This was the fifth book in the 'Warrior of Rome' series, set in the 260s AD, with the Roman Empire locked in civil war, threatened by barbarian invasion and beginning its long interminable decline.Sidebottom is an Oxford don of Classics, and the best thing about his writing is that his depth of knowledge is remarkable. Whilst the plotline or action may not reach the heights of Christian Cameron or Steven Pressfield, reading his books is an entertaining way of immersing yourself thoroughly in the ancient world's material culture.
After the last installment had the protagonist, Ballista, acting as an agent of the Emperor to shore up client Kingdoms in Armenia, this one had him sent to the extreme north-east, to Lake Maeotis and the steppe beyond Tanais, modern day southern Russia and Kazakhstan, to stir up trouble between the Alans, Goths and Heruli and keep them away from the Roman frontiers.
I remembered the Heruli from my trip to Athens back in uni, as they sacked the city and mangled it. I did a bit of digging online and found out that was 267 AD, four years after the book was set. Could be interesting to see if the author revisits the tribe and the invasion later in the series, although he did mention it in the afterword.
Overall I liked this book, liked the feel of it and the detail. The characters are likeable, although there was a Gemmell-esque twist at the end where one of the main ones gets bumped off in the murder sub-plot, setting up what I presume will be re-occurring villain. Sidebottom is good at avoiding the heroic and the cliche: his characters are quite human and fallible, not awesome killing machines, but often quite scared of what they're involved in. Partly I think due to him sticking as closely as he can to actual events, the protagonists dont always cover themselves in glory or win out - they just (mostly) survive. In this book and third one this has created quite a bittersweet ending to the book; just like Ballista, I felt pretty robbed by the end of this one!
I like reading the Warrior of Rome books, but they are an odd experience. I tend to plod through them (partly because they come out mostly during the busiest parts of term), much like the plot, until about half way through when things suddenly gather pace. A series I'll certainly go back to, though I'm getting a bit wary that he's going down the Simon Scarrow 'episodic Roman tales' route. The characters finished this one back on the borders of the Imperium and set for Mediolanum, the heart of the later Empire, so should be an interesting change of pace from this odyssey on the steppe. Whilst I was noodling around looking at Sidebottom stuff, I found this YouTube interview he did for his fourth book, The Caspian Gates. The bloke is seriously cool!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72p6u6mDixs
Next up is one I've been immensely looking forward to: Christian Cameron's 'Poseidon's Spear', book three of his Killer of Men series based on Arimnestos of Plataea during the Persian Wars. Manus bought the first one and took on holiday with him after I recommended it to him, and he loved it. Chatting with him about it has got me properly fired up for getting stuck into the new one!
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