Eagle in the Snow: A Novel of General Maximus and Rome's Last Stand

After having finished this gripping, touching, and historically accurate page turner I HAD to write a review to offset the previous one. Anyone who thinks this book is stale is missing the point woefully. The book is written in a terse style because its supposed to represent the bleakness of the decline of the Roman empire, but that doesn't mean it isn't at turns humorous, touching, and beautiful. This is THE definitive historical fiction regarding the fall of Rome. I only hope someone makes a movie out of it! If you love tales of Rome, particularly those which are militarily and historically accurate but still immensely moving and entertaining, buy this book today--you won't regret it.

I have owned this book twice, on both occasions I have lent it to "friends" who have not returned it. I will buy it again to read and savour.The book starts off slowly, with the forgotten men who manned Hadrians wall, but rapidly the action moves to Gaul, where Maximus is tasked to hold the Rhine crossings against the German tribes. He has only one Legion with which to defend Gaul and the book deals with his plans, the epic battles in defence of the Rhine and the treachery that allows the tribes to overrun Gaul.Tightly written with magnificent descriptions of not only battles but the everyday life of a Legion this book is a must for anybody interested in military history. It is also a study of duty and honour. The characters are believable, well sketched and, if the mark of a good book is that you end up caring about the characters, this is one of the very best.

His name is Maximus, the book's narrator and principled protagonist, and he may be the last of the old-style Romans whose virtues (and failings) built and maintained an empire for centuries. This exquisite book is the story of his struggle to remain true to the old values that he loves amid a world that has changed; a Roman world that is failing. He becomes the general of Legio XX after a hard apprenticeship in the backwater of imperial Britannia and is given the thankless task of holding the Rhine frontier against a sea of land-hungry barbarian tribes. His task seems hopeless, but Maximus holds to it with grim determination and through personal trials, not least of which is the temptation to proclaim himself Emperor and salvage what he can from the shifting alliances of the time. Using military strategems and cunning diplomacy, Maximus keeps Rome's foes at bay until the fates turn against him. Wallace Breem, a veteran of the Indian Army, recreates a military world that is detailed and believeable. His novel is awash in the conflict of civilization against barbarism, pagan versus Christian; it is an unsentimental story, told directly and without elaborate flourishes, but one that is still rich and deeply moving. A perfect read in the chill of winter, when the final third of the book will hold a special resonance. No one who has ever discovered this book seems to have forgotten it; what a thunderbolt from Jove, to see this book in print again! I have treasured my copy of the original US edition for years. Previously, this title was reissued in paperback in Britain in 2002 from the Phoenix Press, and *that* is the superior version, I have to say. The original maps are not as nice as those in the new hardback edition, but there is a poignant Latin coda at the end of the original text, along the lines of a Roman funerary inscription, that is MISSING from both the new American Rugged Land editions (hardback and paperback) -- how do these things happen? Shame on the publisher. This coda ties up some lingering questions about how Maximus' narrative came to be and is a fitting sign-off to this powerful story. If you miss this, as readers of this version will, you're missing a wonderful closer. Seek out the UK paperback, with the frontal painting of a Roman soldier on the cover. (The abridged versions show the back of a soldier; that's how you can tell which to Back Away from.)