- Hardcover: 368 pages
- Publisher: W&N; New edition edition (7 Aug 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0297645617
- ISBN-13: 978-0297645610
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.4 x 4.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 576,591 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Book Description
A brilliant historical novel, set in the last days of the Roman Empire.
Product Description
The year is 406. A single Roman legion stands guard on the Rhine. Only these few men, a thin stretch of river and the determination of their general, Maximus, hold the frontier for Rome against the barbarian hordes. Maximus is urged to proclaim himself emperor, but he stands by his concept of duty and holds the frontier for longer than seems possible. Then chance plays a cruel trick . . . First published in 1970, EAGLE IN THE SNOW is a taut, gripping story of the fall of the Roman Empire in microcosm, as seen through the eyes of Maximus. 'It has the feel of a crumbling frontier world, and a Roman world at that... A triumph.' John Terraine 'This is a magnificent panorama of a splintering civilization, elegaic and deeply moving, its reissue is long overdue.' GOOD BOOK GUIDE 'Wallace Breem belongs to that very short list of writers whose work elevates historical fiction beyond the genre and sets it alongside the best writing of any kind, in any period.' Steven Pressfield
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gripping, moving tale of the fall of empires,
By R.L. Holly "piper909" (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Eagle in the Snow (Paperback)
His name is Maximus, the book's narrator and principled protagonist, and he may be the last of the old-style Romans whose virtues (and failings) built and maintained an empire for centuries. This exquisite book is the story of his struggle to remain true to the old values that he loves amid a world that has changed; a Roman world that is failing. He becomes the general of Legio XX after a hard apprenticeship in the backwater of imperial Britannia and is given the thankless task of holding the Rhine frontier against a sea of land-hungry barbarian tribes. His task seems hopeless, but Maximus holds to it with grim determination and through personal trials, not least of which is the temptation to proclaim himself Emperor and salvage what he can from the shifting alliances of the time. Using military strategems and cunning diplomacy, Maximus keeps Rome's foes at bay until the fates turn against him.Wallace Breem, a veteran of the Indian Army, recreates a military world that is detailed and believeable. His novel is awash in the conflict of civilization against barbarism, pagan versus Christian; it is an unsentimental story, told directly and without elaborate flourishes, but one that is still rich and deeply moving. A perfect read in the chill of winter, when the final third of the book will hold a special resonance. No one who has ever discovered this book seems to have forgotten it; what a thunderbolt from Jove, to see this book in print again! I have treasured my copy of the original US edition for years but have been unable to share it with distant friends as I would have liked. Now I know exactly what to buy for Christmas presents.
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
superb recreation of a crumbling empire,
This review is from: Eagle in the Snow: General Maximus and Rome's Last Stand (Hardcover)
This is a tremendous novel of the last days of the Roman empire, set largely in AD 406 when everywhere Rome was on the defensive.General Maximus is given the unenviable task of holding the Rhine Frontier with a single Legion against overwhelming odds - the Germanic tribes massing along the Rhine determined to cross, to find new lands for themselves and their people. Maximus, true to his duty, is equally determined to prevent it. No longer the power that it was, the Roman Empire is governed by corrupt and apathetic bureaucrats in charge of decaying forts and roads and Maximus first has to fight these for arms and men for the Legion before he can fight his final, fateful, battle. The last one hundred pages, set in a landscape of frozen forests and swirling snow grip like a vice, dragging the reader along at a relentless pace until the final, inevitable ending. This is not a perfect novel but it is a tremendous one. I would have been proud to have written it. Laurence J Brown (author of "Housecarl" and "Cold Heart, Cruel Hand: a novel of Hereward the Wake")
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
a soldier's tale,
By
This review is from: Eagle in the Snow: General Maximus and Rome's Last Stand (Hardcover)
This novel is very, very good. Most other historical novelists of the Roman period have started with a fairly well known historical personality as the basis of their stories. "I Claudius" or Massie's "Augustus" are examples. But Breem chose to start with a military defeat as the centre of his story. Perhaps for this reason the book doesn't have the charisma, the psychological and philosophical depth of, for example, Yourcenar`s "Memoirs of Hadrian" but it gets deep into the events and mindset of that winter so long ago when the Rhine froze over, the German peoples crossed and the Europe we know today was born. Wallace Breem had been a soldier in the Indian Colonial Army and saw service on the North West frontier. This seems to have given him an accurate idea of how soldiers think and how a regiment becomes a soldier's life. Roman legionary practice and organization of the late fourth century are beautifully depicted. He also does a good job of imagining how a pagan regimental officer would be victimised in an ever more Christian culture, a faith which had also made the once clear divisions between Romanized Gaul and Germanic tribal life much hazier. Historians and archaeologists have made progress on the subject since Breem wrote his book and one might wish that the rigidity of life in the province of Gallia, the 'Germanisation' of the west had been painted in greater detail. Nonetheless when you finish reading you don't regret the time spent.
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