Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22926 in Books
• Published on: 2008-11-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 312 pages

From the Author
Special thanks to all who have read and enjoyed my first novel, "Soldier of Rome: The Legionary." I wish to take this opportunity to update all of my readers on the status of the series. The second book, "Soldier of Rome: The Sacrovir Revolt" is at the publisher (as of December 2007) with an anticipated publishing date sometime around March 2008. I am currently working on the third book, "Soldier of Rome: Heir to Rebellion" and hope to have it available sometime during the first part of 2009.It also has my contact information so that readers may email me. I look forward to hearing from my readers in the U.K.! With best regards,

James

About the Author
James Mace has served in the U.S. military since 1993. He is a full-time soldier with the Idaho Army National Guard and a veteran of the Iraq War. He wrote numerous articles on bodybuilding and physical fitness before turning his attention to writing historical novels. He lives in Meridian, Idaho.

Customer Reviews

Proof readers faults..
Like a previous reveiwer I found the subject and the story very well chosen and researched. However it was extremely annoying to come across so many 'typo' faults, very early one character was grasping for branches to pull himself out of mud twice in one paragraph, plus the awful modern American verbology...such as having Roman casualties 'impacting' the ground, a Centurion referring to his troops as 'guys'. There are some failed attempts at being a tad too clever such as a spear in the throat eventually tearing out an 'oesophagus', while apparently leaving the other structures in the throat intact.
If the author could be a touch less modern American and get a new proof reader he will do extremely well.
Peter Mitchell.

Gritty, Fast paced and Very Enjoyable
Much has been written in the history books about this factual event that took place 9 AD, under the reign of Augustus. Was it a tactical error on the part of Quintillus Varrus, newly appointed Governor of Germany and leader of a Roman army of approximately 16,500 men, that led to them being wiped out to the man, in a German forest. This number of men relates to approximately 3 Roman legions, their three cavalry alae and on top of this number, all of the camp followers who may have amounted to as many as 10,000 souls. The general consensus is that Varrus who ended up taking his own life, was betrayed by the war chief Arminius.

This work of fiction takes this extraordinary event as the start of what is a gritty, brutal and extremely readable novel. Time has moved on several years and it is time for Rome to make its retaliatory move. There was no conceivable way that Rome could allow this to go unpunished and the Emperor Tiberius is about to unleash the equivalent of more than six Legions, almost forty thousand men. Not to give the Germanic tribes a lesson, they will never forget, that is not the way the Roman mind works. This is a campaign to annihilate the barbarians from the face of the earth. If all goes to Emperor's plan it will be as if Arminus and his Germanic nation had never even existed. Neatly entwined within the story is one man's fight for vengeance. A young Legionary named Artorius. For him, the war is a personal and his one chance to avenge his brother killed in the forest massacre.

The book is a work of fiction moulded around fact and is all the better and more plausable for that fact. The author has obviously researched well and the book, particularly for those who like all things Roman is a good read.

Soldier of US oops I mean Rome
This is my first review and I have felt compelled to write it. I think the authors final acknowledgement `to my brothers-in-arm that I served with in the Iraq war. You are the Legionaries of this age', really sums up the book (noting I have no issue with his sentiment). James Mace has transported his experience of a modern army and applied it to a Roman army of AD 9-15 and I regret it doesn't work and grates from very early on. There are also a number of phrases or situations that seem very familiar from recent epics and other books - the use of Centurion Macro (Scarrow)for example. The treatment of the battle of Teutoburg Forest is perfunctory at best as is the view on Varus (I would recommend Adrian Murdoch's Rome's Greatest Defeat). The life in the legion is idealised and the sudden switch to barbarian atrocities appears formulaic, albeit the the style improves later in the book. In addition the hero of the piece, Artorius, has no flaws and turns out to be the best trainee, lover, legionary etc and he will, I suspect, by book 2 be the best swordsman in the legion, this just detracts from any authenticity that the book has. James Mace refers to his divine `gift' - when compared to Simon Scarrow, Manda Scott, Conn Iggulden, David Gemmell, Steven Saylor et al - sorry Mace just isn't in their league and this book will disappoint if not annoy (and I really tried to like it).