Customer Reviews

Canis the Warrior

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I am a lifelong fan of historical novels set in Roman Britain. Thus, it saddens me to report that Canis the Warrior is, quite simply, a terrible book, stuffed with cardboard villains and comic book superheroes (and let's not forget Canis's faithful followers, the Hairy Ones of the forest).

Canis can be accurataely described as Robert Howard's Conan the Barbarian given a British past. Like Conan, he is incredibly powerful, quick, agile, wise, noble, attractive, etc. Men either fear him down to their souls or follow him with doglike devotion. Beautiful women are mesmerized at the very sight of him, drooling over his stern lips, which seem to promise "bitter, stinging kisses." His "Roman" foes are vile, inept, corrupt morons, whom Conan, er, Canis, dispatches by the score. The plot is implausible in the extreme, the dialogue stagy and unbelievable, and the style wordy and excessively melodramatic. The entire book is burdened by the author's affection for Victorian romantic cliche.

In brief, Canis the Warrior is not history imagined but decayed fantasy. Waste neither your money nor your time -- avoid this silly overheated book.

The story, playing in the aftermath of the Iceni revolt in Britain, covers the fate of the remaining Iceni, and of Boudica's surviving daughter, her general, and his roman lover. Hounded by spies and Romans they try to find a place to live, while the threesome couple tries to sort out their feelings towards each other.

The book is full of suspense, and good and belivable character interaction, I recommend it highly.