Destiny's Shield

Destiny's Shield (1999) is the third novel in the Belisarius series, following In the Heart of Darkness. In the previous volume, the traitors blinded Justinian and threatened Theodora. Narses killed John of Cappadocia and saved her life. Thracian bucellarii, Greek cataphracts, and the infantry followed Belisarius into the Great Palace and drove off or captured the traitors inside. Then Belisarius led his troops to the Hippodrome to support Antonina and her grenadiers. The Theodora Cohort faced the mob within the Hippodrome and, with help from the cataphracts and infantry, devastated both them and the Malwa kshatriya. Since Justinian was blind, he could no longer be Emperor. Theodora was a woman, so she couldn't be Emperor. That was a problem to be solved. In India, Empress Shakuntala of Andhra convinced Dadaji Holkar to remain as her chief advisor. He agreed as long as his master -- Belisarius -- allowed him to do so. She also forced him to face the need to find his family. In this novel, Photius -- Antonina's eight year old son -- is adopted by Justinian and Theodora and then acclaimed as the Emperor. Theodora will be his regnant and Justinian his advisor. Hypatia will be his governess and Justin his chief bodyguard. Belisarius will be his strategos and Antonina his comfort. Baresmanas of the Suren is the new Persian Ambassador. His audience is the first public appearance of the new emperor. He worries Photius until the young emperor makes a slight mistake in his greeting for the ambassador. When Baresmanas smiles warmly at his recovery, Photius is relieved. Baresmanas suddenly reminds Photius of his stepfather Belisarius. After putting Photius to bed, Antonina joins a conference with the Persian ambassador. Baresmanas is just concluding a long and involved speech warning the Romans against interfering in the secession in Persia. As he is finishing his remarks, Irene Macrembolitissa ushers in a Persian officer, who whispers in the ambassador's ear. When the ambassador withdraws to speak to his own entourage, Irene passes on the gist of the news. Persia has been invaded by the Malwa. Khusrau -- the new King of Kings -- has instructed Baresmanas to ask for Roman aid. The Romans can only provide about ten thousand men under Belisarius. They must leave troops along the Danube to keep out the barbarian tribes and the cataphracts under Sittas must remain in Rome to ensure its stability after the attempted coup. Moreover, they need to send troops to Egypt to put down a revolt by the patriarch and the army commander. In this story, Belisarius leaves for Persia with his troops and the Persian ambassador. He and the Persians will face an army of two hundred thousand men. Only the Malwa could raise and support as army of this size. The King of Kings is encamped within the ruins of Babylon. The bulk of the Malwa army has his army under siege, but cavalry units are scouring the rest of the country. Only Belisarius and his fo

I really liked everything about this novel. Fast paced with enough action and humor to keep the pages turning. If yo like alternate history or just want a good read this is it!

Good Morning, General Belisarius. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, will be to lead your armies against overwhelming force led by the ultimate evil. If you lose, commit suicide, for humanity will enter an age of darkness that will never lift. If you or any of your companions are caught, you will face slow death by hideous torture. This message from the future will *NOT* self-destruct because you will *need* everthing it can teach you. Good luck.With this, the third (of four so far) book in the series, the overall structure of the story is now plain. We get to watch Belisarius, his wife Antonina and their friends, like the I.M. force, begin forging a boom to lower on the Malwa. The true pleasure of this series is that it's on a much larger, far more beautiful, and incomparably better painted canvas. You don't HAVE to read the earlier books to follow the story. Eric Flint intersperses enough of a situation report into the tale that you can jump in and pretty much figure out what's going on. However, there is a lot of the fun getting to know these people over the course of several books.As seems to be his habit, Flint's writing is superb, and the people, places, time and battles are well-drawn. Again, as always, there are wonderfully memorable scenes, including one particular sequence where Antonina comes into her own. If Belisarius is a Craftsmaster of War, she is a Cook, seasoning the siege of an impregnable fortress with a dash of force and a soupcon of violence in a display of lateral thinking that left me dumbfounded, admiring, awestruck, and laughing like hell.Start to finish, this book is a pure delight, and I get to start on number four at once! I have only one complaint: I agree that - the maps could be better, since much of the ground of the story is unfamiliar to those of us who are not historians.As always, Eric, thank you for hours of reading pleasure.

I came across a novel on the Baen web page called, "1632" by an author unknown to me, Eric Flint. I read the first 21 chapters on the web page and knew that this was going to be one of the top authors in science fiction. ("1632" is like "Island in the Sea of Time" if it had been was written by Leo Frankowski.) I looked up what other books Eric Flint might have written and found this series, written with David Drake. I quickly read the first two books in the series, then had to buy the hardback of "Destiny's Shield." This is the third book in the series which began with, "An Oblique Approach." I missed reading "An Oblique Approach" when it first appeared at the book stores because I assumed it was just another pseudo historical science fiction novel. It IS set during height of the Eastern Roman Empire, in an alternate universe, but this is a GREAT pseudo historical science fiction novel. There is a certain similarity to "The General" series which David Drake also coauthored, but this is better. With "Destiny's Shield," the series just gets more interesting. I'm hooked, and now I have to wait for the next novel in the series.

When Drake and Stirling did their "General" seriesof the early 1990's, it appeared that was the best example of past warfare combined with high tech influence ever written. I may have been wrong... there's something magical about taking what I consider one of the ten best generals in human history, a true historical figure and build a series around him where tech changes are happening faster than the 20th century. I can almost believe that the Belisarius would have been equal to the task that the series places his fictional counterpart. And what a task! The first two books in this series were but a calm prelude to the fireworks that go off in Destiny's Shield (although they were excellent in their own way). Drake and Flint really hit their stride with Shield, with battles and politics happening on multiple fronts, all critical to the the final defeat of the Malwas. I knew that Belisarius was an extremely important historical figure to Mr. Drake, this series borders on a labor of love. Thank you for making Belisarius seem so incredibly real to me!