- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Phoenix; New Ed edition (5 Aug 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1842125192
- ISBN-13: 978-1842125199
- Product Dimensions: 1.9 x 12.7 x 19 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 346,639 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"'Wallace Breem belongs to that very short list of writers whose work elevates historical fiction and sets it alongside the best writing of any kind, in any period' - Steven Pressfield, bestselling author of Gates of Fire"
--This text refers to the
Audio Cassette
edition.
Book Description
A novel about General Maximus, one of the inspirations behind Ridley Scott's massively successful film GLADIATOR.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format: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
Format: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 dialogue is convincing, the sense of decay and futility overwhelming, the battle scenes brutal and compelling.
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
Format: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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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Eagle in the Snow
I was very pleased to buy this book in handback as I thought it was out of print and it was a good price. I was told that the book was on its way from the US. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Archangel
Duty at whatever cost!
This is the best of Wallace Brem's novels. At times, it feels like Pressfield' Gates of Fire and it is just as moving. Read more
Published 3 months ago by JPS
Emotive tale
I finished this fairly recently after having had it recommended to me by several different people and heard it called the 'seminal work of Roman fiction'. Read more
Published 4 months ago by SJATurney
Hidden Gem
This book is one of the true hidden gems of the historical fiction genre, the story is so well told you can feel the cold, you can feel every sword thrust, every spear cast, the... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Parm
Towering novel of the Fall of the Roman Empire.
An intelligent,panoramic novel set at the time when the Roman Empire was starting to disintergrate. The action is set on Hadrian's Wall and the Rhine,and takes in
a broad... Read more
a broad... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Mr. N. J. Marriott
Eagle in the Snow!
The Eagle in the Snow by Wallace Breem is an old book, early eighties, I think 1982 (off the top of my head) however.... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Je Salter
An astonishing book
This book grips you, but it takes time. From the bleak lands of North Britain in the dying hours of the Western Roman Empire,to the desperate attempts to stem the invasion across... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Mr. John Reed
The Best
Of any type I feel that this is the best piece of military historical fiction written. It's beautifully realised, and at times deeply moving. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Allan Davy
Outstanding in its field,the true benchmark standard bearer.
Superb novel by Wallace Breem.It is so beautifully written and crafted it is almost impossible to put down. Read more
Published on 12 May 2010 by Mr. L. Simpson
Outstanding Roman Epic
Have you seen Gladiator? Do you like the opening scene where Maximus fights with his roman legions as the snow begins to fall against the goths (or is it gauls?). Read more
Published on 18 Mar 2010 by Asmodeous
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