Thursday 22 July 2010

HISTORICAL FICTION REVIEW: Warrior of Rome 3: The Lion of the Sun - Harry Sidebottom

BOOK BLURB:

It's Mesopotamia, AD 260. Betrayed by his most trusted adviser, the Roman Emperor Valerian has been captured by the Sassanid barbarians. The shame of the vanquished beats down mercilessly like the white sun, as the frail old emperor prostrates himself before Shapur, King of Kings. Ballista looks on helplessly, but vows under his breath to avenge those who have brought the empire to the brink of destruction with their treachery. One day, maybe not soon, but one day, I will kill you ...But first he must decide what price he will pay for his own freedom. Only the fearless and only those whom the gods will spare from hell can now save the empire from a catastrophic ending. Ballista, the Warrior of Rome, faces his greatest challenge yet.


REVIEW:

Having read a number of Harry’s books (well the previous two in this series) before I pretty much knew what to expect. You gat an almost classical education as you read through his work, backed up with charactes that leap from the pages of history to defy the rules and history makers of the day.

Its reasonably paced, the descriptiveness descent and bound together with an outline that does what it says on the tin. Whilst perhaps not as imaginable as Cornwell or combat based as either Scarrow or Cameron, this author does bring a book to the table that many a reader will enjoy.

Definitely a title to take your time with in order to fully digest what’s happening within. Good fun, solid back up and perhaps most importantly a sustainable quality for all of his writing. Whilst you can read this without having read any others in the series I would really recommend against that course of action and suggest that you start at the beginning in order to get the most out of this title.

1 comment:

Diane Girard said...

I haven't read any of his books, but now I will look for the first one. I enjoy historical fiction that is well written and NOT filled with battles on every other page.