The Siege
Agent of Rome 1
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4.4 • 50 Ratings
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- £1.99
Publisher Description
270 AD
Rome has ruled Syria for over three centuries. But now the weakened empire faces a desperate threat: Queen Zenobia of Palmyra has turned her Roman-trained army against her former masters and the once invincible legions have been crushed. Arabia, Palestine and Egypt have fallen and now Antioch, Syria's capital, stands exposed.
Cassius Corbulo is a young intelligence agent fresh from officer training. He has been assigned the menial task of rounding up wounded legionaries but then urgent new orders arrive. He is the only ranking Roman officer left in the line of the Palmyran advance. He must take command of the fort of Alauran, the last stronghold still in Roman hands, and hold it against the enemy until reinforcements arrive.
What Cassius finds at Alauran would daunt the most seasoned veteran, let alone a nineteen year old with no experience of war. A mere scattering of divided and demoralised legionaries remain, backed up by some fractious Syrian auxiliaries and a drunken Praetorian Guardsman. With the Palmyrans just days away, Cassius must somehow find the discipline, resourcefulness and courage to organise the garrison, save Alauran and secure Rome's eastern frontier...
Customer Reviews
The Siege - Agent of Rome
The story builds slowly into a mesmerising level of detail that leaves the reader feeling dry in the throat from the parched desert sands.
Don’t be put off by the lengthy introduction to characters and plot, you’ll soon be sat their wriggling to miss the thrust of swords as the author delivers technical accuracy rarely found outside of history reference books.
Amazing!
This book is enthralling, never climaxing too early and with so many unexpected twists I found it hard to put my iPod down! I read it on the bus to school and even snuck some reading in during lessons! The next chapter was so unique to it's predecessor but so coherent that I couldn't help shivering with excitement especially when a particularly interesting twist occurred in the story. This was a five star read at least and I would thoroughly recommend buying it if you love combat, history or even strategy. I hope Brown lives up to his promise and produces a sequel as I shall definitely buy that as well.
NB. This was the first review I have ever written for a book and that is how much I felt this book deserved a commendation, much like that camel! (read the book to understand the joke)
A pacy read
What a fantastic debut novel - couldn't put it down.