Just finished "Silver Eagle", book 2 in Ben Kane's series about the Forgotten Legion featuring twin slaves Romulus and Fabiola who live and intertwine themselves at the time of the fall of the triumvirate and ends with the defeat of Pompey by Caesar. Juggling Fabiola in Rome and Romulus stuck in Asia as part of a captured Legion in the Parthian army means that the book is very disjointed and episodic with each chapter ending on a climax which then you have to wait a further chapter, with the lives being alternated.
Further, Kane interrupts the narrative flow with a lot of description about the historical detail. Now that is fine and great to add verisimilitude, but all too often it feels a little like a lecture by a historian - and the period is fascinating. Much of the description goes into the Mithraic religion imported by the Roman army from the Parthians.
Still it is all action with plenty of good battle scenes skilfully handled. Whether I shall stick the course for Book 3 "Road To Rome" remains to be determined.
Three Stars
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