The story is exciting and the characters were just wonderful. I loved the relationships between this Band of Brothers and the women. God, the women! Servilia is the sexiest thing to walk through Auckland airport while I was there, at least. Iggulden does war like no one else and every now and then, there's a moment of humour from nowhere that made me laugh aloud. You won't believe the speed of this thing - it races along from start to finish, with scenes cutting away to other scenes before I'd got my breath back.
As for the historical part, I'm not a Roman expert - I have a girlfriend. I did read the afterword at the back where he goes through the changes and that was interesting. I'm surprised some of the reviewers missed it. I suppose they think they know it all already. I didn't know Julius Caesar was captured by pirates and held for ransom, or raised an army in Greece when he was barely old enough to shave. Fascinating - and if he's not wearing the right colour tunic for the purists, well, I can live with that for the sake of a good story I wouldn't want to have missed.
This isn't literature to change the world - it's just a racing thriller with some of the most famous characters in history. Wilbur Smith does the same thing. I say that like I mean 'That's all' - but it's more than enough and a lot better than some of the pap out there. This is a book you give up your weekend for - or a day at Auckland when everyone else seems to have gone home.
Give me more!
I found Iggulden's website and there are two more to come - I'll be getting them both and I can recommend this one to anyone who reads Bernard Cornwell, David Gemmell, or Simon Scarrow. Yes, he's played fast and loose with the history, but there's an afterword to set the record straight and the story was enough to start me looking for more books on Rome.
Simon P - with a hey hey monkey 1!
