I love historical fiction, pure and simple. On many levels, this book delivers. On other levels, it is a little light.
On the plus side, it seems as if the author has done a fair bit of research on the mundane aspects of living in Roman times. I didn't catch any obvious errors of fact as far as daily life during the period, but then again, I am not an expert on life as a Roman legionnaire. As far as historical accuracy, though, I felt that this was almost a parallel universe set in the Imperial Rome. My biggest issue was with the Woade. Just who are they? "Woad" is a plant that many tribes used to rub on their skin before battle, but as far as I know, there is no tribe of "Woades." I really wanted an explanation of this.
There were also a number of improbabilities, in my opinion, what while not errors of fact, left me unsettled. The slave camp was highly unrealistic, for example. I just can't see it functioning as described. An incident with a tree falling didn't ring true. Another with a deserter was a little hard to swallow as well.
For me, and this is only my preference, I prefer my historical fiction to have more historical fact. For Rome-based books, I like to see real people and events, even if the main characters are completely fictional. This adds a sense of verisimilitude to me that cements the setting in my mind.
The book was a quick read, but somehow plodding at the same time. I think this was because there was not a lot of action, and with Rome-based books, grand battles are usually part and parcel to the sub-genre. As the protagonist was somewhat dull, there wasn't much of a draw to pull me into the book.
The book is not bad. Technically, the editing and formatting was fine. There was not much wrong with it, but it didn't really grab me. While I understand that this is just a first book of a series, it sort of ended with a whimper, and there wasn't a whole lot there to induce me to buy the next in the series. If I happened to come across the next one, though, I would probably pick it up and give it a shot, but I don't think I will be searching it out.
The bottom line is that this is an average book. It has a number of good points and some minor bad points. If you like historical fiction, then you might want to give it a shot.
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A Fella
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