Publisher: Headline (Trade Paperback – 12 November 2024)

Series: Eagles of the Empire – Book 23 

Length: 411 pages

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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The action continues in one of my favourite Roman historical fiction series with the outstanding and captivating read, Revenge of Rome by Simon Scarrow.

I have long extolled the ability of Simon Scarrow, who is one of the top current authors of historical fiction, as well as a personal favourite writer of mine.  I have had a blast reading and reviewing many Scarrow books over the years, including his Berlin Wartime Thriller series (see my reviews for Blackout and Dead of Night), as well as several great standalone reads.  However, his main body of work is the exceptional Eagles of the Empire series.  One of the premier Roman historical fiction series, the Eagles of the Empire books follow two elite Roman officers as they fight their way across multiple wars, provinces and battlefields.  I have been a fan of this series from the beginning, and the books within it have been a key part of my yearly review schedule, including The Blood of Rome, Traitors of Rome, The Emperor’s Exile, The Honour of Rome, Death to the Emperor and Rebellion.  As such, the latest book in the series, Revenge of Rome, has been a highly anticipated read for me, and I have been very keen to get my hands on it.  The 23^rd novel in the series, Revenge of Rome, follows on immediately after the events of Death to the Emperor and Rebellion, which covered the main events of Boudica’s uprising, and deal with the deadly aftermath of this massive conflict.

Britannia, 61 AD.  Following the final stand of the Roman army that broke the massive rebel horde, the uprising against Rome has ended but there is still no peace in Britannia.  Boudica, the warrior queen who sparked the rebellion, has escaped and still holds the eagle standard of the defeated Ninth Legion.  With the eagle in hand, Boudica and her Iceni tribe are living proof that Rome can be beaten and while she survives the flames of rebellion continue to smoulder.

Desperate to hunt Boudica down and make her pay for her crimes, Rome assigns two veterans to end the threat she poses, Prefect Cato and Centurion Macro.  Survivors of countless battles and campaigns Cato and Macro are the perfect soldiers to take down Boudica, especially as they share a long history with her.  Determined to do their duty, even with their conflicted feelings, Cato and Macro lead their troops into the lands of the Iceni to either capture or kill Boudica.

However, Boudica is no easy prey to capture.  Despite her defeat, she still has many skilled warriors fighting under her banner, each of whom holds great hatred for the Romans.  Worse, the war has made Boudica both cruel and cunning, and she soon engages in a brutal war of attrition, determined to break the Romans before they can overwhelm her.  To succeed, Cato and Macro will need all their cunning, grit and experience to finally bring Boudica down.  But can even these wily Roman officers contend with the wrath of an entire nation and their vengeful queen, or will Britannia rise once more to destroy the Roman invaders?

Revenge of Rome was another excellent and exciting entry in the Eagles of the Empire series that proved to be an absolute blast to get through.  A very intense, character driven read that focuses on an interesting period of Roman history, Revenge of Rome was an outstanding book that really drew me in.

Scarrow did an amazing job continuing the intense story from the last two books, and I frankly feel that this has been some of his best writing in years.  Starting off with a cool alternate look at the main battle from Rebellion, Revenge of Rome primarily explores the events immediately following the massive uprising and the destruction wrought on the Roman settlements.  Once again following Cato and Macro as they are given an impossible task, Scarrow presents a back-to-basics narrative as the two officers train up a new regiment (from the Second Legion, which was a nice callback to the first few books), to lead it into combat against the rebelling tribes.  The first half of the book follows Cato’s initial strategy of diplomacy and scouting, as he tries to figure out how to defeat Boudica with limited troops.  At the same time, Boudica works to reignite her rebellion, causing chaos amongst the other tribes and scoring some early victories.  This proves to be an intriguing first half of the book, especially as it nicely sets up the rest of the narrative, while also examining the aftermath of the rebellion, and the initial attempts of the Romans to regain control.

While the first half of Revenge of Rome was exciting, the best action occurs in the second half as Cato and Macro lead their troops against the Iceni and attempt to find their hideout.  There are some great small-scale conflicts the further we get along and Scarrow did an effective job showcasing Boudica as a truly dangerous foe.  Everything nicely leads up to the final battle, where the protagonists discover the Iceni’s fortress in the swamps (thanks to an excellent plot line about Cato trying to win back the hearts and minds of the locals) and engage in a deadly siege.  The action flies thick and fast here, and there are some awesome fight sequences as both sides initiate some clever tactics.  I really got caught up in the final battles and flew through the last 100 pages or so which detailed the siege.  While there is a natural focus on the brutal combat, Scarrow also provided some powerful character moments which helped to make Revenge of Rome even more intense and moving.  Scarrow ends everything on a final, if hopeful, note and it looks like the Eagles of the Empire series will be entering a new phase.  It will be interesting to see where Scarrow goes next, and I look forward to seeing how a certain new character is worked into the plot.

