Legionary

By: Gordon Doherty

Narrated by: Simon Whistler

The Roman Empire is crumbling, and a shadow looms in the east....

376 AD: the Eastern Roman Empire is alone against the tide of barbarians swelling on her borders. Emperor Valens juggles the paltry border defences to stave off invasion from the Goths north of the Danube. Meanwhile, in Constantinople, a pact between faith and politics spawns a lethal plot that will bring the dark and massive hordes from the east crashing down on these struggling borders. The fates conspire to see Numerius Vitellius Pavo, enslaved as a boy after the death of his legionary father, thrust into the limitanei, the border legions, just before they are sent to recapture the long-lost eastern Kingdom of Bosporus. He is cast into the jaws of this plot, so twisted that the survival of the entire Roman world hangs in the balance...

©2013 Gordon Doherty (P)2014 Gordon Doherty

interesting historical novel

I enjoyed this novel but stumbled a bit with mispronunciations and wrong use of tenses. It could use a good editor and preview listener.

Decent book, stellar performance

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would recommend this audiobook to anyone who loves a good adventure yarn and would enjoy following the travels of a boy battling for his life across the tapestry of a lush but brutal history.

What other book might you compare Legionary to and why?

Hard for me to say, as I'm not much of a historical fiction reader. If anything, though, I would say this reminded me of Louis L'Amour's "The Walking Drum." Lots of action, shallow characters, plenty of fun.

Which scene was your favorite?

I enjoyed the bar scene in who Pavo drunkenly escapes a thrashing by kicking his far superior opponent in the privates -- not because of the cheap comedy, which wasn't bad, but because it encapsulates the sense of rowdy, slapdash, seat-of-your-pants action that typifies the story.

Any additional comments?

Simon Whistler's narration of this tale is a joy. His English accent gives it a sense of Old World majesty while his enthusiasm is infectious. He clearly enjoys the material (or he's very gifted at faking it). I would love to listen to more books read by him.

Slow start, but gripping by the end

Where does Legionary rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

For story, somewhere in the middle. For production, kind of low. It is possible to hear some of the edits and "punch ins" and certain words are pronounced differently at different times.

What did you like best about this story?

The drama built well, the author handled suspense well. Good pacing after a somewhat clunky beginning.

What does Simon Whistler bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Simon's voice and dramatic reading ability are both quite nice. Again I found the production quality somewhat lacking and that distracted me from the story at times.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Blood, Guts, and dust

Any additional comments?

Some back story is delivered too quickly at the beginning. The protagonist goes from young child to young adult quickly, and later allusions to his past that weren't really brought up earlier. But I found that the story became much more coherent and enjoyable as it went on.

I think the author handled two juxtaposed narratives well: the main protagonist is a grunt soldier caught up in the intrique of generals and emperors. The stories of both "higher" and "lower" rank characters are well told and well mixed.

Rousing historical fiction.

The narrator was excellent. The story seemed a little slow going at the start, but soon picked up speed.

I enjoyed this novel

I was never a big fan of the historical type fiction, but since i listened to this i think my tastes may have changed. I found the story-line intriguing and it all flowed very well. I think the narrator did the book justice and i will definitely look for more from both the author and narrator.

Legionary

What did you like best about this story?

Very good audiobook...Well paced, action book. The characters were well developed and make me care about them but not so much that dragged down the book. I recommend this book.

Awesome!!

Loved this book, it was non-stop thrills and great historical battle fiction . For Rome!

Excellent Performance; One Facial Expression

If you could sum up Legionary in three words, what would they be?

Adventure, Blood, Grimacing

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

I enjoyed the adventurous nature of the story, and how it painted the times in a way that made it come alive. I didn't care how everybody only had one facial expression.

What about Simon Whistler’s performance did you like?

Simon did a great job reading this story; his polished voice brought forth the excitement in the action.

It almost worked for me

Numerius Vitellius Pavo is a slave and a witch’s curse protects him from permanent damage or death at the hands of his owner, a senator of Rome. Set in 376 AD, Christianity is on the rise and the Roman empire has crumbled a bit at the borders. Pavo finds himself freed only to join the border legions who face near-certain death.

Young Pavo was a likable chap, though a bit boring in a permanently beaten puppy kind of way. I never really grew attached to him, so this book probably had less impact on me than other readers who do become attached to Pavo. He has a buddy, Sura, who is always telling tall tales and they watch out for each other through out the story. It was a cute best buddy friendship. Once they join up as trainees, there’s all sorts of hazing the young recruits must endure.

I did enjoy the political intrigue going on behind the scenes, especially back in Rome. Emperor Valens has plenty to contend with between the rising Christian church, and Goths and Huns pushing against the Roman borders. These scenes made up perhaps a quarter of the book but I found them to be the most interesting.

The ladies are woefully under represented in this book. In fact, I do believe there are only two that get names, and one is a dead wife. The other, Felicia, is the love interest of Pavo. There’s a variety of other nameless bedwarmers, but sadly they don’t really add to the plot. I will say that the one sex scene was sweet and hot; nicely done!

Pavo is our hero of the story and he is at the crux of big things happening for the empire. And yet, I never really got that sense of big sweeping events hanging on a sword’s edge that I was hooping for. I am having a hard time putting my finger directly on it. The action scenes often came off as a bit flat to me, lacking drama or suspense. Maybe this is because I wasn’t particularly attached to Pavo.

I dived into this book truly expecting to love it. Ancient Roman historical fiction is one of my favorite niche genres. Plus the time of Emperor Valens and the rise of Christianity isn’t a section I have really studied, so I was looking forward to learning a bit as I enjoyed this fiction. I was surprised and saddened this book was only so-so for me.

I received this audiobook from the author (via the Audiobook Blast Facebook page) at no cost in exchange for an honest review.

The Narration: Simon Whistler did a pretty good job. He had a variety of accents as called for and had passable female voices for the few times a woman uttered a line. He does have the English accent (and since this is an English production that is quite proper) and for some words my American brain had to puzzle out what he said (such as the word ‘grimace’). Also, for the longest time I thought the main character’s name was Parvo instead of Pavo because I hear a soft R in the name when Whistler says it. Parvo is a nasty terminal dog disease here in the States, so that kept putting an image in my head every time I heard it.

werry good

enjoyd it wery mutch
the start was a bit hard with the roman name soundint weary simular for one with the germanic laungitsh (norway ) but maby tht is just me. in the end an all around a werry good book.