DMR Books 2023, 336 pages
Available in hardcover, paperback, and kindle
First of all I must make an admission of being a huge fan of anything to do with Rome, especially in the first century AD, during and after the emperor Augustus. One of my favourite series of novels are of Centurion Macro and his friend Cato by Simon Scarrow.
So you can imagine how much I was looking forward to reading this. And I was not disappointed. With Germanicus, Lord of Eagles Adrian Cole has embarked on an ambitious rewrite of Roman history in the early empire, in which events have been derailed from those we know by the sinister machinations of two competing secret cults steeped in sorcery, the Via Sinister and the Via Tenebrae, whose plots are as mysterious in their objectives as they are blatantly malevolent.
Our first glimpse of their malign intervention comes in the opening pages when the man who would have otherwise become Emperor Claudius in years to come is brutally murdered while still only a young man. As a result of these plots other players in Roman history either manage to live far longer than they did or meet different, sometimes horrifying fates.
Germanicus, Lord of Eagles has an impressively large cast of characters spread across the length and breadth of the Roman Empire, from the rain-drenched forests of Germania to the sun-baked cities of Egypt and Judea. As the plot has already deviated from historical fact there is, of course, the added tension of now not knowing what will befall anyone. Being rather pro-Roman I must admit to feeling concerned about the plot to assassinate Germanicus, next in line to be emperor after the aging Tiberius, so as to enable Caligula to succeed him instead. I won’t give anything away, as it’s all in the lap of the gods, so to speak. Or at least in the lap of Adrian Cole, who knows how to create wonderfully vivid characters and intriguing plots and has obviously made a thorough study of this period.
I won’t give away any plot details as this would spoil reading this book, except to say that it is eventful, vivid and thoroughly credible once you accept the involvement of the supernatural behind the scenes. There are many really likeable characters – and no shortage of the opposite, including the ever scheming, massively ambitious Sejanus, prefect of the praetorium guard, who I still remember from the BBC adaptation of Robert Graves’ I, Claudius, in which he was brilliantly portrayed by a young Patrick Stewart.
Germanicus, Lord of Eagles is a far cry from Adrian Coles’ Elak stories, with much less use of the supernatural, but when it occurs it certainly makes an impact. With so many individuals’ storylines still ongoing, and with the plotting of both Via Sinister and Via Tenebrae deepening I am looking forward to reading the next in this brilliantly conceived series.
This review was first published in Phantasmagoria Magazine Summer 2024
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