Customer Reviews

Hadrian's Wall: A Novel

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I absolutely have to agree with the sentiments of the spotlight reviewer: this is a romance novel masquerading as a novel about the legions in Britain. I hate writing bad reviews, but I feel that there are a lot of readers like myself who will pick this book up hoping for one thing and finding something completely different and not to their tastes. I was so looking forward to reading this book too! Finding it in the bookstore last spring was a delightful surprise since good novels about Rome and her legions are rather sparse on the ground. The book itself turned out to be a disappointing let down for me since it is actually a romance novel set in Britain during the time of the Roman occupation. If you like novels about 17 year old girls acting childishly and selfishly, with rather immature ideas about love and romance, who luckily happen to find their dream mate in a handsome, highland king who panders to their sense of how the world should work, well, then this is probably a great book. If you are seeking historical detail, gritty realism, character development, accuracy, believable and intelligent plotting, you'll probably be a whole lot happier with Colleen McCullough's Rome series. I read half of this novel before casting it aside. This one is misrepresented on the dust cover, so beware.

I was fooled by the cover and endorsements on the jacket. I was expecting Roman Legions battling it out with barbarians. There is one great battle at the end, but this is really a romance novel set in 375 AD Britain. Tribune Galba Brassidius expects to be the new commander of the Petriana cavalry at the Hadrian Wall fort Petrianais, but he is supplanted by an inexperienced Praefectus, Marcus Flavius, from Rome. Marcus has obtained the post through a financial arrangement with a Roman senator. In exchange for money, Marcus gets the new posting and the hand of the senator's daughter, Valeria. This arrangement gives him the prestige of a senatorial connection, and a field command to further his career. An irate Galba has his own agenda. He has been dealing on both sides of Hadrian's Wall, and he enlists the aide of a Celtic Chieftain, Arden Caratacus, to kidnap Valeria. Galba hopes to incite war between the Celts and Romans and get Marius killed, take his wife, and in the process, become a hero. A naive Valeria loathes Galba's crude advances, is puzzled by her husband's indifference, ignores the worship of young tribune Clodius, and struggles with her growing feelings for the young Celt, Arden. Valeria also ignores the advice of her wise slave Savia. Much of the story is related in the aftermath by Roman investigator Draco, who is trying to piece together the cause of the catastrophe.

I wish I could have enjoyed this book more. Dietrich treats the era well, and the idea of the Wall is relevant to our times, reminding one of the Berlin Wall and of the current American debate over the Fence on the Mexican Border.

As a Texan, and as a fan of Historical Fiction, I expected more about a collision of peoples and ideas and less of a romance novel.

Nevertheless, all characters were treated fairly and the plot was well developed. I will read more of Dietrich's work, but I do hope he gives up as a romance writer.

I picked up this book expecting historical fiction but what I got was a Harlequin Romance novel. I have read every book written by William Dietrich and was initially very excited by the fact he had a new book out combined with the promise of a bit of Roman/British history. Heck, the picture on the cover draws you in and the reputation of the author seals the deal. However, try reading it. Easily 3/4 of the book is about the adventures of a brainless, clueless and genuinely annoying daughter of a Roman senator who is sent out to Brittania to marry Marcus, the new commander of the garrison at one point on the wall. He's a weakling and she doesn't know what shes supposed to be doing as his new wife.

She gets captured, then rescued. Then she's captured again and live with the Celts and learns to appreciate them and falls in love with their chieftan, Arden. After living with the Celts throughout most of the book, learning their "strange ways", she still doesn't know whether to leave or stay. Her first attempt to escape goes awry because she gets lost. After many boring months, she finds out that Arden and her husband's rival, Galba are plotting to overthrow the wall garrisons so the Celts can successfully invade lower (south of Hadrain's Wall) Britain. So she escapes again, successfully this time, aand warns her idiot husband, who, not only disbelieves her, but arrests her as a traitor. Man, at this point you wish someone would off her because everything she does turns out worse.

There is finally a battle at the end, but a very small one and an unsatisfying outcome. For historical fiction, it doesn't need to be set in Roman times, nor at Hadrian's wall. It's simply a bad romance novel that promised so much more. The only thing I wonder is why I read it to the end. Ah, Mr. Dietrich, go back to writing books with likeable and interesting characters, like I know you can.

