Dreaming the Bull (#2)

Very nice read. It gave a new take on the Warrior Queen. The hard time and sacrifices she made for her people.

In the second book of the Boudica quartet, Breaca and Bán - sister and brother, each believing the other is dead - unknowingly seek to destroy one another. Breaca and Caradoc try to raise a family while warding off the Roman invasion. Bán, through circumstances and poor choices, finds solace in becoming a Roman warrior. Both leaders without realizing who they target, vow to kill each other. As in the first book, two stories - one surrounding Breaca and Caradoc and the other centered around Bán - run parallel until the end. Bán captures Caradoc, his first wife, his oldest daughter and his son, Cunomar, along with the singer, Dubornos, and takes them to the Roman emperor. As Scott explains in the historical note at the end, history is uncertain about what actually happened between Claudius and Caradoc. But Caradoc survived and lived in captivity. Breaca, meanwhile, leads her people against Roman occupation. Breaca's story is secondary to Bán's. She is a new mother again - to a daughter this time. But Scott puts the spotlight on Bán, his guilt and descent into self-destruction while leading the Roman occupation. Toward the end, some of Caradoc's group escapes and returns to Mona. The reunion is heartwrenching, and there is no happy ending. The set-up for the third novel is perfect. A highly recommended 5 stars for those who enjoy and even mix of history and imagination as well as a page-turning adventure story.

having read dreaming the eagle and the hound this book is a natural follow on and has all the characters and exciting visions of our past ancestors and the way they lived and died. the two religions clashing ,the roman's and the britain's,and thier beliefs seemes even more important than the colonian aspirations of the romans trying to conquer britain. i loved all three that i have read and look forward to the next one.

Manda Scott continues her Boudica Trilogy with "Dreaming the Bull," a shorter sequel to her "Dreaming the Eagle." While the first story focused primarily on the rise of Breaca from promising girl to overpowering woman, "Dreaming the Bull" spends most of its time tracking the hellish existence of her brother, Ban. While we miss reading about Breaca, who is one heck of a character, the struggle for identity being fought by the soul of Ban/Valerius makes for some compelling reading. In the first novel, Ban is separated from Breaca following an ambush. Mistakenly believing her dead and betrayed by Caradoc (the love of her life), Ban finds solace in the Roman army invading Britain and becomes known as Valerius to the Romans, and as the dead-eyed decurion on the pied horse by the Britons. Valerius abandons the gods of his ancestors, adopts the ways of the Roman soldier-god Mithras, and brings death and destruction to the Britons in his quest for vengeance against those whom, he believes, killed his beloved sister. Breaca, mistakenly believing that Ban is dead, swears personal vengeance and undying hatred against the decurion who has slain so many of her people. "Dreaming the Bull" builds toward a fairly obvious climax -- the reuniting of Ban/Valerius and Breaca. Even though this reunion is expected, Scott tells her story with such style and power that both the journey and the reunion are worth the read. Much of this novel is spent in Rome, and Scott shows a command of Roman life and politics - she shows that she is equally adept at creating the world of Breaca out of almost whole cloth as she is writing about Claudius' Rome, of which so much more is known. Eschewing the revisionist pro-Claudius take that has been in vogue thanks to Robert Graves' "I, Claudius," Scott gives us a Roman emperor who is delightfully corrupt, craven, and brilliant. Indeed, the entire Roman court seems appropriately populated by vipers, spiders, and other assorted dastardly vermin. "Dreaming the Bull" is a story motivated primarily by sorrow and loss, which makes for a depressing read at times. Breaca's world is under dire threat, and both her larger society as well as her immediate family are in the gravest danger for the entire work. "Dreaming the Bull" is over 100 pages shorter than "Dreaming the Eagle," so the book is not nearly the slog that the first novel was, and the constant drumbeat of war is not nearly as numbing as it was the first time around. Perhaps "slog" is not fair -- Scott writes very well, and creates many scenes of great poignancy (the death of a beloved hound can be as moving as the death of a cherished parent), but the emotions are rather one-note, thanks to the war. Scott has chosen to end "Dreaming the Bull" in a cliff-hanger of almost movie-serial proportions, leaving virtually no guidance as to how the next novel will play out. I, for one, am eagerly looking forward into diving into the final novel of this powerful, poetic trilogy

The second of Manda Scott's Boudica trilogy opens with the somewhat older Breaca (known as `The Boudica', Bringer of Victory) ambushing Romans in modern Wales. Removed from the Eceni, now of Mona, she has a son and a husband, Caradoc whilst on the other side of Britain, Ban, now firmly known as Julius Valerius, a duplicarius, is aiding Corvus in planning how they will defeat the Britons. Valerius has lost his powers as an Eceni and now is subservient to Mithras Sol.Over the first hundred pages we follow Julius as he sweeps into the Silures territory in Rome's bid to disarm the tribes. One by one they find the blades of the Britons and destroy them, best epitomised when he locates Casselliovanus' sword and gives it to his new friend, the Thracian master of the Horse, Longinus Szvede. Together, under the guide of the Prefect Regulus they become the scourge of the Britons and the focus of the hatred of Breaca, Caradoc, Durogenes at al. After breaking out of one `salmon trap' laid by the Eceni, after Corvus nearly died and after Longinus and Julius also suffer injuries it culminates in Cunomar, Caradoc, Cygfa and Durogenes capture by Julius and removal to Rome for the Britannia Triumph. Whilst there Caradoc manages to delay their executions by offering to prevent the Dreamers from killing the superstitious Claudius from afar in return for their lives and earns a temporary respite. This denied it is only during the Triumph itself where he challenges the emperor that he manages to secure all their lives in return for Claudius' own safety. During this period what is of more import is Caradoc's realisation that Julius is in fact the not-dead Ban and all the enormity that comes with that. Julius states his belief in Aminios' lies to Caradoc's frustrations though his own struggle with the inner voices of the Dreamers shows that he must eventually weaken to the truth.On Claudius' death, they are freed and taken by Julius to freedom, though hotly pursued by the representatives of the newly elected Nero. After Caradoc is left alive but on the Italian shore the remainder return to Breaca and the inevitable hostile reunion as Ban and his sister meet again and she realises who he is. It ends with her sending him to Hibernia.This second effort by Scott is much...much better than the first. Gone is the heavy insinuation that Celtic Britain was dominated by totem spirituality and more focus is on providing a tautly narrated story at the end of the invading Romans and the struggle to stop them by the British. The characters are more rooted in reality and likeable, their actions more in tune with their ages. Rome factors far more heavily in this and whilst there is a lack of actual scenery in Rome, the narration of the relationships during this time means it is not overly missed. Ban/Julius' inner struggle is more plausible and whilst you want him to return to his heritage, you suspect that complete acceptance of what he has done and how much he has betrayed his own