Customer Reviews

Horse Coin

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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I bought this book on a whim (the Kindle edition) and really enjoyed my decision. Anything about the Romans in Britain is fine by me, and this book was no exception. Wishart tells the story from the Roman point of view, mainly, and that's where our sympathy lies. So when Boudica comes on the scene, it's a case of divided loyalties.

Wishart does a lot of interesting things. The Romans, who are often not Roman but Spanish or Gaul or from somewhere else in the Empire, even born in Britain, are written as upper middle class. The character of Albilla could come straight out of a Georgette Heyer novel. The Roman soldiers are written as if they were modern British soldiers, and it works. He's basically saying, what is modern Britain -- is the culture Roman? Or Celtic?

All in all, I really enjoyed this. Loved the battle scenes (they are hard to write, and Wishart nails them, so one can visualize the action against the setting). Loved the characters, especially Severinus, the main character, who was completely sympathetic.

I had a few quibbles. There's an afterward explaining place names, but a map with modern English names and the Celtic and Roman names would have made things a lot easier to figure out where everyone was. Maybe that was in the hard copy edition.

And if you are writing about a horse-based culture, it is really important to get in the saddle yourself. Riders don't signal anything to horses through their knees, not even if they are riding without stirrups. Otherwise, a very enjoyable novel. I'll be looking for more of Wishart's work.

I like David Wishart's novels. I especially like his Marcus Corvinus series. This book is not in the series I normally read, but it was an excellent read. The book, a second-hand one, was in good condition, and I received it in a timely manner. I was very satisfied.