Customer Reviews

Eagle in the Snow

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I ordered this book from Amazon when I was in the middle of a Roman phase spurred on by Colleen McCullough's Rome series. I was initially a little cautious since the book was written in the sixties and I did not know if I was going to get a great read or something dry and fusty. Let me allay any possible fears: this is a GREAT book!!! I absolutely loved it. In fact, I was cruising through the bargain bin of the local bookstore last month and came across four copies that had been marked down and I bought them immediately. I want to be able to give them away to four lucky individuals. So yes, it is a fantastic book, and one that I would not only heartily recommend, but one I will plunk folding money down for so I can share this with my friends.

I loved this book. The level of character development was amazing, the writing vivid, the pacing accelerates throughout the novel, but most of all I loved the creeping sense of despair, futility, and hopelessness in the novel. That sounds odd, but bear with me. Maximus is an old line, successful, stalwart, and brilliant legate (general) who is literally holding the fort against the Picts and other woolly boys along Hadrian's Wall roughly about 400 AD. The empire is crumbling, but then again it's been crumbling for 200 years. From there Maximus is sent to the Rhine with one legion, the XX, to hold back the hordes of Germans from invading Gaul.

When I initially read this I was astonished. What? One legion? Caesar had four when he crossed the Rhine; Augustus stationed 8 legions along the Rhine to hold the Germans back. This was when Rome was at it's strongest, the troops hard-bitten veterans, and the Germans divided, beaten down and occupied. In this novel, the Germans were ascendant again, extremely populous, and desperately wanting to move to Gaul for the twin reasons that it had more fertile land and that the Huns were pushing them mercilessly. So Maximums was supposed to hold the Rhine with only one legion? Do you know how long the Rhine is? I couldn't fathom it. Yet, the wily old fox, time after time, overcame obstacles, despair, mutinous troops, lack of food and winter gear, surly and unhelpful townsfolk, and every hardship imaginable to overawe, out-think, and out-fight the Germans. His cunning, ruthlessness, and determination are stunning. I felt like I was reading with my mouth open the whole time, because this was real!!! Yet that creeping despair, futility, and hopelessness......for it was the death of a thousand cuts; Maximus fought, twisted, dodged, danced, lied, ambushed, tricked and did everything in his power to hold the line but every victory was a Pyhrric one that bled away a little more strength.

Folks, this one was a magnificient book and I highly recommend it. I don't want to give away anything here to spoil your read, so let me just say that you can't go wrong on this one. Get it, read it, savor it, and think about it for years. I have never forgotten this novel nor do I think it's possible to do so. It makes the Alamo sound like a little girl's afternoon tea party. They just don't get much better than this.

His name is Maximus, the book's narrator and principled protagonist, and he may be the last of the old-style Romans whose virtues (and failings) built and maintained an empire for centuries. This exquisite book is the story of his struggle to remain true to the old values that he loves amid a world that has changed; a Roman world that is failing. He becomes the general of Legio XX after a hard apprenticeship in the backwater of imperial Britannia and is given the thankless task of holding the Rhine frontier against a sea of land-hungry barbarian tribes. His task seems hopeless, but Maximus holds to it with grim determination and through personal trials, not least of which is the temptation to proclaim himself Emperor and salvage what he can from the shifting alliances of the time. Using military strategems and cunning diplomacy, Maximus keeps Rome's foes at bay until the fates turn against him.

Wallace Breem, a veteran of the Indian Army, recreates a military world that is detailed and believeable. His novel is awash in the conflict of civilization against barbarism, pagan versus Christian; it is an unsentimental story, told directly and without elaborate flourishes, but one that is still rich and deeply moving. A perfect read in the chill of winter, when the final third of the book will hold a special resonance.

No one who has ever discovered this book seems to have forgotten it; what a thunderbolt from Jove, to see this book in print again! I have treasured my copy of the original US edition for years. Previously, this title was reissued in paperback in Britain in 2002 from the Phoenix Press, and *that* is the superior version, I have to say. The original maps are not as nice as those in the new hardback edition, but there is a poignant Latin coda at the end of the original text, along the lines of a Roman funerary inscription, that is MISSING from both the new American Rugged Land editions (hardback and paperback) -- how do these things happen? Shame on the publisher. This coda ties up some lingering questions about how Maximus' narrative came to be and is a fitting sign-off to this powerful story. If you miss this, as readers of this version will, you're missing a wonderful closer. Seek out the UK paperback, with the frontal painting of a Roman soldier on the cover. (The abridged versions show the back of a soldier; that's how you can tell which to Back Away from.)