Near the end of the fourth century, the Roman Empire was losing its grip in its conquered territories, including Britannia. Never able to completely subdue the barbarians from the north, the Romans built Hadrian's Wall in the second century, to separate the Roman part of Britain from the Celts, who threatened from the north. Spanning over seventy miles, the wall was a marvel of engineering and military prowess. William Dietrich uses this backdrop for his gripping new historical novel. Draco, an inspector for Rome, has been sent to Hadrian's Wall in northern Britannia to investigate a major uprising and invasion. The story of what really happened unfolds as Draco's investigation proceeds.
William Dietrich combines intrigue, adventure, politics and romance to create a fascinating portrait of life in the fourth century. Using the character of Draco, the investigator looking into the violent events that occurred at the Wall, Dietrich skillfully spins a story that is so absorbing that you won't be able to put the book down. The richly layered characters - the complex Valeria, the fury-filled, revenge-seeking Galba, the ambitious Flavius and the introspective narrator, Draco - are all brought vividly to life by Dietrich's tightly-written, crisp prose. The battle scenes are gruesomely authentic and not in the least bit romanticized; the reader is thrust right into the middle of the battlefield, with screaming, naked barbarians hacking at opponents with battleaxes and Roman legionnaires swinging deadly swords. This is a sweeping and powerful historical novel, filled with political intrigue, action and romance.

In the days of the Roman Empire, the Emperor Hadrian built a wall across Britannia creating a border between the civilization of the Empire and that of the Northern Celtic tribes. This wall represented the far reaches of the Empire as well as a clash between cultures. Using the wall as a jumping off point, William Dietrich, in his latest novel HADRIAN'S WALL, imagines life at the edge of the Empire. The conflict between the Celts and the Romans are personified in Valeria, a senator's daughter from Rome, and Arden Caratacus, a Celtic chieftain trained in the Roman army.

Although Valeria's father is an influential senator, the family is broke. Valeria is given to the wealthy army officer Lucius Marcus Flavius in an arranged marriage. The marriage will bring money to Valeria's family and prestige to Marcus. Thus, Valeria is off with a small entourage, including her slave Savia, to Britannia to wed Marcus and begin life at Hadrian's Wall where he is newly stationed. Marcus's new appointment has angered the commander of the Petriana Calvary, Galba Brassidias, who does not want to be second in command to the inexperienced aristocrat Marcus. But how far is Galba willing to go to gain the power he feels he deserves?

Valeria views her trip and marriage as an adventure but from the moment she lands in Londinium, things begin to go dangerously wrong. Her party is not met by her husband or any representatives of Rome and are harassed and attacked by the locals. Just in time, however, they are saved by Galba. And repeatedly on their journey from the city northward to the wall, Valeria is put in harm's way only to be saved by Galba.

After the disappointing wedding ceremony and wedding night, things get even worse for Valeria and Savia. After just a short time living at the wall, they are kidnapped by Arden Caratacus and taken to live among his tribe. There, Valeria learns the language and ways of the natives and comes to appreciate their spirit and culture, even participating in one of their most sacred religious rites. Still, she is called by her duty as a Roman wife to escape and return to her husband and own culture. The only thing in her way is her comfort among her kidnappers and her growing affection for Arden. When she learns that Galba is playing a dangerous and violent game setting the Celts and the Romans against each other so that he may take command from Marcus, she acts to save lives, risking her own and her place in both cultures.

After a fierce battle between the two sides at the wall and Valeria's second disappearance, Inspector Draco is brought in from Rome to determine the role that Galba and Arden played and where Valeria has gone. Draco interviews those who met Valeria in Britannia before and after her kidnapping, including Savia, who is now in a Roman prison. Even as he struggles to put the pieces together, Draco finds himself pulled into the drama, as curious as Valeria about the freedoms of the Celts and as duty bound as the Roman officials and soldiers who are willing to die to defend Rome's borders.

Dietrich's novel is dramatic and engaging, if not quite historically accurate or wholly unique. Valeria and Arden are spirited and romantic protagonists and each is realistically conflicted over issues of duty, love and culture. Valeria is a frustrating character, often making bad or dangerous decisions, but then again she is a young woman, sheltered her whole life from the darker realities of the Roman Empire. Arden is interesting in that he, and not any other character, has lived in both worlds and has an understanding of both sides in this cultural conflict. In Galba, Dietrich has created a brutal villain, whose lust for power overtakes even the duty to Rome he thinks he is upholding. Each character, including the Christian slave Savia, the Druid priest and even Inspector Draco plays a bit of a stereotypical part, never quite acting in unexpected or surprising ways. Still, the novel is romantic and full of adventure, making it more of an entertaining read than an edifying one.

--- Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman

Hadrian's wall is over two centuries old and remains a stronghold dividing Roman Britannia from seemingly uncivilized Celtic barbarians.

In its shadow, Valeria, the beautiful daughter of a senator, is the victim of an arranged marriage to Marcus. This cowardly man has been appointed as commander, replacing reluctant Galba, an experienced soldier. Galba becomes attracted to Marcus' young wife and decides to win her for himself.

On the other side of Hadrian's wall, a man named Arden will fall for adventure-challenged Valeria, who is kidnapped and torn between her affiliations on either side of the wall when she falls in love with Arden. Cultures collide.

This historical novel reads more like a complicated romance than the story the cover of the book implies. If this isn't a deterrent, this book makes for a good read involving greed, passion and war.

