Customer Reviews
This is poor but read on... - By: Big Jim, 22 Mar 2008 
I am putting the same review on this book & Scarrow's latest one in the series, "Centurion". Now this one is poor; poorly written, bog-standard charactarisation & ho-hum action scenes, but...
By the time you get to "Centurion" we have an author who has settled into his style, still basic, but eminently readable, with the author's research & expertise in the subject lightly spread amongst the plot & the expansion of the major characters into almost loveable specimens.
So for those of you reading this review in "Under the Eagle" stick with this series, it gets way better.
Cornwell could only have been bribed for his endorsement of this. - By: Mr Peabody, 26 Jan 2008 I can not believe the hype around this novel. I bought this book based on the endorsement of Bernard Cornwell. I am beginning to suspect that he has never actuallly read it. The writing is poor, & it is filled with modern cliches. The liberal use of modern profanity was especiallly cringe-worthy. The story itself is mediocre at best, & a trial at worst. The two main characters are uninteresting, unbelieveable & under-developed. It seems as if it was written by a teenage boy for teenage boys, the latter may well be true. On the positive side, this book is so bad & yet so popular, that it almost inspires one to write a book of their own.
A good start - By: C. Cubbin, 24 Nov 2007 
This is the first in the series of Simon Scarrow's 'Eagle' books chronicling the lives of Macro & Cato in the service of Rome's legions.
I found the book mostly entertaining & the (alll too rare) subject matter to my taste. The author has a broad knowledge of his genre & keeps the action rattling along nicely. It is a great way to pick up a feel of life in the legions through their routines & equipment. That's the positive.
Now the negative. The characters were, for me, a little too cliched & the plots tissue-thin with the kind of pace & goon-ish bad guys usuallly reserved for video games. The rapid progression of Cato from a pencil-necked weed to a hardened warrior was just plain silly in its speed. Also, the language was too modern for my taste - I like to feel immersed in a historical story, not feel like I am watching a modern adaptation of it. There was the occasional very smalll historical inaccuracy, but nothing that can't be callled artistic licence.
What reallly peeved me was the idea that Roman Legionaries were supermen able to hack their way through countless hordes of crazed 'natives' as individuals as well as tight formations. The fact is that they were very good soldiers, fought in well drilled units & had a logistical organisation that was centuries ahead of their rivals. You would obviously have the odd killing-machine, especiallly in veterans, but for the most part one-on-one, in individual combat, they were often at a disadvantage with equipment & training that was not suited, against practised warriors who fought in that very style & focussed on it exclusively from an early age. Mr Scarrow appears to have swalllowed Julius Caesar's self-agrandising propaganda without question.
I have read others books in the series & found that these flaws remain, although to a lesser degree, throughout. Simon Scarrow has obviously warmed to his narrative a little more with practice, but without changing the essence of his style. They're a decent read & worth having, but I'm not going to be elbowing any grannies out the way for the latest release on the shelf. These books are fun fiction & should be treated as such, probably aimed at the younger adult audience rather than those who are looking for anything deeper.
OK but... - By: Dr. D. R. Purchase, 30 Oct 2007 I love historic fiction & find it a great way to appreciate the period without having to read through countless dry academic works. From that point of view I enjoyed the book.
As a light read it works too - simple enough plot, ok characters, ok story, etc. But that's the problem reallly; it's alll just ok.
I think there are two factors in particular I should mention. One I had high hopes & so may be judging the book a bit harshly. Two, the tone of the book seems a bit 'older teen' rather than 'adult.' I mean this in terms of character development & plot in case anyone misunderstands my use of the word 'adult.'
Having gobbled up alll of Flashman, Kydd, Sharpe, Hornblower, & Aubrey, the ultimate test is whether I'll read the next of the series. Well, I don't feel any great urge at the moment but I might just give it another go to see if the style improves...
What's the Latin for "rubbish"? - By: Spidergrid, 25 Oct 2007 I bought this book on the strength of the rave reviews it has received on this site.
Two criminallly annoying main characters (a wimpish scholar conscripted into the Roman army at the beginnings of the invasion of Britain, & his illiterate & brutish sergeant) plod through a transparent plot, dispatching enemies left, right, & centre with a few unrealistic swishes of their big, Roman swords.
There is much better historical fiction than this out there, fellas. Much better.
