HISTORICAL FICTION REVIEW: The Silver Eagle - Ben Kane

BOOK BLURB:

The Forgotten Legion fought against almighty odds at the very edge of the known world - and lost. Now Brennus the Gaul, Tarquinius the Etruscan soothsayer and Romulus, bastard son of a Roman nobleman, are prisoners of Parthia. They dream of escape, but in the brutal fighting which lies ahead, only two will survive. Meanwhile, Fabiola, Romulus' twin sister, is caught up in the vicious eddies of Roman politics. Hunted by slave catchers she flees, hoping to find her lover, Brutus, bound for Alexandria with Caesar. Ben Kane's brilliant second novel plunges his characters into a cauldron of war and terror, as Caesar and the Roman Republic hurtle towards their day of reckoning.


REVIEW:

OK, so I didn’t have to wait too long for this. (In fact just long enough to get a cup of tea, a couple of biscuits to help keep my strength up and a trip to the loo.) But what could I expect from this? Would the writing stand out as much, would the characters grow and perhaps more importantly would the author continue to build on the world and not have it fall down upon his ears.

First of all, the title picks up where the last left off and lets just say that Ben really did give the readers a bloody nose with number of combat sequences within, its brutal, its bloody and above all it’s really got a lot of passion behind it.

Whilst many may rail against some of the simplicity and compare it against firm fan favourites like Scarrow or even Iggulden, the titles by each author have to be taken on their own merit. Or rather than comparing to an already complete series should be compared only that far, so in this case up to book two by each author. Against these first to, you’ll notice that the author has established a pretty vivid and different world to those by the other authors. It’s different to the norm and I feel that its this difference that may have other railing against this pretty unique piece of writing.

Its fun, it’s a brave new world and above all else its got descent character growth that really does allow the reader to immerse themselves in something novel and new. A great title and one that has left me clamouring for the next title.