I keep saying this, but, another fun read about our two teflon coated, invulnerable Roman heroes. The story, story? Cata, who only seven years earlier was a mere legionary recruit, now commands a small Roman army charged with defeating a Nubian invasion of the province of Egypt. Needless to say, he defeats the evil invaders, and, along the way, captures and kills (in single combat yet!) the evil rebel gladiator, who is attempting to ferment dissent amongst the Empire's slaves. tsk tsk. It is not easy to run an empire!

I really think that these two guys needs a break. It has been full on for years, killing and maiming (for good reasons) from Britain to Persia. A month or two on an island (with no revolts, earthquakes, or tidal waves please), would do wonders for these guys. ( )

Book 10 in Cato and Macro's lives and it seems that we are not even half way through all that there needs to be said. We opened with Vespasian and the invasion of Britain. After meeting such an august individual back then, it would seem that we are destined to meet him again one day, and see his rise to the purple.

This is actually part of the arc began in book 9, The Gladiator. The villain there, Ajax, slipped away and now needs to be dealt with. Cato, still progressing in his development assumes even greater leadership now, and pursues the hunt efficiently, applying good sound tactics in battle, as well as surviving harrowing fights.

Macro as well, though he may begin to see the end of his progress up the ranks. It is clear that Macro, once the mentor, can only rise so far, but Cato can rise as far as ability can take a man.

Another great read in the series. Well worth investigating. ( )

The Legion
Simon Scarrow
This is the tenth in the series of books with Centurion Macro and now Prefect Cato as heroes, trailing the escaped gladiator Ajax to Egypt, becoming embroiled in the war with the Nubians, and eventually returning to Rome to more intrigue, despite success. The writing is noticeably less skilled than some other authors, but historical fiction about the Roman legions always engages me, and I like the characters ( )

This isn't my favourite book of the series, but it was still good. The battle scenes were detailed as always, and the characterisation of Macro was constant. However, Cato did seem slightly 2D at points and the other characters were not developed to the extent that secondary characters have been developed in previous books, particularly those set in Britain.

*Spoiler alert*

However, there were some very obvious plot turns; too much focus was given on the Junior Tribune who later turned out to be the spy, and it was obvious that Scarrow would make Cato become the Legate because if he didn't they would all have died. However, the likely hood that an ex-slave would become the commander of a legion, even an Egyptian legion, is total fiction and impossible. However, this is a fiction book and he can twist reality.

Scarrow used the idea of a person pretending to be someone else twice in the novel: first with Ajax pretending to be Macro, this annoyed me as I first thought that he had mixed up his descriptions of Macro and Cato; then later on in the novel with Ajax's spy.

I actually think this novel could have been split into two books with more detail added to bulk them out. He could have separated out the Ajax episode, from the defeating of the Nubians. Then again, the more I think about it, the novel does make sense as a whole it just has a number of episodes and then fillers. ( )