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David McK (3540 KP) rated The Emperor's Exile in Books

Apr 25, 2021  
The Emperor's Exile
The Emperor's Exile
Simon Scarrow | 2021
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
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.
  
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David McK (3540 KP) rated The Druids Lair (Warrior #2) in Books

May 29, 2023  
The Druids Lair (Warrior #2)
The Druids Lair (Warrior #2)
Simon Scarrow, TJ Andrews | 2022
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
The second of, I believe, five e-book novellas based around the life of Caratacus, this is framed the same as the previous entry (The King in Rome, in that it is presented as Caratacus recounting his life - warts and all - to a minor Roman historian whilst in captivity/exile in Rome.

If that previous novella was centred around his younger life, then this one is around (roughly) his teenage years, where he is sent to be mentored by the Druids of Briton and initiated into their ways.

As is often the case, Caratacus must also find some way of dealing with the local bully, who is both older and stronger than the new initiates.

As a novella, this also must stand on it's own, as it were, complete with an opening, the main body of the story and then a conclusion within a relatively short number of (digital) pages!