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David McK (3496 KP) rated The Silver Eagle (Forgotten Legion Chronicles, #2) in Books

Jan 30, 2019  
TS
The Silver Eagle (Forgotten Legion Chronicles, #2)
Ben Kane | 2010
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Second book in "The Forgotten Legion" trilogy, in which Ben Kane follows the same format as the first in following his protaganists chapter about (with a few exceptions), and ending each chapter on a cliff-hanger.

Mostly fairly formulaic stuff, and this book has less of the, ahhh .... shall we say ... purple sections of prose than the first, as Fabiola is now a Roman citizen rather than the prostitute, some of whose actions are explicitely described in the previous volume.
  
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David McK (3496 KP) rated Revenge (Roman Arena, #4) in Books

Jan 30, 2019  
R(
Revenge (Roman Arena, #4)
Simon Scarrow | 2013
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
The fourth (of five) entries in Simon Scarrow's 'Arena' e-book exclusive series, this one starts with both Macro and Pavo being forced to participate in a beast fight in the Roman Arena

Unlike the previous entries (most of which followed the same format, ending with a gladiatorial bout), the majority of this one is set in and around the circus itself, and also ends with Pavo moving closer to his ultimate goal of gaining revenge for the death of his father.
  
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Kim Newman recommended Rosemary's Baby (1968) in Movies (curated)

 
Rosemary's Baby (1968)
Rosemary's Baby (1968)
1968 | Classics, Horror, Mystery
8.3 (34 Ratings)
Movie Favorite Watch

"A lullaby for the Antichrist, Roman Polanski’s adaptation of Ira Levin’s diabolic best seller has Manhattanite Rosemary (Mia Farrow) slowly coming to believe that her husband (John Cassavetes), nosy neighbor (Ruth Gordon), and almost everyone else in their apartment building are conspiring against her . . . and that the child she is carrying is the prophesied spawn of Satan. The chanting and summoning are solemn yet absurd, but the sense of betrayal and a world turned against a lone woman makes this an enduring nightmare."

Source
  
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David McK (3496 KP) rated The Eagle of the Ninth in Books

Jan 28, 2019  
The Eagle of the Ninth
The Eagle of the Ninth
Rosemary Sutcliff | 2000
6
6.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
So, this is history (and told in the foreword of this novel): Sometime about the year AD 117, the Roman Ninth Legion marched north to deal with an uprising among the Caledonian tribes (in what is now Scotland), and were never heard of again. Also, nearly eighteen hundred years later during excavations at Silchester, a wingless Roman Eagle was dug up, buried under the fields.

But how did it come to be there?

While no-one knows for certain, those 2 facts together form the starting point for this story, which sees the son of the last commander of said Legion traveling North 'beyond the [Hadrians] wall' to search for and return said Eagle after his partial recovery from his laming during an attack on his outpost, and after he hears rumours of an Imperial Eagle in the Celts hands.

He is accompanied on this journey by his freed slave, whom he had previously (before the journey, during his recovery) rescued from the Arena.

While I had previously seen the 2011 film of the same name, I'd actually never read the source material before, so was unable to say how truly it stuck to the same.

Now I have, and I have to say: said movie does stick remarkably close, even if not entirely faithfully. the book, I found, could be a bit slow at times, and also tended to gloss over the less pleasant (shall we say) aspects of Roman society, with the Romans largely portrayed as civilized as compared to the uncouth Barbarians.

But then again, this is -supposedly - a children's book, and also a product of its time (first published, remember, in the 1950s).