Simon Scarrow

‘Centurion’ is a Roman adventure set in Syria, full of action and drama, along with a little humour. The plot is strong and is engaging.

The main characters from the previous books, Cato and Macro, endure more hardships and dangers.

I didn’t get into this novel as much as I did with the previous in the series, namely ‘The Eagle in the Sand’, which gripped me from start to finish, but ‘Centurion’ features many captivating scenes and the author does a good job of placing me in show more first-century Syria.

One thing this book has that most of the previous ones don't is titillation. Cato meets a Roman woman who cares for the sick and injured and romance blossoms. The author is good at creating female characters, so glad he's introduced one here to spice the story up.

The language is contemporary, which makes the narrative flow better than if the author had used archaic turns of phrase. He also uses modern English slang, which some readers won’t like, but at least it’s consistent. I’ve read historical novels where in one scene a character says something like, ‘Keep it in your trousers,’ while in another scene someone else says, ‘Whence came he thus?’

While I admit I would’ve preferred the language to not incorporate modern slang, the characters and third-person narration are engaging enough for this not to make me feel like I’m reading a story set during any period other than the first century AD.

Perhaps my being an Englishman makes the slang words and phrases more palatable. I admit, it did annoy me when, in another historical novel, the author of that book used the odd Americanism – ‘ass’ and ‘butt’, for example – so I can understand why any non-English reader – and certainly non-British – would be distracted by the slang terms.

So, while the slang words and phrases didn’t bother me, three other elements did distract me at times. One being a trait that keeps cropping up in books I’ve read this year by different authors, namely this sort of thing: ‘more loudly’, ‘more closely’, instead of the concise ‘louder’ and ‘closer’. Don’t use two words if one will do.

Adverbs: they ‘tell’, not ‘show’, and should be cut or replaced with a strong verb wherever possible.

The two points above are minor criticisms. The one big gripe I have is the overuse of ‘then’ to state what happens next. This novel is riddled with ‘thens’, at times making the third-person narrative sound like a child’s voice. ‘Then’ is easy to cut when editing, and it’s not hard to drop it altogether. It ends up being a filler word, notably when using it to start a sentence. The reader knows whatever’s happening is taking place after what’s just happened, so no need to put, ‘Then he …’ and such like.

In most cases, I deduct a star if a book is riddled with ‘thens’ or swamped with adverbs. As someone who appreciates good writing style, these things drive me to distraction. Yet, as mentioned, ‘The Eagle in the Desert’ is such a cracking story it overrode these niggling points.

It’s easier to go on and on criticising a book than it is to praise it over and over, and I’ve doubtless not expressed how impressed I am with ‘Centurion’ to the extent it deserves, so, in a nutshell, I’ll state this: it’s a damn good read. show less

The Kripo unit is getting nowhere with its investigation into forged food coupons so the murder of a local gang leader is a welcome diversion. However when the murdered man's club is destroyed in an arson attack Schenke discovers that the two cases are linked. This brings him into the orbit of Guttmann, a highly connected Berlin criminal. When Guttmann sees a way of getting him on his payroll, Schenke has to decide how far he can stretch his loyalties.
I've really enjoyed the previous books show more in the series and this is the best one yet. I love the way that morality is tested through the Nazi regime where failure to conform as demanded can have serious consequences. Therefore this book works as a historical novel, an exploration of the effect of Nazi power on the ordinary people of Germany and also as a really satisfying police procedural. show less

"Under The Eagle" is first class entertainment if you're in the mood for historical military fiction.

Simon Scarrow does an excellent job in generating an insider's view of life in a Roman Legion. It feels real and immediate, even if it also sometimes feels like British Squaddies kitted-out with shields and short swords.

This a simple but exciting tale, told at just the right pace, in clear, straight forward language. The kind of language you might imagine the Legionaries themselves using.

