Soldier of Rome: The Legionary: A novel of the Twentieth Legion during the campaigns of...

Soldier of Rome: The Legionary: A novel of the Twentieth Legion during the campaigns of Germanicus Caesar | James Mace | Captivating study of a Roman Legionary's experiences

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Soldier of Rome: T...

	Soldier of Rome: The Legionary: A novel of the Twentieth Legion during the campaigns of Germanicus Caesar James Mace iUniverse, Inc., 2006 - 308 pages average customer review:based on 24 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Written by a Professional Soldier about Ancient Professional Soldiers

I'll be blunt; I loved this book. James Mace can write and he knows how to tell an accurate fictional story of a soldier in the world's first professional standing army.

Mace has done his research as well as consulting with professional historical re-enactors such as the United Kingdom's Ermine Street Guard and Legio VI Ferrata based out of South Carolina.

The basis of this story in based on the actual campaigns of Germanicus as written by Tacitus. In addition, he is one of the first writers to perhaps accurately portray the Emperor Tiberius in a much more positive light than generally accepted.

Mace's own personal experiences as a combat vet and professional soldier allows for a great real feel into his combat sequences as well as the day to day routine that all professional soldiers face.

If you liked Simon Scarow's Eagles series or Altimari, you will love this book.

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Captivating study of a Roman Legionary's experiences

It is not often I pick up a novel that I have a hard time putting down until I have finished reading the whole thing, but Soldier of Rome: the Legionary is one of those. As a history fanatic, I tend to view historical fiction as light, somewhat mindless entertainment; preferring records of the actual events and people over a story teller's version: James Mace has happily risen well above most historical fiction authors in providing an exciting story firmly rooted in historical accuracy. It is no small praise comparing him with the likes of Sharon Kaye Penman and Steven Saylor. Soldier of Rome: the Legionary is taut, exciting, fully believable; in all, a great read. My only suggestion for future editions or volumes would be a tighter editorial read to eliminate spelling/word errors (like using 'site' when 'sight' is the proper variant; or 'clamber' [to climb]for 'clamor' [a loud outcry]). I was especially delighted that the protagonist was kept relatively believable, not turned into some kind of uberlegionary who achieves a centurionate in his first year of service; Artorius stays firmly in the ranks as a regular grunt. Like the great true-life hero Audie Murphy, Artorius remains modest of any accomplishments of his own, but fully recognizes those of his fellow soldiers. I look forward to future tales of the legionary Artorius and highly recommend this book without reservations

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Good Yarn; Lousy Editing

This gets three stars; it is a good story that deserves better; but there are problems.

What the book lacked was a good proof-reader/editor. Throughout, it contains numerous basic grammer school errors that detracted from the tale: "site" when the proper word is "sight"; "route" when the author meant "rout" (Chapter 22); "waive" instead of "wave". And measurements in meters--in ancient Rome? Never! (The metric system was a product of the French Revolution.) The words "soldier" and "legionary" should not be capitalized. Unfortunately, none of these can be written off as typos--they occurred consistently throughout the book.

It is really too bad, because it IS a good story, but these irritating mistakes were simply too distracting to ignore.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4, 5

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