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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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CARRIE

by Stephen King ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 8, 1974

King handles his first novel with considerable accomplishment and very little hokum—it's only too easy to believe that these...

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Figuratively and literally shattering moments of hoRRRRRipilication in Chamberlain, Maine where stones fly from the sky rather than from the hands of the villagers (as they did in "The Lottery," although the latter are equal to other forms of persecution).

All beginning when Carrie White discovers a gift with telekinetic powers (later established as a genetic fact), after she menstruates in full ignorance of the process and thinks she is bleeding to death while the other monsters in the high school locker room bait and bully her mercilessly. Carrie is the only child of a fundamentalist freak mother who has brought her up with a concept of sin which no blood of the Lamb can wash clean. In addition to a sympathetic principal and gym teacher, there's one girl who wishes to atone and turns her date for the spring ball over to Carrie who for the first time is happy, beautiful and acknowledged as such. But there will be hell to pay for this success—not only her mother but two youngsters who douse her in buckets of fresh-killed pig blood so that Carrie once again uses her "wild talent," flexes her mind and a complete catastrophe (explosion and an uncontrolled fire) virtually destroys the town.

King handles his first novel with considerable accomplishment and very little hokum—it's only too easy to believe that these youngsters who once ate peanut butter now scrawl "Carrie White eats shit." But as they still say around here, "Sit a spell and collect yourself."

Pub Date: April 8, 1974

ISBN: 0385086954

Page Count: 216

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1974

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
OTHER WORLDS THAN THESE
by Stephen King & Peter Straub

- BOOK REVIEW
NEVER FLINCH
by Stephen King

- BOOK REVIEW
YOU LIKE IT DARKER
by Stephen King

- PERSPECTIVES
Appreciations: Carrie Turns 40

- SEEN & HEARD
Stephen King Used ‘Carrie’ Advance To Support Mom

- BOOK TO SCREEN
New ‘Carrie’ Series in the Works at Amazon

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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.