I ordered this book from Amazon when I was in the middle of a Roman phase spurred on by Colleen McCullough's Rome series. I was initially a little cautious since the book was written in the sixties and I did not know if I was going to get a great read or something dry and fusty. Let me allay any possible fears: this is a GREAT book!!! I absolutely loved it. In fact, I was cruising through the bargain bin of the local bookstore last month and came across four copies that had been marked down and I bought them immediately. I want to be able to give them away to four lucky individuals. So yes, it is a fantastic book, and one that I would not only heartily recommend, but one I will plunk folding money down for so I can share this with my friends.

I loved this book. The level of character development was amazing, the writing vivid, the pacing accelerates throughout the novel, but most of all I loved the creeping sense of despair, futility, and hopelessness in the novel. That sounds odd, but bear with me. Maximus is an old line, successful, stalwart, and brilliant legate (general) who is literally holding the fort against the Picts and other woolly boys along Hadrian's Wall roughly about 400 AD. The empire is crumbling, but then again it's been crumbling for 200 years. From there Maximus is sent to the Rhine with one legion, the XX, to hold back the hordes of Germans from invading Gaul.

When I initially read this I was astonished. What? One legion? Caesar had four when he crossed the Rhine; Augustus stationed 8 legions along the Rhine to hold the Germans back. This was when Rome was at it's strongest, the troops hard-bitten veterans, and the Germans divided, beaten down and occupied. In this novel, the Germans were ascendant again, extremely populous, and desperately wanting to move to Gaul for the twin reasons that it had more fertile land and that the Huns were pushing them mercilessly. So Maximums was supposed to hold the Rhine with only one legion? Do you know how long the Rhine is? I couldn't fathom it. Yet, the wily old fox, time after time, overcame obstacles, despair, mutinous troops, lack of food and winter gear, surly and unhelpful townsfolk, and every hardship imaginable to overawe, out-think, and out-fight the Germans. His cunning, ruthlessness, and determination are stunning. I felt like I was reading with my mouth open the whole time, because this was real!!! Yet that creeping despair, futility, and hopelessness......for it was the death of a thousand cuts; Maximus fought, twisted, dodged, danced, lied, ambushed, tricked and did everything in his power to hold the line but every victory was a Pyhrric one that bled away a little more strength.

Folks, this one was a magnificient book and I highly recommend it. I don't want to give away anything here to spoil your read, so let me just say that you can't go wrong on this one. Get it, read it, savor it, and think about it for years. I have never forgotten this novel nor do I think it's possible to do so. It makes the Alamo sound like a little girl's afternoon tea party. They just don't get much better than this.

I have owned this book twice, on both occasions I have lent it to "friends" who have not returned it. I will buy it again to read and savour.

The book starts off slowly, with the forgotten men who manned Hadrians wall, but rapidly the action moves to Gaul, where Maximus is tasked to hold the Rhine crossings against the German tribes. He has only one Legion with which to defend Gaul and the book deals with his plans, the epic battles in defence of the Rhine and the treachery that allows the tribes to overrun Gaul.

Tightly written with magnificent descriptions of not only battles but the everyday life of a Legion this book is a must for anybody interested in military history. It is also a study of duty and honour. The characters are believable, well sketched and, if the mark of a good book is that you end up caring about the characters, this is one of the very best.

Wallace Breem's "Eagle in the Snow" perfectly marries style and substance. A brief prologue informs the reader that this is a melancholy age of defeat, and the surviving general of one of Rome's last defeats is going to tell his story.

From there, Maximus, Roman General, tells the tale of how he built the 20th Legion from nothing into one of Rome's finest legions, but was still unable to stop the Germanic Barbarians from crossing the Rhine. Rome is ripe to fall, corruption is rampant, and intrigues are everywhere -- rival Emperors are only too quick to proclaim themselves supreme.

Maximus, however, is a throw-back to the true Roman spirit, and proves that the guy who most deserves to be Emperor is the last guy who would accept the title. Sent to guard the Wall in Britain and to put down a rebellion (led by his childhood friend Julian, who murdered Maximus' father and is sentenced by Maximus to death in the gladiatorial arena), Maximus gains a reputation for being a hard man. His steely character is not enough to prevent Julian, who survived the arena and won his freedom only to unite the tribes of Britain and overwhelm the British legions.

Reeling from this defeat, Maximus is next assigned to guard the Rhine frontier . . . one legion against two hundred thousand united Barbarians. In addition to these hopeless odds, Maximus must also fight against a corrupt bureacracy that refuses all but the smallest request for aid and also against a Christian church that despises Maximus' pagan beliefs. Still, through it all, Maximus and his officers soldier on.

All too soon, the Barbarians are at the Rhine and desperate to cross. Maximus uses all his soldierly craft as well as some quite cunning maneuvers, but despite all his planning, Maximus realizes that his doom is foretold -- he will lose the Rhine. Before that happens, though, both his friends and enemies will offer him the chance to become Emperor -- the one prize he does not want.

