When the Eagle Hunts

by Simon Scarrow

Reviewed by Coral

When the shipwrecked family of General Plautius is captured by a vicious druid sect, it falls to Macro and Cato to rescue them. Infiltrating enemy lands, they only have a short amount of time before the General’s family will be sacrificed to the enemy’s dark gods.

I didn’t really enjoy this book.

It’s hard to cheer for the Romans, intent on subjugating the British people, so a lot of the views expressed by the Roman characters bothered me in this book (though I will admit they were probably realistic to how Romans may have felt at the time).

Though he leads the army that the Romans are fighting, Caratacus wasn’t really the focus of the book, which was also disappointing.

I really didn’t like the portrayal of the Druids in this book.

One of my big pet peeves has always been when original characters are shoe-horned into big historical events or always find themselves interacting with the main historical people. I disliked it in Rome, when Titus and Pullo were ordered to escort Cleopatra to meet Caesar and one of them ended up being the father of the child she passes off as Caesar’s. Here, it’s Macro and Boudica and their love affair.

I’d probably give up on the series if I didn’t already own the fourth book, so I guess I will give it one more chance.

Grade: F