I was fascinated to read about Boudica and Britannia and to follow Roman Commanders Centurion Cato and Prefect Macro. He mounts an assault on the island of Mona, taking Prefect Cato with him to utilise his knowledge and experience of fighting in Britannia. p>The data controller is Headline Publishing Group Limited. Two of Rome's finest commanders - Prefect Cato and Centurion Macro - are charged with a mission as deadly as any they have faced in their long careers. p>Read about how we’ll protect and use your data in our Privacy Notice.

Whilst Cato is with the legions at Ynys Mon, Macro is with other retired veterans in Camulodunum and their families are in Londinium. So therefore, I really wanted to know throughout this book: does Macro survive this since he became the senior magistrate? Macro and Cato are now in Britannia, with Cato living in hiding and Macro having retired from the legions to live in the Roman city of Camulodunum. Enjoyed the continuation of the adventures of Macro and Cato and can not wait for the next book in the Eagles of the Empire Series! Although now officially an army veteran living in the Roman colony of Camulodunum (Colchester), as Macro remarks to his wife, Petronella, ‘You can take the man out of the army, but never the army out of the man’.What is to follow as a whole is a fantastic and action-packed Roman adventure, in which Boudica's revolt with the annihilation of Camulodunum as just the beginning of a much greater rebellion that will probably continue in the next volume towards its inevitable end and the destruction of the druid stronghold Mona will be the main focuses, but during these bloody actions in Camulodunum Macro will lose some very dear family members, from the likes of the mute boy Parvus and the dog Cassius towards fellow soldiers and in particular the spy/assassin Apollonius, and all this due to an act of madness by the Roman procurator, Decianus. This is Roman empire military fiction, starting with the second invasion of Britain, and continuing with subsequent adventures in every corner of the empire. I learned about Boudica's rebellion in primary school at age 9, I walk past the statue of her on Westminster Bridge most mornings to work (and marvel at the irony of the Victorians building a statue of a woman who was an anti-imperialist rebel as an icon of the British Empire, in a city that she razed to the ground and slaughtered its population), and I've visited the ruins of Camulodonum (the sacking of which by Boudica's rebels forms the final battle of the book, which was a nail biting read even if you know what happens from history, you're willing the colonia's population to hold out a little longer); Simon Scarrow clearly knows his stuff and is an expert at weaving action and character plots within the context of the historical events; I think I'm going to have to read more of his Roman Empire set novels with Cato and Macro. The Iceni - apparently happily living until the Roman yoke are far from content and high taxes imposed by the Emperor make the situation even more delicate. I’ve always appreciated how the morality of the Roman invasion has been discussed over this series and how Macro and Cato genuinely see Rome as a guiding light of civilisation.

That's not all that has changed: Cato is no longer the scared young man he had been in the first entries; Macro no longer the seasoned Centurion. It's good stuff and everything you could want, but be warned, this ends on a cliff-hanger so everything is not resolved in this book. Another classic novel, the 21st in the series, from Simon Scarrow, featuring Centurion Macro and Prefect Cato.The story follows Prefect Cato and Centurion Macro as the Roman Empire faces a ferocious enemy in Queen Boudica and a violent uprising. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. The action sequences are graphic and realistic and keep you turning the pages waiting to see what happens next.