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UNDER THE EAGLE

Name: UNDER THE EAGLE
Author: Simon Scarrow
ISBN: 0-312-27870-5

by Simon Scarrow ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 8, 2001

A warmly welcome sequel looks assured.

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A British high-school history teacher goes down, down, down into the world of Roman legions attacking Britain, getting into fine military nitty-gritty.

Politics and military maneuvers jointly shape newcomer Scarrow’s mighty plot. In the prologue, invading Romans, driven back by the barbarians, can’t drag a heavy chest of loot through the ooze of a bog; their general orders them to sink it into the mud, and a soldier makes a wax map so it can be recovered by a later expedition. The story begins a century later, during a renewed invasion in A.D. 42, when everything hinges on a precious scroll of the map. Whoever digs up the chest may well find himself on the way to being Emperor. As in any tale of politics and empire, spies and traitors abound. We follow the rise of Macro, an illiterate soldier risen to the important rank of centurion in the Second Legion. Training legionnaires takes the iron strength and fabulously foul mouth of a Parris Island drill sergeant, and a centurion must be able to inspire his men to hold fast and die should worst come to worst. Macro’s footing as an officer remains unstable. Should his illiteracy be found out—and caring for his 80 men involves a nightmarish number of administrative duties—he’ll be demoted back to the ranks. The Emperor Claudius, in need of a success in Britain to nail down his empire, sends a message to the legate Vespasian: new recruit Cato is a freedman and should be made an officer. Before sailing to Britain, Cato teaches Macro to read and write. Meanwhile, ambitious Vitellius, moral Vespasian, and his light-fingered wife Flavia have their eyes on the throne once Claudius dies and his heirs hastily succumb. Much depends on the power of wealth flowing from the chest waiting in British mud.

A warmly welcome sequel looks assured.

Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2001

ISBN: 0-312-27870-5

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2001

Categories:

HISTORICAL FICTION | GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE EAGLE’S PROPHECY
by Simon Scarrow

- BOOK REVIEW
THE EAGLE’S PREY
by Simon Scarrow

- BOOK REVIEW
WHEN THE EAGLE HUNTS
by Simon Scarrow

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.

Pub Date: July 11, 1960

ISBN: 0060935464

Page Count: 323

Publisher: Lippincott

Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE LAND OF SWEET FOREVER
by Harper Lee ; edited by Casey Cep

- BOOK REVIEW
GO SET A WATCHMAN
by Harper Lee

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THE ALCHEMIST

by Paulo Coelho & translated by Margaret Jull Costa ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 1993

Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.

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Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.

The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.

Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.