I've never read anything by Harry Turtledove so the arrival of his book 'Give Me Back My Legions!', yesterday, seemed like a good opportunity to set that straight, look for a review in the next week or two...
How about you? Are you a fan or have you never read any of his books either? Thanks to the people at St. Martin's Press, I have two copies of this book to give away so you can either get your 'Turtledove Fix' or check him out for the first time. Here's the blurb from Amazon...
Publius Quinctilius Varus, a Roman politician, is summoned by the Emperor, Augustus Caesar. Given three legions and sent to the Roman frontier east of the Rhine, his mission is to subdue the barbarous German tribes where others have failed, and bring their land fully under Rome’s control.
Arminius, a prince of the Cherusci, is playing a deadly game. He serves in the Roman army, gaining Roman citizenship and officer’s rank, and learning the arts of war and policy as practiced by the Romans. What he learns is essential for the survival of Germany, for he must unite his people against Rome before they become enslaved by the Empire and lose their way of life forever.
An epic battle is brewing, and these two men stand on opposite sides of what will forever be known as The Battle of the Teutoberg Forest—a ferocious, bloody clash that will change the course of history.
Sounds good? If you want to try your luck at winning a copy just drop me an email (address at the top right hand side of the screen) telling me who you are and where you live. I'll do the rest :o)
This competition is only open to people in the US I'm afraid... I'll be letting it run until the 17th of May and I'll announce the winners on the 18th.
Good Luck!
Ironically enough, Arminius was eventually killed by his own side for being too Roman and trying to unite the tribes into an Empire!
ReplyDeleteSo there's a deal of historical fact to this: Varus was given 3 legions, the battle did actually happen and the title is a quote from Augustus himself when he learned of the news.
As James B said, there is an historical background. To be honest I never read a book by Harry Turtledove so far. Therefore your giveaway is a good opportunity.
ReplyDeleteharry turtledove is a writer who does alt history stories, the best of which imo is called The Two Georges.
ReplyDeleteive read a bunch of his stuff over the years and most is unfortunatly pretty boring-utterly crap which i think is the reason not much has been released outside the us.
I haven't read much Turtledove, only a few novels, but what I have read completely goes to the counter of what broken serenity said. They were intriguing, well written, and the history was both spot on and fascinatingly altered to make for truly unique situations. Turtledove's ability to extrapolate is also second to none.
ReplyDeleteAugustus <3. My very favorite and one of the sole reasons I chose my focus as Ancient Rome in college.
ReplyDeleteReading these posts has bumped 'Give me back my legions!' right up the reading pile if only to see if my opinion ends up being closer to Luke's of Broken Serenity's...
ReplyDeleteI might have a read this weekend :o)