Clouds of War

Two friends on opposing sides of war confront each other during the brutal siege of Syracuse in this gripping military historical novel.
"The rising star of historical fiction!" —Wilbur Smith

In 213 B.C., as the forces of both Rome and Hannibal's army from Carthage are still reeling from the losses at the Battle of Canae, the second Punic War rages on. With more and more of Rome's Italian allies switching allegiance to Carthage, the stakes continue to increase. When the major Sicilian city of Syracuse defects to Hannibal, Rome sends all that it has to retake the city. Now, outside the nearly impregnable city walls, a vast Roman Army besieges the city. Inside the city, tensions and politics are an even greater threat.


Two men—once boyhood friends, through circumstance now find themselves fighting on opposing sides—are about to face each other once again. Caught between them is a woman. All three trapped in one of the most famous and brutal sieges of all time.


Ben Kane's Clouds of War is a vivid, exciting, and very human novel about one of the most defining conflicts in history, seen from the very top, where the generals make bold gambits, all the way down to the very bottom, where the people who are caught in the crossfire are trapped.

Praise for Clouds of War

"Kane is already well-known as a writer who delivers on immersing the reader in his world, and this book does not disappoint. . . . Existing Kane fans won't be disappointed, and this book deserves to increase that following." —Historical Novel Society