plot is a little far fetched but the action and the characters place the reader back in time and carries him through the book at a rapid pace. I had a little difficulty with the fact that the Roman soldiers spoke with a British accent and used English expressions but since I don't know Latin, I guess that is accepable. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and look forward to his other books.

Rating:
Summary: Detailed setting, dull story, utterly flat characters.
Review: 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:
Summary: breaking a lance in honour of the book..
Review: YES- I've read the reviews-the good and the less friendly.Buying the book,I had second thoughts,and when it arrived in the usual bunch,I was not sure,whether I should start with it.
I'm glad I did,I simply wolved it down,looking for faults and mistakes in the beginning ,and only looking for Cato's and Macro's fates from an early point.
Sticklers have pointed out a lot of reasons for critique-historical points,character drawing,believability of events-
forget them all.This is entertainment,and in that deparmtment,it succeeds with flying colours.
I postponed or renounced tv,the computer,the net,just to read through it.
Upon finishing,I ordered the other instalments,preordered the coming ones(on german amazon),stating I wanted the available parts of the series NOW!
Give it a shot,if you're looking for ravishingly entertaining suspense before the backdrop of the Roman conquest of Britain-you're sure to find a corker!