I won my copy of this book free through a Goodreads First Reads giveaway.

I was not sure what to expect from this book, since the blurb on the giveaway listing didn't say much, but I am glad I entered the contest for this book. This book reminds me of movies like The Gladiator, historical fiction about battles and heroes from classical times. The story is engaging and Smale does a good job of orienting his readers to the time and place of his story without straying too far from historical accuracy, and also without turning his novel into a history textbook. This would be a fun novel (and series, though I've only read book#1 and can't speak to the rest) to read while studying Classical Roman history, to bring that era to life in a way history books can't. ( )

The premise is interesting and the author does a good job of presenting the native cultures with the respect and awe they deserve. However I found the amount of violence and the graphic way it was presented at times overwhelmed what should have been the main story.

I really appreciated the conclusion of the book (which I won't explain as it would be a spoiler). ( )

I won my copy of this book free through a Goodreads First Reads giveaway.

I was not sure what to expect from this book, since the blurb on the giveaway listing didn't say much, but I am glad I entered the contest for this book. This book reminds me of movies like The Gladiator, historical fiction about battles and heroes from classical times. The story is engaging and Smale does a good job of orienting his readers to the time and place of his story without straying too far from historical accuracy, and also without turning his novel into a history textbook. This would be a fun novel (and series, though I've only read book#1 and can't speak to the rest) to read while studying Classical Roman history, to bring that era to life in a way history books can't. ( )

Usually when I give a book three stars it's because I mean that it's a solid effort. Other times I really do mean that it was worth reading once and it was only okay, as is the case this time. To a large degree this tale of a Rome that achieved a constitutional order after the reign of Septimius Severus that allowed it to survive to encounter Meso-America in it's prime is just okay and my major problem is that I really didn't find myself believing in this Roman order enough to suspend disbelief; never mind how Smale handles the Meso-American peoples. Apart from that I found that this novel only occasionally rose above the conventional places where you might go with this situation. What redeems it in part is that I basically liked Smale's Roman officer protagonist and that the climax of this book takes seriously how disruptive Roman culture and technology would be to Meso-America. However, I'm not sure I care enough to read two more books. ( )

The main issue I had with Alan Smale's alternate-history tale of Roman legions battling their way across pre-Colombian North America is that, quite frankly, I've read or watched it so many times before. Alternate history as a genre seems to be in love with the idea of a Rome that never fell. And the plot itself is the same rehashed White-Savior story that was old in Avatar—only Avatar and The Last Samurai did a better job of it, because at least the damaged veteran was portrayed as actually damaged, whether with PTSD or career-ending injuries. Both Avatar's Jake and The Last Samurai's Nathan had somewhat plausible reason to forsake their own and reinvent themselves in a new culture. In Clash of Eagles, Marcellinus turns and becomes complacent among his captors so quickly that I lost all interest in him as a character. If there had been more complication and inner conflict on his part, I would have found it easier to invest in his story. As it was, I found him simply despicable. I have no motivation to continue on to the second book of this series—though the story in this first novel is by no means complete. In fact, the ending is so abrupt that it feels as if Smale just decided to stop writing at that point, regardless of whether anything was resolved.

I received a free review copy of this book from NetGalley. ( )