‘Under the Eagle’ is my first Simon Scarrow book and I knew before the halfway point it wouldn’t be my last.

If you like dull moments, don’t expect to find any here. This is a Roman adventure, full of action and drama, along with a little humour and a touch of romance.

Although it’s fast paced, it’s not all hell and no notion. The plot is solid and is engaging from start to end.

The characters are vivid. Cato, the main ‘star’, is my favourite. He’s believable and relatable. He’s a seventeen-year-old thrown into the Roman army with no clue what he’s doing. Worse still, his letter of recommendation results in him being given a position of responsibility as an optio, which is a centurion’s second-in-command. Earning the respect on the soldiers beneath his rank is no easy task.

The different ranks take some getting used to if, like me, your knowledge of Roman times is sparse.

Reading other reviews, I see the biggest criticism of ‘Under the Eagle’ is the language. More specifically, the use of modern English slang. My feelings on language in historical fiction is that it should be contemporary but without using modernisms like, for example, ‘It’s a corker.’

That said, the main thing is consistency. I've read historical novels where in one scene a character says something like, ‘Keep it in your trousers,’ while in another scene someone else says, ‘Whence came he thus?’ Mr Scarrow is consistent and never slips in an archaic term.

While I admit I would’ve preferred the language to not incorporate modern slang, the characters and third-person narration are engaging enough for this not to make me feel like I’m reading a story set during any period other than the first century AD.

Perhaps with me being an Englishman makes the slang words and phrases more palatable. I admit, it did annoy me when, in another historical novel, the author of that book used the odd Americanism – ‘ass’ and ‘butt’, for example – so I can understand why any non-English reader – and certainly non-British – would be distracted by the slang terms.

So, while the slang words and phrases didn’t bother me, three other elements did distract me at times. One being a trait that keeps cropping up in books I’ve read this year by different authors, namely this sort of thing: ‘more loudly’, ‘more quietly’, instead of the more concise ‘louder’ and ‘quieter’. Don’t use two words if one will do.

Adverbs: they ‘tell’, not ‘show’, and a fair few appear in this wonderful story, but not too many to spoil it.

The two points above are minor criticisms. The one big gripe I have is the overuse of ‘then’ to state what happens next. This novel is riddled with ‘thens’, at times making the third-person narrative sound like a child’s voice. It’s most frequent during the exciting actions scenes, and I found it distracting to the point that (whilst listening to this on an audio) I started predicting that the narrator would say ‘then’ in the next sentence. ‘Then’ is easy to cut when editing, and it’s not hard to drop it altogether. It ends up being a filler word, notably when using it to start a sentence. The reader knows whatever’s happening is taking place after what’s just happened, so no need to put, ‘Then he …’ and such like.

In most cases, I'll deduct a star if a book is riddled with ‘thens’ or swamped with adverbs. As someone who appreciates good writing style, these things drive me to distraction. Yet, as mentioned, ‘Under the Eagle’ is such a great story it overrode these niggling points, and I’d feel I was doing Simon Scarrow an injustice by rating this anything other than 5 stars.

It’s easier to go on and on criticising a book than it is to praise it over and over, and I’ve doubtless not expressed how impressed I am with ‘Under the Eagle’ to the extent it deserves, so, in a nutshell, I’ll state this: it’s one heck of a great read. ( )

Asistimos a los primeros pasos de Marco Licinio Cato, quien en Roma obtiene la libertad a cambio de enrolarse en la legión romana. Tras una primera campaña en Germania, viaja a las islas británicas, tierra de brujas habitada por salvajes. De la mano del rudo centurión, Lucio Cornelio Marco, iniciará una emocionante y divertida carrera militar. La segunda legión augusta, por entonces al mando de Vespasiano, será testigo de sus primeras hazañas.

Enjoyable adventure which bodes well for the series of five books I have purchased. Good holiday read. ( )

Newly promoted centurion Macro has a secret and if it comes out he will be reduced to the ranks again. New recruit Cato attracts the attention of a bully and is suspected of cowardice when he tries to avoid him. Can they help each other out in the run-up to Claudius's invasion of Britain?

Enjoyable Roman military fiction. I don't know why it's taken me so long to get to this. So many books, so little time. ( )

Muy buen inicio para este primer volumen sobre la vida de Quinto Licinio Cato. Acción a raudales. Deja ganas de leerse el resto sin duda.
Macro, su centurión, Vespasiano, el legado, Vitelio, un tribuno especial y demás personajes tejen entre todos una trama muy bien hilada. ( )