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[August 2015] What Are You Reading?
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<blockquote data-quote="Ravenwind" data-source="post: 6674241" data-attributes="member: 6785772"><p>A friend had recommended <em>Fire in the East</em> by Harry Sidebottom. Since my friend is studying Roman history for his MA in that time period, I found a used copy on Amazon for cheap, and settled into it, pretty much sight unseen.</p><p></p><p>It's set in the 200s AD. The main character is the son of an Angle chieftain (the Angles are still in Germania at this time period), who was taken as a hostage for the good behavior of his father, and brought to Rome when he was young, whereupon he entered the Legion, rose to the rank of Dux, and was sent to the Syria region to, officially, defend a city there against a Sassanid Persian advance. </p><p></p><p>The author gives a lot of the feel of the period well. He's very, very good at showing the tactics of a battle scene (as he should be, since he seems to have a doctorate in Roman military history). Unfortunately, like almost all military historical fiction I've read, the characterization is thin, and the writing is without style. "He rinsed some of the thin, sour beer round and spat over the wall. The liquid landed on a Sassanid corpse. He felt disgusted. He drank the beer." </p><p></p><p>That's a direct quote. </p><p></p><p>I was engaged enough to consider looking for the other books in the series at my local library (they seem not to have caught on much in the US, so that might be difficult). I'm told the writing gets better. I suppose I'll see. . . .</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ravenwind, post: 6674241, member: 6785772"] A friend had recommended [I]Fire in the East[/I] by Harry Sidebottom. Since my friend is studying Roman history for his MA in that time period, I found a used copy on Amazon for cheap, and settled into it, pretty much sight unseen. It's set in the 200s AD. The main character is the son of an Angle chieftain (the Angles are still in Germania at this time period), who was taken as a hostage for the good behavior of his father, and brought to Rome when he was young, whereupon he entered the Legion, rose to the rank of Dux, and was sent to the Syria region to, officially, defend a city there against a Sassanid Persian advance. The author gives a lot of the feel of the period well. He's very, very good at showing the tactics of a battle scene (as he should be, since he seems to have a doctorate in Roman military history). Unfortunately, like almost all military historical fiction I've read, the characterization is thin, and the writing is without style. "He rinsed some of the thin, sour beer round and spat over the wall. The liquid landed on a Sassanid corpse. He felt disgusted. He drank the beer." That's a direct quote. I was engaged enough to consider looking for the other books in the series at my local library (they seem not to have caught on much in the US, so that might be difficult). I'm told the writing gets better. I suppose I'll see. . . . [/QUOTE]
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