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The Groom-To-Be's Handbook: The Ultimate Guide to a Fabulous Ring, a Memorable Proposal, and the Perfect Wedding

Today's Groom Magazine

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The Ultimate Guide to a Fabulous Ring, a Memorable Proposal, and the Perfect Wedding A fun and...

I Never Knew That About London

Christopher Winn

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Bestselling author Christopher Winn takes us on a captivating journey around London to discover the...

David McK (3632 KP) rated The Emperor's Exile in Books

Apr 25, 2021

There's a bit not far into this novel - and not long before Macro exits, stage left (or is it stage right?), where he and Cato are discussing their shared past, not long after returning to Rome following their failure of their recent campaign on the eastern frontier (in both 'The Blood of Rome' and 'Traitors of Rome.')

Cato: "What words could convey the adventures we have lived through?"
"True," Macro reflected "If some c**t wrote it all down, who would ever believe it!"

And that, pretty much, sums up the last 18 (19, including this!) in Simon Scarrow's 'Eagles of the Empire' series, that first started way back when with Under the Eagle.

Ostracized at Nero's court because of that failure, Cato is blackmailed into accompanying the Emperor's (former, low-born) mistress Claudia Acte into exile on the province of Sardinia: a province that is suffering from both insurgency and an outbreak of plague.

It's up to Cato to supress that insurgency, in a race against time, as the plague starts affecting his ramshackle troops ...

This is another enjoyable read in the series, although I did miss the presence of macro for large swathes of the novel (good news, though: it looks like he's returning in the next instalment). I have to wonder, though, was Apollonius being written as his replacement ...?

Time will tell.