Through it all, Breem writes with a direct, soldier's prose. Despite the clarity of his writing, though, there is a definite poetry to Breem's writing, and there are many passages to be savored. The battle scenes are also described with a soldier's eye for detail, and tactics are easily grasped by the reader. Breem also crams in a lot of historical detail (the glossary is much appreciated), but less than other novels of the Roman era (see Colleen McCullouch's "Masters of Rome" series for an example of a more detailed masterpiece).

Maximus, whose heart is quite tender despite his steely resolve, repeatedly notes the human cost of this doomed conflict -- his recollection of a solitary barbarian charging the Roman lines to avenge his dead wife and children is particularly moving. Maximus watches his forces dwindle, thanks both to the Barbarians and the horrific German winter, with a resolute poignancy that is unique, and even Maximus realizes that he continues to learn about humanity as his fate marches ever closer.

This book is a must-read for fans of historical fiction as well as for any student of Rome. Most historical fiction about Rome seems to revolve around Julius Caesar and the early Empire . . . the juicy tidbits of those times are just too good to pass up, I suppose. "Eagle in the Snow" has a different focus and tells the somber tale of the fall of Rome, and a mighty tale it is, too.

A must-read if there ever was one!

A very good read for the sober historical novel reader. Maximus shockingly finds himself suddenly in command of the only legion Rome can manage to support on the Rhine River. His task is to hold back the Germanic tribes who are desperate to cross - to escape similar pressure behind them, to gain more productive land, to survive, to find a place always warm. Imagine a time in history close enough to the end of all the glory of Rome - a light even the non-Romans cannot imagine disappearing - that the perceptive viewer somewhere out on the fringe of that world, like Germany, can foresee it going out (which of course it will, to be followed by centuries of "darkness."). Maximus hopes that he can stop the decline, but also knows that he is quite unlikely to succeed - not with an indifferent court, rivals that prefer he fail before they act, a hostile new religion (Christianity), rule-obsessed bureaucrats, trickster tribal allies, "draft doggers" willing to avoid service even to defend their own home, and nature itself all conspiring against success. Maximus provides a gripping example of duty and loyalty (to a city he has never seen in his life), literally down to the last breath.
The book has flaws: the first fifth seems to have little purpose; with a short synopsis, a reader could drop into page 50 without any real loss. Characterization is also at times a bit shallow, particularly of the Romans (never have I had better insight into the Germanic tribes views though). Proofreading is poor in this reissued edition.
Still....as the Rhine began to freeze, the snow began to swirl, the wolves howl, and the barbarian horde prepared their onslaught, I too found myself shivering just as Maximus' legion undoubtedly once did.

This book was.. for lack of a better word, Awesome. From the start, it keeps its readers captivated and with the sense that they have an eye in the past, viewing the end of the Roman Empire as it happens. Breem has done a remarkable job portraying Maximus, the head of a Legion, defending a key location on the Roman frontier from the barbarian tribes pushing against him. The book shows the difficulties faced by armies of the past both in battle and logistically. Maximus has been brought to light as a real man, troubled as we all are but called on to serve a higher purpose and one who has trancended the frivolities that we spend so much of our time thinking about. Whether you like historical fiction, history, or just like reading a well spun yarn.. this book is for you.

Long Live Breem!

"Eagle In The Snow" by Wallace Breem centers on the years 405 AD to early 407, capturing a key moment in the Roman Empire's death throes as hundreds of thousands of mostly Germanic peoples mass on the east bank of the Rhine waiting for the river to freeze and to walk into Gaul. The tale is an epitaph for the Roman Empire with General Paulinus Gaius Maximus serving as the lone pall bearer, carrying the weight of an empire marching inexorably toward its grave.

Compared to the action adventures of Scarrow, Igguldon or Duffy, the writing style of "Eagle in the Snow" is stark, abrupt and subtle. "Eagle" is deep and the prose and exposition are very genuine. Think of Scarrow and Duffy as TV movies, and Breem as an Oscar-worthy film. It's no surprise that the book was a Bestseller, and in the realm of Roman historical fiction, "Eagle" justifies its praise as a classic. For those less interested in Roman military fiction, like the Rhine itself, "Eagle" runs much deeper.

Breem paints a very detailed and accurate picture of life in Maximus' world. This historical novel is as solid in its history as documentation and archaeology allowed in the late `60s, and the liberties taken seem to be few and forgivable. He draws a very vivid exposition of existence at the ends of the Roman earth. He elicits emotion through the subtle interplay between characters and through Maximus' monologue.

The story is structured from Maximus' point of view, who narrates all but the prologue and epilogue. He is the consummate Roman - born in Gaul to Roman ancestry, raised to be a soldier. He loves Rome with every thread of his being, and despite never having been there, he loves what the city is and what it represents. Breem's Maximus is the Roman ideal.

