Dreaming the Eagle
A Novel of Boudica, The Warrior Queen
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3.9 • 14 Ratings
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
Dreaming the Eagle is the first part of the gloriously imagined epic trilogy of the life of Boudica.
Boudica means Bringer of Victory (from the early Celtic word “boudeg” ). She is the last defender of the Celtic culture in Britain; the only woman openly to lead her warriors into battle and to stand successfully against the might of Imperial Rome—and triumph.
It is 33 AD and eleven-year-old Breaca (later named Boudica), the red-haired daughter of one of the leaders of the Eceni tribe, is on the cusp between girl and womanhood. She longs to be a Dreamer, a mystical leader who can foretell the future, but having killed the man who has attacked and killed her mother, she has proven herself a warrior. Dreaming the Eagle is also the story of the two men Boudica loves most: Caradoc, outstanding warrior and inspirational leader; and Bàn, her half-brother, who longs to be a warrior, though he is manifestly a Dreamer, possibly the finest in his tribe’s history. Bàn becomes the Druid whose eventual return to the Celts is Boudica’s salvation.
Dreaming the Eagle is full of brilliantly realised, luminous scenes as the narrative sweeps effortlessly from the epic -- where battle scenes are huge, bloody, and action-packed -- to the intimate. Manda Scott plunges us into the unforgettable world of tribal Britain in the years before the Roman invasion: a world of druids and dreamers and the magic of the gods where the natural world is as much a character as any of the people who live within it, a world of warriors who fight for honour as much as victory, a world of passion, courage and spectacular heroism pitched against overwhelming odds.
Dreaming the Eagle stunningly recreates the roots of a story so powerful its impact has lasted through the ages.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Scottish writer Scott has already turned out three crime novels, but this is her debut historical fiction, the first in an ambitious trilogy about the life of Boudica, the warrior queen of Britannia who fought the Romans in the first century A.D. Long on meticulous detail and religious spells, and short on suspense and battle action, this lengthy volume runs from A.D. 32 to 43 and covers Boudica's youth (when she was known as Breaca), during which she kills her first opponent in battle and begins a life of leadership and bloodshed. Many of the tribes in Britain were either ruled by women or held men and women as equals. Breaca's tribe, the Eceni, had both men and women as warriors, healers and elders. Violent feuds, territorial rivalries, shifting alliances and desire for plunder made Britain a bloody patchwork of warring tribal lands, but invasion by the Romans gave the tribes a common enemy. Breaca meets Caradoc, warrior son of a rival king, and the two develop both a romantic relationship and a battlefield camaraderie that will be sorely tested over the decade. They fight Caradoc's evil brother, Amminios, who is allied with the Romans and whose treachery makes him a formidable foe. Tribal life and Roman politics are well depicted, and there is no shortage of juicy love triangles in all kinds of exotic configurations. The plot, however, needs tightening; it bogs down in too many soap-opera subplots about shocking betrayals. And those looking for blood-soaked battlefield mayhem will be disappointed. Not until the Romans arrive, 400 pages into the book, does the real action begin.
