Saturday 22 August 2015

The Blood Crows, Simon Scarrow


 
Publishers: Headline

Pages: 384

Main Characters:

Marco, Cato, Centurion Quertus

 
Marco and Cato are back in another epic adventure in The Blood Crows. The novel sees our heroes return to Britain after their secretive work in Rome and the Imperial Palace is completed. Both soldiers are looking forward to army life as they return to the province where they started to make a name for themselves. With their new promotions, the duo hope they can get back to some ‘proper soldiering’ and put the espionage of Roman politics behind them.

The province of Britannia hasn’t changed much since the two heroes were last there. Even though the Emperor has announced the province conquered and peaceful, both Marco and Cato know that they have some tough battles ahead of them. The Briton leader Caratacus has mustered a sizable army and has turned to guerrilla warfare in an attempt to humble the Roman war machine. The Roman army is too big and slow to catch the Briton’s hit-and-run troops which have started to use the mountains of modern day Wales as their base.

Marco and Cato’s task is to take charge of the small fort of Bruccium deep in the enemy territory. The Perfect of the fort has being killed in a suspicious way and Cato is tasked to take control of the fort and hassle the local population. However as Cato and Marco find out, not all is as it seems in Bruccium with its’ temporary leader (Centurion Quertus) ruling both his men and the local Britons with an iron fist.
The Blood Crows trailer

This is the twelfth book in the Eagles series and I’ve kind of put off reading it for a while because I thought the series was getting a little long in the tooth, especially when the duo returned to Britain. However, after reading The Blood Crows I was reminded just how great these novels are and how good the duo of Marco and Cato are.

The thing that really made this book for me was the dialogue between Marco, Cato and Centurion Quertus. Firstly I loved Quertus’s character, his ferocious nature and crazy streak reminds me of Jorg from Mark Lawrence's Prince of Thorns. Quertus’s challenge to Cato’s authority leads to great dialogue between the two soldier and builds so much tension in the novel, which I think hasn’t been there in other books in this series. Quertus also adds ruthlessness to Marco which we haven’t really seen before and I think these new influences on both characters makes the series a lot fresher.

Even though this is the twelfth book in the series I can honestly say it was my favourite and I’ve just downloaded Brothers in Blood and can’t wait to read it! I’d suggest this book to anyone who loves Ancient Roman fiction and of course to people who have already read any of the other Eagle novels. In addition if you’re a fan of author’s like Ben Kane, Anthony Riches, Gordon Doherty and Nick Brown you will love this series!

For author’s official website please click here.

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