His cousin Julian was brought up by his own parents as Julian's were forced to commit suicide by a usurping Roman Emperor. Julian also grows up to be a soldier, but at this point the cousins' paths diverge. Maximus and Julian represent two sides of a Roman coin - on one side is Maximus: the Empire, staunch, disciplined, loyal and forever Roman. On the other side is Julian: the Empire in decline, resentful, living-on-the-fringe, and consumed by hatred.

Maximus is pushed to break away from the Empire and lead his frontier legions as a new emperor. He declines both times, once to his Roman legion and once to the Germanic tribes. Julian intercedes on the tribes' behalf and Maximus explains why he can't accept: "My Empire has had more usurping Emperors than I can count...all weakened the empire they thought to strengthen. I shall not add to their number." Julian responds: "The Empire is dying, Maximus. It is weaker than when you were a boy..."

Maximus ultimately receives no support from any other Roman legion, reflecting the fractured, disaggregated and self-interested nature of the Empire's far-flung nations. The ending is inevitable - though such is the emotive monologue by Maximus that one can't help but feel hope and optimism at each turn in the ultimate series of battles.

The Rugged Land edition of the book (published in 2004) provides a detailed list of characters, historical timeline, Roman and modern place names, and glossaries of tribes and 5th century terms. It's particularly helpful that historical figures are distinguished from those that are purely fictional. Maximus, while perhaps loosely based on Generals of the time, is fictional. A more detailed map also would've been helpful.

This recent reissue has my vote as belonging with the finest historical novels ever written. My vote may not count for much, of course, but Mary Renault's does, and she agrees with me. Shortly before she died she wrote an enthusiastic, praise-filled review of Wallace Breem's then newly published (1970) novel, every extravagant word of which is true. Many other readers have loved this brilliant novel, and it is a mystery why more than thirty years have passed between editions. It is available now, and I am grateful.
Eagle in the Snow is among the vanishingly few works of historical fiction that can stand comparison with Renault's novels of Classical Greece or Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin sea stories of the Napoleonic wars. I have no higher praise.
Breem's story is concerned with a pivotal event in Western history, the decline and destruction of the Roman world. Eagle in the Snow is the most polished and elegiac fictional account of Rome's fall yet published. It's a moving but unsentimental narrative of loyalty and duty set against fate, with its larger theme a disturbing look at how easily life as we know it falls apart.
The highest of the virtues, says the novel, is loyalty, unless it be love, but what is love without loyalty? The narrator, P. Maximus, commander of the Twentieth legion, loves Rome, or at least loves the idea of Rome. He will not abandon her in troubled times. With growing unease we follow Maximus as, without illusions but with courage, determination and skill, he sets about a seemingly hopeless attempt to stop the unstoppable.
Those with even a slight knowledge of our history will recognize that Maximus has chosen a mission (turn away the Dark Ages) in which real success is simply not possible. Even if he manages a miraculous victory this time, the barbarians are bound to come some other year, and soon. The Roman world is failing, rotting from the inside out, Maximus a man trying to hold back the tide.
Foreknowledge of ultimate failure lends a melancholy autumnal coloring to Eagle in the Snow. In this sense the novel is a lingering farewell to things old and precious, a long goodbye beneath a setting sun. However the hard, spare, clear narrative is an effective counterpoint to the mood of gathering twilight. Breem's story is both brisk and poignant, and manages to be tragic without ever being merely sad.
Eagle in the Snow is also the single best account of a legion in combat that I have ever read. Set on the west bank of the Rhine in the ferocious winter of 405-406 A.D., the book mourns the death of a once glittering culture and the legions that had sustained it. The Twentieth legion is ancient as military formations go. It has been over three centuries since the Roman Senate honored it with the title "Victrix." No human institution, however, endures forever. Defenders of a dying world, Maximus's legion dies hard in a snowy wasteland, fighting to the last against impossible odds. The cold, restrained, unsparing tone maintained by the narrative is nothing less than extraordinary.
The profound question the novel asks is how men, knowing the end to be near, should behave. Are honor and duty admirable follies or real and worth dying for? What price survival? What price loyalty? "Great" is a term I try not to use lightly or often, but the word is unavoidable here. Wallace Breem has written a great book.
Steven Pressfield contributes a suitably laudatory "Introduction."

After having finished this gripping, touching, and historically accurate page turner I HAD to write a review to offset the previous one. Anyone who thinks this book is stale is missing the point woefully. The book is written in a terse style because its supposed to represent the bleakness of the decline of the Roman empire, but that doesn't mean it isn't at turns humorous, touching, and beautiful. This is THE definitive historical fiction regarding the fall of Rome. I only hope someone makes a movie out of it! If you love tales of Rome, particularly those which are militarily and historically accurate but still immensely moving and entertaining, buy this book today--you won't regret it.