Gripping and Exciting Story

I knew that story was really good as I had read the novel in the early 80's and again 20 years ago. As soon as I saw it had recently been released in Audio; I immediately ordered it.
It is a different experience listening to the audio version; but the story continued to keep me riveted until the end.
The book (and the others in the Trilogy) explore a number of themes such as slavery, the training of Roman Soldiers, military strategy and the German Culture around AD 72. It is also a love story.
The story follows the adventures of a pair of Roman brothers; one free-born and one slave-born as they serve in the Roman legions. Their father was a successful Roman General whose sons where born the same year. He decided to give the same education and military training to both of them. His mistress's son was born to be a soldier and the story, in many ways revolves around him. After the father freed and adopted the slave son; they both trained together to be Roman Officers.
I really hope that the sequel "Barbarian Princess" is released in audio soon. It is just as good as the first one.

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Very poor! Avoid

This may well be a good book but sadly I never got to find out, I tried it for 4 hours listening but it is let down by the absolutely pathetic narration.
You never get the feel of the story as the way it is narrated is more like story time at primary school.
It seems once again Audible have picked someone who does not and cannot express the story to keep you interested, just agreed to anyone that says they can narrate and employed them regardless.
The narrator would be better off doing voice overs for shampoo adverts and keep well away from audiobooks.
Shame really as it’s the first in a trilogy and if the first book is anything to go by then I’ll not be bothering with the next two.
I’m a big fan of Simon Scarrow, Conn Iggulden, Ben Kane etc- but they have narrators who can hold an audience and bring a story to life.
This book probably took a lot of time , effort and research to write only to be let down badly at the end by such a dire performance on audiobook.
Audible editors - start earning your wages and stop just taking a days pay!
There’s a big difference.
I’m sure you have ears that work maybe you should remove the ear plugs before commissioning such a disaster - I hope you’ve sent a massive apology to the author.

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4 people found this helpful