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 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. ( )

Simon Scarrow sigue en su línea. Nos adentra en el mundo legionario de la mano de Quinto y Macro, ahora ya con igual rango. Quinto sigue ascendiendo en experiencia de vida a pasos agigantados, en ocasiones gracias a la ayuda de su tosco y buen amigo. Muy interesante cómo casi todo conflicto pende constantemente de un hilo muy fino, que puede hacer que todo se desmorone y gire de forma radical. Britania sigue siendo el teatro de operaciones en la que se enfrentan junto a los Atrebates frente a los Durotriges comandados por Carataco. ( )

Great bus book, liked the characters, enjoyed the plot but seemed a bit flat in the finish. ( )

Cuando las aguerridas tropas romanas desembarcaron en Britania, tenían pocos motivos para esperar otra cosa que una rápida y sencilla invasión de unas tierras agrestes, de condiciones meteorológicas infernales y apenas habitadas por un puñados de tribus semisalvajes.
Sin embargo, esos bárbaros resultan ser luchadores duros de roer, y la posibilidad de convertir a una de estas tribus en aliada no debe desperdiciarse. Ascendido a centurión, y en colaboración con su fiel amigo Lucio Cornelio Macro, el joven Quinto Licinio Cato será el encargado de dotar a un puñado de rudos bárbaros, los Lobos, de los mínimos rudimentos militares necesarios para poder confiar en ellos.

Centurión en Britania.