We show more see the Legion from the point of view of the fictional Macro, a life-long legionary, recently promoted to Centurion; Cato, a young, well-educated, slave from the Imperial Palace, raised with to appreciate poetry and plays and now sent to Legion as a condition of being granted his freedom; and through the eyes of three real-life characters, Vespasian, the Legate commanding the Second Legion, his wife Flavia and Vitellius a Tribune under Vespasian's command. The book is set in AD43, when Claudius was planning the invasion of Britain, twenty-six years before both Vitellius and Vespasian would be declared Emperor in "The Year Of The Four Emperors".

We see the Legion in action as a garrison in Germany and follow it as it becomes part of the invasion force and presses on to meet the Britons. Along the way, Cato learns to become an Optio (second in command to the Centurion, roughly equivalent to a Lieutenant) a rank he does not have the experience for, and we have the fun of learning alongside him.

In addition to real historical events, the plot is driven by a political intrigue, centred around a chest of treasure, the Julius Caesar was forced to abandon as he retreated from Britain a hundred years earlier. It is brought to life by battle scenes that are vivid, physical, blood-soaked and just frequent enough to keep up the tension.

This is a fine start to a march through a particularly turbulent period of Roman history. David Thorpe's narration is easy on the ear, turning the inside of my head into a cinema screen and letting me sit back and enjoy the fun.

I'm looking forward to the rest of this series. I'll reach for it whenever I need a relaxing entertainment, spiced with military action and little political intrigue. show less

I rated the previous three books in the series with five stars, but ‘The Eagle and the Wolves’ doesn’t quite equal those other titles. I put this down to the situation, namely that while the first three novels feature numerous settings with the characters moving from here to there, in this story it’s largely set in one place. While this in no way makes it boring, it does limit the scope and variation. It also lacks a love interest for the two main characters, which spiced up the show more narrative in their earlier adventures.

This is still a Roman adventure, full of action and drama, but the excitement levels are down a notch from Books 1–3.

The characters are vivid. Cato, the main ‘star’, is my favourite. He’s believable and relatable. He’s getting to grips with being a centurion at such a young age. This new rank changes the dynamic between him and fellow centurion Macro to a small extent.

The different ranks take some getting used to if, like me, your knowledge of Roman times is sparse.

The language is contemporary, which makes the narrative flow better than if the author had used archaic turns of phrase. He also uses modern English slang, which some readers won’t like, but at least it’s consistent. I’ve read historical novels where in one scene a character says something like, ‘Keep it in your trousers,’ while in another scene someone else says, ‘Whence came he thus?’

While I admit I would’ve preferred the language to not incorporate modern slang, the characters and third-person narration are engaging enough for this not to make me feel like I’m reading a story set during any period other than the first century AD.

Perhaps my being an Englishman makes the slang words and phrases more palatable. I admit, it did annoy me when, in another historical novel, the author of that book used the odd Americanism – ‘ass’ and ‘butt’, for example – so I can understand why any non-English reader – and certainly non-British – would be distracted by the slang terms.

So, while the slang words and phrases didn’t bother me, three other elements did distract me at times. One being a trait that keeps cropping up in books I’ve read this year by different authors, namely this sort of thing: ‘more loudly’, ‘more closely’, instead of the more concise ‘louder’ and ‘closer’. Don’t use two words if one will do.

Adverbs: the ‘tell’, not ‘show’. In ‘Macro glared angrily,’ the adverb not only ‘tells’, it’s superfluous, as ‘glared’ shows his anger.

The two points above are minor criticisms. The one big gripe I have is the overuse of ‘then’ to state what happens next. This novel is riddled with ‘thens’, at times making the third-person narrative sound like a child’s voice. ‘Then’ is easy to cut when editing, and it’s not hard to drop it altogether. It ends up being a filler word, most notably when using it to start a sentence. The reader knows whatever’s happening is taking place after what’s just happened, so no need to put, ‘Then he …’ and such like.

In most cases, I deduct a star if a book is riddled with ‘thens’ or swamped with adverbs. As someone who appreciates good writing style, these things drive me to distraction. Yet, ‘The Eagle and the Wolves’ is such an engaging story it overrode these niggling points. show less