I certainly wish I had read all the reviews before I wasted my time and money, and I most definitely will not seek out further books from this author. I don't know enough about this period to know whether the period, people, dress and customs were accurately described. The main characters were all fiction, and not terribly well developed. Towards the end I was skipping through the final battle scenes to finish it and get to the happy ending (semi happy).

If you find it used for $1 and have a rainy Sunday to waste go ahead, but otherwise skip this -- there are much better historical romances and specifically historical fiction, of which this is not.

This was my first novel by William Dietrich which I came across entirely by chance whilst looking for John Maddox Roberts' `The Seven Hills'. An impulse buy that proved enthralling. Dietrich has written several novels, his first set focusing on being scientific thrillers, so this turn to historical romantic thriller is somewhat intriguing.
Hadrian's Wall uses that ready-to-order plot of a love triangle set against the backdrop of Rome's Britannic frontier on Hadrian's wall. It is during the declining years of the Empire, in the fourth century AD, and the Thracian Petrianis cavalry tribune Galba Brassidias is the de facto ruler of this bleak outpost. The story is told from the viewpoint of several of the characters relating the previous year's events to the imperial investigator, Draco, who is based at Eburacum.
A year earlier the promotion of Galba to senior tribune after a victory over the Scotti also brought the bitter news to the man of the arrival of Lucius Marcus Flavius and his betrothed, Valeria, to command the Petriana cavalry. The story centres around Valeria she becomes an pawn in the tangle of Galba, Marcus and the Celtic chieftain, Arden Caratacus. The impact of the wilful Valeria on the Hadrian's wall fort is immense. The petty rivalry from her companion, junior tribune Clodius, a young Roman aristocrat eager to prove himself and win her love, and Galba gets things off to a tense footing and the subsequent murder of the captured Odocullin sets in motion a chain of events that leads, ultimately, to disaster for many.
Marcus' ill-advised destruction of a sacred Celtic grove brings the scheming Galba to the fore with his Roman deserter spy, Arden Caratacus, leader of the Scotti, who manages to capture Valeria at the second attempt. During her enforced sojourn with the Celts she is eventually won over to their cause and falls, inevitably, in love with Caratacus. Double-dealing, intrigue and an eavesdropped conversation finds her fleeing back to her husband to warn of an impending Celt attack only to discover Galba is ahead of her and has convinced Marcus that she is a treacherous wife. However, it is Galba who has outwitted them all and ends up destroying his two rivals before Lucius Falco steps in to free Arden and allow Valeria and her Celt lover to escape north of the wall after finally destroying Galba.
Dietrich's style is brimming with adventure, his prose steady and gripping, the characterisation entirely plausible. With a colourful assortment of supporting characters from both the Roman and Celtic sides of the wall he has crafted a story that is immensely readable and possesses enough historical accuracy to add that necessary touch of realism. His latest, `The Scourge of God', is now available and for one, this new fan of Dietrich's will be purchasing it.

... is a French saying that means: Look for the influence of females behind the heroes. Here, Dietrich applies this principle to weave a thrilling story around the great assault on Hadrians Wall in 367 A.C. (of which not much more is known than the fact that the future emperor Theodosius drove the barbarians back). That the Roman frontier system (Limes, Hadrians Wall) has not been chosen more often as the background for historical fiction is astonishing, given the fact that the Roman Empire defined itself by its extension (e.g. frontiers) - in sharp contrast to its successor, Byzantium, for which its center, the fortress Constantinople, equaled the empire - right till its very last days in May 1453. But I'm sidetracking.
The main protagonists of `Hadrians Wall' are Galba, an ambitious, but frustrated military leader of a cavalry unit at Hadrians wall; Marcus, a young tribune without military experience who gets the position as commander of the fort (instead of Galba) due to his marriage with Valeria, an impoverished Senators beautiful daughter, and finally Arden, the celtic chieftain who leads the attack against the Roman province. With the latter, Valeria (after being abducted) falls in love, as her uninspiring husband Marcus (a bit too clumsy in the novel) has neglected her emotionally. She is wooed in vain by Galba, the efficient but bad guy, who seems to triumph in the end, as he has lured Marcus as well as Arden into his trap (and some other less important characters too). A bit disturbing is the fact that the story is constantly interrupted by the narrative of Draco, an imperial inspector, who has been sent to investigate the reasons for the attack on Roman Britain, and who questions the survivors. Draco himself, in spite of musing about the situation of the late empire, remains without a life of his own, without features or emotions. Valeria, the most important person, is a bit of a stereotype as well - the upper class daughter bored with her stiff life and longing in her juvenile heart for adventure and passion instead of luxury and duty. So, all the protagonists and their motives (ambition, frustration, duty, quest for freedom) are sketched like woodcuts, but the description of Roman Britain, of the landscape and the battles is very vivid and colourful. A little map of Roman Britain as well as an instructive "Historical Note" at the end help to understand the events.
Definitely worth reading (especially recommended to German authors who have up to now avoided the opportunity to make the Limes the stage of historical fiction).