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3.5 

Hadrian's Wall

By William Dietrich
Hadrian's Wall by William Dietrich digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

A fusion of Steven Pressfield's Gates of Fire and the movie Braveheart; a novel of ancient warfare, lethal politics, and the final great clash of Roman and Celtic culture.

For three centuries, the stone barrier we know as Hadrian's Wall shielded Roman Britain from the unconquered barbarians of the island's northern highlands. But when Valeria, a senator's daughter, is sent to the Wall for an arranged marriage to an aristocratic officer in 367 AD, her journey unleashes jealousy, passion and epic war. Valeria's new husband, Marcus, has supplanted the brutally efficient veteran soldier Galba as commander of the famed Petriana cavalry. Yet Galba insists on escorting the bride–to–be on her journey to the Wall. Is he submitting to duty? Or plotting revenge? And what is the mysterious past of the handsome barbarian chieftain Arden Caratacus, who springs from ambush and who seems to know so much of hated Rome?

As sharp as the edge of a spatha sword and as piercing as a Celtic arrow, Hadrian's Wall evokes a lost world of Roman ideals and barbaric romanticism.

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7 Reviews

3.5
“I had not expected this book to be a historical romantic novel. And as such, I feel like everything was just a background to the main love story. Oddly though, I also think it is not your traditional romantic novel because we never actually meet the main characters. The story is told from the point of view of those around them, and that is one thing I liked about this novel. The author has an interesting way of playing with point of view, and I thought it was relatively well done. And possibly, one of the main reasons why I kept reading. Also, the author's writing style was very good, and his characters plausible. Despite following the cliché of a woman marrying a man she doesn't love and falling in love with the barbarian chieftain, the main female protagonist is likable and tolerable. She plays her part of a Roman matron, and that of all other Roman matrons of the past, well. Her male counterpart is also portrayed as a realistic character. He is everything she is not, and I liked how this duo represented the opposition between the Roman and Celtic cultures. Valeria's love for Arden and her gradual acceptance of his Celtic culture represents, in my opinion, the eventual defeat and dominance of the barbarians over the Roman Empire, which as stated in the epilogue, fell a mere 32 years after this war. Also, the duality of oppression (represented by the Roman culture) and freedom (represented by the Celtic culture) was very well portrayed. Given the title of the novel, though, I thought the book would be centered more on this war and the attempts of the northern tribes at breaching the wall, not the love story. Galba, however, was a very interesting character. Not so much a villain, he was a frustrated commander who'd given his life to the Wall, and had it all taken from him due to politics. And though the setting is different nowadays, this is still something very current today and Galba's transformation from a loyal commander to a frustrated and duplicitous soldier who seizes what he thinks he deserves without any mercy (for none was shown to him) was a very interesting turn and read. The reason why I am giving this book 3 stars only is because I still think it was too much of a love story than I had anticipated. I was expecting something different.”

About William Dietrich

William Dietrich is the author of fourteen novels, including six previous Ethan Gage titles—Napoleon's Pyramids, The Rosetta Key, The Dakota Cipher, The Barbary Pirates, The Emerald Storm, and The Barbed Crown. Dietrich is also a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, historian, and naturalist. A winner of the PNBA Award for Nonfiction, he lives in Washington State.

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