Scarrow always utilises a great and consistent style with the Eagle of the Empire books, which allows for some fantastic and exciting stories.  Revenge of Rome is no different, as we are presented with a compelling tale that sees the Romans taking on the local tribes of Britannia in a deadly game of cat and mouse.  I felt that Scarrow did a great job amping up the character emotions in Revenge of Rome, especially as we get some great alternate views of the main antagonist, Boudica, and her vengeful crusade.  The resulting carnage is well-written and intense, and Scarrow is very effective at portraying historical combat through his writing.  I really love the detail in which Scarrow showcases both the Romans and the Britannia tribes, and the compelling action sequences make for some brilliant reading.  The historical period featured within Revenge of Rome also proved to be very interesting, as Scarrow dives into the aftermath of Boudica’s rebellion and the state of Britannia at the time.  I really appreciated this fascinating focus; especially as most historical fiction authors tend to only portray the main rebellion and leave it at that.  I felt that Scarrow also did an outstanding job capturing the emotions of both the Roman soldiers and the surviving tribes throughout the book, and it was really intriguing to see some of the politics and logistics involved in the aftermath of the deadly occurrences of the previous novels.  Like most books in the series, Revenge of Rome can easily be read as a standalone novel, as Scarrow writes an inclusive narrative that cycles back to key events of previous books when necessary.  However, to get the full emotional impact of Revenge of Rome I would recommend first reading the prior two novels, Death to the Emperor and Rebellion, as their stories are extremely well linked.  However, even if you only read Revenge of Rome, you are in for a great historical adventure with some intriguing features.

I also felt that Revenge of Rome had some very strong character work in it as Scarrow brings back his classic protagonists alongside a few intriguing additions.  After 23 books, Cato and Macro are still the same characters we’ve come to know and love, although Scarrow does find ways to keep them fresh.  While Cato is his usual tactical and empathetic self, especially when it comes to finding ways to defeat the enemy, Macro is in his full-on non-commissioned officer mode, serving as the hard-boiled soldier’s soldier.  Thanks to some over-the-top drill sergeant scenes, Macro quickly steals focus, and he is the more entertaining of the two protagonists.  Scarrow also throws in some especially emotional sequences for Macro, as he deals with the continued conflict against his former love interest, Boudica, his guilt for the damage she caused, and the secrets she revealed to him in the previous novel.  One of these secrets comes to fruition nicely in the final part of the book, and it will be interesting to see how the evolves going forward.

Aside from Cato and Macro, there is a great array of additional interesting characters scattered throughout the novel who have their moment to shine.  This includes multiple Roman figures, many of whom previously appeared in previous novels.  Of these, I particularly enjoyed Scarrow’s portrayal of a young Tribune Agricola.  Agricola, a real historical figure destined to become a famous general, is shown here as a brash young officer eager for command.  His ongoing storyline of learning the ropes under Cato and Macro proves to be a lot of fun, and I liked the inference that Agricola’s later success can be attributed to the harsh early tutorage of the protagonists.  However, out of the all the supporting characters, I felt that Scarrow did his best work with Boudica.  Boudica, who has appeared in several earlier Eagles of the Empire books, has one of her best outings in Revenge of Rome.  Despite losing in Rebellion, Boudica is still a determined revolutionary, turned vengeful from the Romans treatment of her and her daughters.  As such, she is unrecognisable compared to her previous appearances as an ally to Cato and Macro, and she proves to be one of their most dangerous enemies.  I felt that Scarrow really captured her revenge-darkened heart in Revenge of Rome, and there are some great scenes where she continues to take her war up another notch.  It was honestly really moving to see her in this final showdown against the protagonists, and I appreciated how effectively Scarrow focused on this iconic historical figure in this latest book.

Simon Scarrow once again deeply impressed me with an Eagles of the Empire novel as Revenge of Rome was another captivating and exciting novel, loaded with awesome historical action.  An excellent addition to the series that provides an outstanding wrap-up of one of Scarrow’s best storylines, Revenge of Rome comes very highly recommended, and I look forward to seeing where the author takes the series next.  In the meantime, we have A Death of Berlin to look forward to from Scarrow early next year, which should be another dark and complex Berlin Wartime Thriller.

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