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A review by amrix11
The Silver Eagle: A Novel of the Forgotten Legion by Ben Kane
4.0
i great sequel to the first, i believe Ben's writing has improved...
By the time you get to the second book you finally have an okay connection with the characters and are able to relate in a way. Most of this book is about the long journey south, further and further away from Rome. it seems hopeless until the last few pages that Romulus will ever see Rome again. Good battle scenes in this book but i wish they were more in depth, I realize there were several battle scenes and if they were all in depth the book would be way too long, but still...
Other things I didn't like about this book:
-The lack of suspense and hooks
-The descriptions of everything
-The painfully long recap
-And the time jumps
I found it way to easy to just set aside for a week or two because nothing was grabbing my interest and compelling me to read on. The story and plot is not bad, its just not fast paced i suppose.
I also did not like how Ben just described events I really wanted to watch unfold (like battle scenes!). It was like reading a text book at times as he just 'told' you what happened form a birds eye view, you didn't 'live' through it with the character.
Time jumps really annoy me too, I understand that its almost impossible to live through a whole mans life in three books without time jumps (although Iggulden did it well!) but turning the page and seeing 'nine months later' or 'three years later' so many times consecutively annoys me.
Its definitely good enough to continue the series, as I have stated too already, now that a character connection has _finally_ been made, I am enjoying the series. definitely worth a read if Ancient Rome is your thing.
By the time you get to the second book you finally have an okay connection with the characters and are able to relate in a way. Most of this book is about the long journey south, further and further away from Rome. it seems hopeless until the last few pages that Romulus will ever see Rome again. Good battle scenes in this book but i wish they were more in depth, I realize there were several battle scenes and if they were all in depth the book would be way too long, but still...
Other things I didn't like about this book:
-The lack of suspense and hooks
-The descriptions of everything
-The painfully long recap
-And the time jumps
I found it way to easy to just set aside for a week or two because nothing was grabbing my interest and compelling me to read on. The story and plot is not bad, its just not fast paced i suppose.
I also did not like how Ben just described events I really wanted to watch unfold (like battle scenes!). It was like reading a text book at times as he just 'told' you what happened form a birds eye view, you didn't 'live' through it with the character.
Time jumps really annoy me too, I understand that its almost impossible to live through a whole mans life in three books without time jumps (although Iggulden did it well!) but turning the page and seeing 'nine months later' or 'three years later' so many times consecutively annoys me.
Its definitely good enough to continue the series, as I have stated too already, now that a character connection has _finally_ been made, I am enjoying the series. definitely worth a read if Ancient Rome is your thing.